Fred Everything's tour promoting the first release in the Om:Masters series pulls into Chicago's SmartBar this weekend.
So in advance of that date and his interview in our June 2010 issue, we asked Fred for a bit of the story-behind-the-story regarding four tracks from the album. The Om:Masters series is more than just another DJ comp: all of the tracks on the album are releases that Fred was in some way involved in, either as the original artist or remixer. We're talkin' here about his collaboration with N'Dea Davenport from the Brand New Heavies, with JT Donaldson and Mr. White (the vocalist from Larry Heard's "The Sun Can't Compare"), with Olivier Desmet (playing with Fred at this Saturday's SmartBar gig) and his remix of Chicagoan Frank Solano's "Beautiful Connection".
Don't Nobody:
(Fred Everything ft. N'Dea Davenport (J-Boogie Remix) / Om)Everything: Wow, this one is too long a story! It was probably 10 years in the making. It would've never happened if N'Dea wasn't so cooperative in collaborating. The recording session at Raphael Sadiiq's studio in Hollywood was surreal. Didn't know they still have studios like that. Who wants 1 SSL when you can have 2! (Ed: You can read more about this one here.)
Read My Mind:
(JT. Donaldson & Fred Everything ft. Mr. White / Large Music)Everything: JT actually wrote this one and sent it to Mr White. Mr White sang the whole thing thru his mac laptop microphone, so no fancy mic/pre-amps stories here! When I visited JT in Brooklyn, we dug out the track which I loved and worked on so more remixes together.
Think About It:
(Fred Everything & Olivier Desmet / Amenti)Everything: When I first moved to San Francisco, I had nowhere to put my studio so Olivier let me bring my stuff into his tiny room at Moulton. We started working on stuff together like the Mood II Swing remix of "Closer". We then started to work on some original material.
I like the simplicity of this one, very much a testament of our love for '90s House. We used all hardware for this - MPC3000 for drums, SE1x for bass - and I think that's what brought the whole thing to life. It's like a good recipe, a few quality ingredients only. We didn't overcook this one!
Beautiful Connection:
(Frank Solano (Fred Everything Vox Mix) / Loudeast)Everything: Nacho Marco (Loudeast owner) and I were in touch about doing a remix swap for a while. He sent me this song which was totally my vibe. I actually struggled a bit to make it simple: I had a bunch of tracks in Logic and just ended them up killing one by one until I reached that balance. The vocal is a little on the pop side so I wanted to have a solid groove behind it to drive it rather than making it sleepy. Got a bunch of Chicago Love on this one!
