Jaden | Music

Well folks, it looks like the Jaden Remix segment is becoming a weekly installment! Our latest piece of work comes to you courtesy of the deliciously deviant Rihanna, in the form of her most recent single “Rude Boy”. After hearing the first 10 seconds of this track, I was totally sold on it! It took me back to some of my fondest musical memories – particularly a little number you may remember from the late 90s called Pony, by Ginuwine (produced by Timbaland).

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!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhzW7i2kFx8[/youtube]

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

Hey all, it has certainly been a week for remixes. I was feeling particularly inspired following our efforts with the Justin Bieber track – so here is another one for y’all to check out… Usher’s club banger O.M.G (although I’m still not entirely sure whether the “G” stands for “Gosh” or “God”… perhaps both! )

And if you are digging on either (or both) of these remixes, be advised that there is another one on the way very soon – a recent release by a certain R-Rated individual (there’s a hint for you).

I am not feeling particularly typeractive tonight, so… Enjoy!

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

I had to laugh (or perhaps it should be LOL?) the other day when I was browsing through the News.com.au website and came across this headline – “Justin Bieber’s voice hitting a sour note” – basically an article about how the hottest new pop-star of the music world’s voice is breaking. The first point of the article read “Puberty wreaks havoc on Justin Bieber”. Oh my, I never thought I would live to see the day that the number one national Australian news headline involves a rare phenomena known as puberty! Luckily for his many fans, it looks like Bieber will pull through this turbulent phase in his life.

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]

Let me start this blog by apologising for my tardiness in posting it. There was some unforseen delays in getting our hands on the photos, so I thought it better to wait and at least have some visual stimuli to go with the rant!

For those of you that missed it, A Day At Sea was a huge success – beautiful sunny weather, a great crowd of our friends and fellow music lovers, and some rocking tunes courtesy of one half of Sydney-cum-LA rock outfit 11:11 (the band formerly known as Crash Hot) and local Sydney band Black Diamond Hearts. For those of you who made it down, thanks again for supporting the day and contributing to the great atmosphere and fun times!  A Day At Sea was what we envisage to be the first of many more successful Jaden Music events coming in the foreseeable future.

Given that the decision was made to go ahead with the cruise only 3 weeks prior, I feel like it was a day which exceeded expectations and impressed all involved. Considering we were able to organise two great bands, a handful of DJs, artwork and promo all in this short space of time, I think everyone has earned a big pat on the back.  A special thanks goes to Kristian, Serg, Wilson & crew, Black Diamond Hearts, the DJs, Tristan for capturing the day on film, Blair for the stunning flyer design, and last but definitely not least Joel and Daniel for busting their asses to make it all happen.

The boys and I are now casting our gaze to the next Jaden event, and we have some great guest appearances in the pipeline – details of this will emerge a little closer to the date. But I can assure you the next cruise will be well worth the wait, and even bigger than the first. Be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for more details, and until then may you all be joyous and fruitful in your lives!!

I sat down at 1:37am thursday morning to write a song about someone who has been clouding my thoughts recently. Finding myself lost for words, i turned to jazz music to find a key to unlock my inspiration. I’ve never actually taken the time out to listen to jazz in moments when i am looking for artistic aid, especially in temperamental moments, when a million thoughts still can’t find their way though your pen and onto your pad.

I now find myself lost an infinite maze of passion,  love, grace, humility, and absolute genius. Artist’s like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Louie Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane,  have opened up a new door for me. A door to a magical world where emotions are so perfectly depicted by music and lyrics, a world where, on any particular day (sunny, preferably at the beach), i can find what makes me forget all life’s dramas – LOVE………..*sigh*

Next time you find yourself thinking about a certain someone, try listening to some Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald………let me know what you think : )

I must LOVE you and leave u….back to writing my song,

ciao xo

One of the most exciting things for me in life is finding (or being shown) new music from which i can draw musical influence! 

This weekend saw the discovery of a few new tracks that i would like to share with u and also give a brief review.

It is no secret that here at Jaden, we are big fans of  the production of Mr Ryan Leslie.  My first discovery is a song titled “Get it right tonight” by an artist named Corey Gunz ft. Ryan Leslie. As always Leslie drops a simple yet PHAT beat, along with a hypnotizing synth hook (think it sounds a little like the one in Coolio’s “gangsta’s paradise” – musical coincidence?) which has my head bobbing throughout the whole track! Leslie is a master of keeping the right tracks simple and once again he has achieved another killer track while keeping this formula. This is the first time i hear any track by Corey Gunz and must say that i am a fan of his flow. Somewhat similar to that of lil wayne, but has his own vibe and as for lyrics, they’re on the money for this track.

The second discovery excites me for a few different reasons. The track is titled “Killer instincts” by Rick Ross and Produced by Cool and Dre.

The first reason this excites me is because my good friend’s band will be heading to Miami in a month to record their album with Cool and Dre. This dynamic producer duo have been recently producing their Hip Hop tracks with a lot of rock influence so i can’t wait to hear what else these guys will be coming up with.

Back to the track……It has a killer beat with a raw sounding live kit (as a drummer i love raaaaaaawwww sounding kits!), great vocal production, and one catchy ass vocal hook! Another track that has me bobbin my head and  i’m loving the flow of Rick Ross’ verses.

Third track! – “Believe” By Q-Tip and D’Angelo! – I did find 2 versions of this track so check this 1;

Without even listening to the track i already had a feeling this would be an awesome track! Well, why wouldn’t you……Q-Tip and D’Angelo wouldn’t drop an ‘average’ track. 

Once again……raawwww live kit, with a slight swing to make it sound as if its just ahead of the beat. LOVE IT! The key chords are amazing and the little guitar licks throughout the verse are sooooooo tasteful. Great lyrics, great production……and what can u say about D’Angelo’s performance?? well lets just say it’s what anyone would expect. – Smooth.

Enjoy – i know i’ll be thrashing these tracks!

PEACE xox

I’m not a big fan of classifying music into Genres.

Especially from a songwriting and production viewpoint as soon as an artist specifies a particular genre they want to fit into it feels like 4 walls are built around the song restricting the free flow of creativity. With all that in mind Nic and I set out to write a track to fit into a Modern Soul/Acoustic Genre on request.

For me ‘Soul’ in itself is difficult to define as its roots and influence can be found in most modern music ranging from Hip-Hop to Rock. The concept of the track being written was quality but we weren’t feeling the direction of the production so we decided to whip out the metaphoric sledgehammer and break down the walls.

The artist we wrote the track for wasn’t digging the final direction we took, which was no surprise as I doubt anyone could squeeze the result into the Soul/Acoustic Genre. But we all liked the track and the initial reviews were good so in stepped the super talented Cheyenne Kavanagh (www.myspace.com/cheykav) to lay down the vocals. It took Chey less than 4 hours to nail the vocal session. His interpretation of the melodies and harmonies as well as his ad-libs really took the track to a new level.

So now it’s over to you guys to have a listen and tell us what Genre ‘Buckle Up (Ur with me tonight)’ fits into?

I hope it stays a rhetorical question.

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