Plain and simple, you’re spun!

Our latest track features the vocals and musical talents of the one and only Kristen Fletcher. Enjoy!

http://www.jadenmusic.com/downloads/Music/Spun.mp3

The evening ended up being a lot of fun for us – getting to play a few songs unplugged (an American Boy/Kiss medley, and a rendition of one of our original tracks, Your Love), as well as general chit chat with the girls in between their regular show features. Neha’s vocal performance was angelic (as always), and despite having some butterflies before going on air, she kept myself and the listeners well entertained with her amusing anecdotes.

I must be honest and say that I was not expecting a whole lot from the show in terms of the playlist (although admittedly I had never heard of the station/show before we went on). Much to my [pleasant] surprise, DJ Liche dropped a whole bunch of awesome music – some sexy, some groovey, some funky, some old school, and some fresh new stuff. Props to Liche for her knowledge of soul/RNB, and for her exquisite taste in tunes!

Some highlights for me were tracks by Ryan Leslie, Pharrell, John Legend, and a couple of new artists that I have since been exploring. They also had an interview with the one and only Gary Pinto, and a couple of tracks from his newly released album (awesome, banging tracks – might I add).

Here is a little snippet from the show (I don’t know if the full performance is up anywhere, but this was a sassy little freestyle that Neha conjured up at the end of the show)

Thanks again to Liche and D for the fun times and hospitality, and I look forward to tuning into their show for more great tunes

Somehow Ne-Yo got stuck headlining a Hip-Hop Shout-Fest (Big Boi aside) @ Winterbeatz in Sydney. It just so happens that my ‘track of the moment’ is Champagne Life so this event was a must see!

The band was tight, the sound was killer and Ne-Yo killed track by track until bringing out 2 glasses of Bubbly to start Champagne Life and top the night off! Running a close second for moment of the night was Hearing a 3 piece horn section playing the Synth parts in Miss Independent. Gold.

Here’s a vid of Champagne Life live;

Let’s hope Sydney doesn’t have to wait another 3 years for a top class RnB Artist to hit town.

PS – T-Pain is not an RnB Artist.

Kristen and I, along with some of the other musos we met there shared the privilege of jamming together and talking music into the wee hours of the evening. It was very quickly established that we shared an insurmountable adoration for the eternally inspiring Stevie Wonder – possibly the strongest foundation two music-lovers can build a friendship on!

After catching up for a few jam sessions and the like, we decided to start collaborating on some original music. “Live My Life” first sprouted from some thoughts Kristen told me she had been pondering recently, since reading a particular book (I don’t recall the name of the book, so it will be K-10’s little secret for now).

We started playing around with a few different chords, Kristen on the keys and myself on my Maton – and came up with some catchy verse and chorus progressions. This was followed by some rather hooky vocal ideas (if I don’t say so myself). Following this, we spent a couple of sessions refining the lyrics/melodies and laying out the song structure.

Being the gun that she is, it only took Kristen a single session to lay down the bulk of the vocals – leaving me with a whole lot of great stems to play with – “play” being the official term reserved for all that super-technical stuff we producers do in our studios after the sun goes down and regular people go to sleep ☺

Now, it is my pleasure to present the collaborative sounds of Kristen Fletcher and Jaden Music -“Live My Life”.

http://www.jadenmusic.com/downloads/Live%20My%20Life.mp3

Much to my delight, I very quickly managed to locate a near-immaculate acapella of Rude Boy and got straight down to business. We had an absolute ball putting this one together – keeping a little bit of that reggae vibe, funking up the bass, and then rocking out hard on the guitar. What better way to spend my day?!!

Anyhow, enough background information – bring on the tunes!

PS I am currently taking song requests, so let me know if you’ve heard something recently that is just asking to be remixed!

I must say, despite the many avid (and might I add, extremely vocal) haters he seems to have accrued around the world, I really have no personal dislike for the young man – rather on the contrary, I actually quite like some of his songs… hell, what’s not to like about catchy hooks, top notch production, and the backing of one of the RNB greats – Usher. And besides, can the 200 million odd people that clicked on his “Baby” clip on Youtube really be wrong? Give the kid a break man, chances are he’s already earned more money in his 16 short years than the majority of us will earn in our entire lifetime.

Now, to get to the point of my post – Daniel and I were last weekend discussing the topic of most unlikely remixes that could Jaden do – and surprise surprise (yep, you guessed it), Bieb’s name came up. We thought, why not have a crack at doing Baby – sounds like a bit of fun, and it will almost certainly address a group that is a little left of centre from our usual target demographic.

For anyone not familiar with the process of remixing a track, you basically get a hold of a vocals only (acapella) recording of the track, then build the beat and instrumental components from scratch. As there is no official acapella of the track, we used a version that was electronically ripped out of the original – so my apologies if the vocals sound a little messy – this is just an inherent byproduct of the process (a big thanks to whoever it was that made this .wav available for us to use)!

Gracias for reading, and we hope you enjoy our own interpretation of Justin Bieber’s “Baby”.

PS for anyone wanting the full low-down on the JB voice-breakage, here is the full article

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r1EEuW03U4[/youtube]

I open my eyes, blinking, as bright lights cut a path through the haze that has settled all around me – intruding upon my own, home-made reality and returning me to the present. Reaching for a towel, I dry myself off and step out of the shower. My journey to Mars has begun.

Often the best ideas come at the most unsuspecting moment, at a time when the mind is completely at ease and carefree… Uninhibited. When they come, you have two choices – 1. go with it, or 2. forget about it. I pride myself on being able to recognise a good opportunity when it stares me in the face – in this case, an opportunity by the name of Creativity.  Quickly hauling ass into my studio (conveniently located in my home), I breathed life into my iMac, grabbed a pen and pad and got busy.

As the idea began to take shape, I brought Joel, and long-time friend/super talented singer Cassie Wallace into the picture to join me in the songwriting festivities. The first few hours were draining ones – the three of us brainstormed, jotted down lines, scribbled them out, debated, and then re-wrote – always striving for perfection. Once the lyrics were finished Cassie stepped up to the plate – or in this case the silver plated Mic. She literally flew through the vocals, bringing to the table the kind of melodies that I can only dream about. She bounced from harmonies to BVs to adlibs, before sinking into a chair with utterances of contentment – 2 long sessions later.

Now that the scene has been set, please close your eyes, sit back, and prepare to descend with us onto the Red Planet.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnYG24IeErA[/youtube]