In genetics, mutation is said to have neutral, positive and negative effects. Mutation is necessary for the evolutionary process of beings. A mutation is also said to be a permanent change, often radically altering what was, to create what will be. In music, artists often give life to songs, and once they are recorded, they vary little from that ‘final version’ the artist and their audience grows accustomed to. For the project known as Puscifer, Maynard James Keenan prefers to release new music and then re-imagine the songs into other states, also sometimes yielding radical results. Ghost Cult caught up with one of the main conspirators of the band, Mat Mitchell, about the bands’ new album All Re-mixed Up (Puscifer Entertainment). All Remixed Up takes up the challenge revisiting the entire Conditions Of My Parole album and creating something new and different.
What was the genesis of All Remixed Up, following Conditions Of My Parole?
We really enjoy working with other artists and getting other people’s take on what we do. It’s a really easy medium to work with other people. It was something we had planned on doing when we were writing the record. It was something that was on our mind. It just took us a little while to move forward, and actually sit down and do it and for the remix record to come out. I think the timing is good because a lot of people have gotten to see these shows live now and are more familiar with that album. So I think the timing is good for new interpretation, and fresh versions of those songs for people to be out there too.
How did you approach your track ‘Monsters (Deconstruct)’ and re-mixing in general?
The approach is different, depending on the song. In the case of ‘Monsters’ I kind of wanted to maintain somewhat of the feel, but change it, so when you hear where it sounds the same, but you are not sure what is different. And in some instances I will completely totally deconstruct a song and rebuild it completely different, and changing the emotion, changing the instrumentation to really change the feel of the song. It really depends on the song and how that inspires me to change it. For that one specifically, I wanted to change the feel of that one, but I don’t know, make it different.
Did you have a hand in selecting the other re-mixers?
I definitely had some involvement in helping pick (the other remixers). A lot of these artists or friends of friends of the group. A lot of these folks, whether it is a rap band or a rock band, are usually just one degree between most of the bands out there. One thing that was my responsibility here was who I thought would be a really good person to of a remix for this song or that one. And in terms of someone like Sir-Mix-A-Lot; the curve ball on the record was ‘Conditions’, and it seemed like the perfect fit for him to do that one.
The most standout track to me is Carina Rounds’ take on ‘Telling Ghosts (Giorgia O`Queef Mix)’
She’s very accomplished and has done so much as an artist. One thing she really hasn’t done was any kind of remix stuff. She was apprehensive at first going into it, but we talked through it and she did it, and of course the result is not surprising. It’s amazing! I can’t stress enough just how creative she is. Anything that she does is going to be great.
Was there a single track that performed above your expectations?
I think there is something about every track. There was no one single track that gave back something completely unexpected. There is definitely something about elements of each remix: the drum programming on Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s one, or the chaos stuff on the John Fryer one, the vocal treatments on the Carina’s. There were definitely elements on every track that were inspiring and made me want to go write a new song. I think everyone came to the table with cool stuff.
It is pretty ambitious to take a part an entire album and put it back together, isn’t it?
Well, when you are handing it off to different people, it makes the job a lot easier. We facilitate and let the artists just handle every track. We thought it would be cool to take an album that has a story, has a mood; and break it apart. Then distribute it out to different people. Give it out to other people and see what they comeback with. You going to have the same track list and maintain the running order, if you are familiar with the album. You will get the same story, the same flow, but have a very different experience. It’s great for us to put it out there and see of people respond to us. I think it’s great to see how that works.
Regarding your career, what circle of your work led you to Puscifer and working with Maynard?
I was a musician growing up, by trade. Obviously, I wasn’t making the kind of living I was going to be happy with, just being a musician. You just did what you have to do to be comfortable. I wasn’t really happy with the money I was making, just as a musician. So I started doing more production stuff, soundtrack stuff, and video game and movie stuff. Opening myself up to those different facets really helped build my skill-set and allowed me to think differently about things. Because whether you are doing music or video games, the craft is affected by that. Then one of things I was doing was, I had done some video work from a tour, and then I had been recommend from that, to work with Billy Howerdell on a live tour for their second album. When I started working with those guys, that’s how Maynard and I met, and the rest is history.
How do you manage your schedule and expectations for work, when your boss is all over the place with projects.
One thing he (Maynard) is really great at is he is a great multi-tasker! He doesn’t have one foot in one thing, and one foot in another. He knows what he wants to do, and get it on to a schedule, on to a calendar. Right now he is ‘in crush’, he’s busy with wine stuff. So we know we are not going to be touring. I don’t know how better to explain it. We are all pretty open with what we want to get accomplished. We make our schedules work around that, and what we want to accomplish, and make it work around that.
The Re-mix album came on the heels of the Donkey Punch the Night EP. I think those two new tracks on that album were over looked a bit and are quite good.
Those were ideas we have been nursing a little bit while we were touring the Conditions… album. There weren’t extra tracks from the Conditions album, they were brand new songs. We wanted to put something out. A couple of ideas and a couple of covers and that is it. The ‘Bohemian…’ thing (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ cover) was something Maynard has been threatening us with for quite some time. We came to the realization that this wasn’t going to go away for us. So we wanted to buckle down and do it, and make it as great as we could make it. Like you said, it is normal for us to do the re-mixing thing. We like to think that it is normal for us that if we want to put out and EP or a full- length, we can do it.
Is it daunting to take on a song like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, it’s such an iconic song?
Absolutely. It’s not just a song. It’s epic in the arrangement. In the instrumentation. In every facet, it’s daunting. We made the right idea to try to keep it as accurate as we could. It seemed like the right thing for us to do for that song. Whereas with ‘Balls to the Wall’, we changed it quite a bit. But ‘Bohemian’ just felt right to keep it and I think it was more of a challenge for us to keep it to the original. One of the things we were thinking about it while we were tracking it. These guys had to write and record this thing; we only needed to record it. All we had to do was a cover of it, and technically and creatively it was a fun exercise. I’m glad we did it and I’m happy with the result.
What’s next on the horizon for you and Puscifer?
We are working on a few things. A few different projects. I don’t know if you heard the little teaser, Matt (McJunkins) and Jeff (Friedl) from Puscifer, and from a few other things, are working on a project called Beta Machine. I’m helping those guys out with that. We’re all getting really excited about that. And I’m kind of helping with that. And there is a couple of new things that I can’t mention, but are really exciting. And there is some other Puscifer stuff I can’t get into right now, with a few new things coming out, but we are not ready to announce.
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KEITH KEEFY CHACHKES
