I have a sentimental feeling for this track. When I first had kids I kind of vanished from the music scene. I both stopped making music and stopped going to concerts. The album that finally got me back into it was Pharmacy by @wearegalantis. I loved that album, and I went to see Galantis when they were in SF, and now I'm back to my old life of making music and going to concerts as often as I can.

So I took my kids to the beach last week, and what did they ask to listen to in the car? The "peanut butter jelly song"! At first I assumed I was in for something dreadful, when my wife pulled up "Peanut Butter Jelly" by @wearegalantis.

It was so strange, to hear this song that I loved, being sung by my kids. So I thought that when I got back from vacation I would write a straight-ahead, happy, poppy dance track in the style of one of my favorite pop acts of all time, Galantis.

I wrote this track the day we got back from the beach, and it just came together in one day. I improvised a riff on the piano, then arranged it in Reaper. I wanted to put my own spin on things, so I included a little solo section in the middle. Then I added risers and effects, and that was pretty much it.

Thanks for listening!

Don't Stop Me Now

This story begins in a thrift store. I was browsing the racks at Goodwill, trying to replenish my stock of vintage tees, when I spotted an unusual sweater in the rack across the aisle.

I remember being dragged to thrift stores by my mother in the 1980s and 1990s, and they were always stocked with sweaters like this one. If you were wearing vintage turtlenecks in the 1990s, then the thrift stores in Pittsburgh had you covered. At the time, I couldn't fathom anyone ever wearing them.

And I guess nobody did, because you NEVER see sweaters like that in thrift stores today. So when I saw it there, it just jumped out at me.

It was exactly my size and in perfect condition. It was a dark brown that almost matches my hair. I never wear turtleneck sweaters, but for some reason this one seemed just too good to pass up.

So I took it to a changing room in the back, and when I pulled it over my head I was suddenly at a loft party in 1962. The carpet was orange, the people were wearing natural fabrics, and the women's hair was hairsprayed up into impossible styles. Everyone was smoking. The air was so thick with smoke that I started coughing immediately. Nobody reacted to me or even seemed to think I was out of place.

I walked over to the bar and looked around for a glass. There was some sort of kerfuffle by the door. The host was closing his door in anger. Then he threw something at a girl. He saw me, and pasted a smile on his face.

"Hey buddy, I didn't see you get here," he said as he extended his hand. "I'm Peter."

"Fynix," I said with a dazed expression.

"I assume you didn't come with him," he said as he gestured toward the door amid scattered laughter. "You like a Martini?"

"Sure."

When I took a sip of the drink, this was the music I heard.

Turtleneck Sweater

I was mildly surprised when I put on a turtleneck sweater and found myself at a party in 1962 (https://soundcloud.com/fynix_fynix/turtleneck-sweater). I woke up the next morning with a stranger in a strange car (https://soundcloud.com/fynix_fynix/back-seat-window). When she started crying, I didn't know what to do.

I'd just met Teresa. We shared some sort of strange connection, but I didn't really know her. We may have met last night, but both of us were too hungover to start putting the night back together. So watching her cry onto her pancakes made me feel even more helpless than a man usually feels when watching a woman cry.

She sobbed quietly into her hands. Her red hair fell stiffly in front of her face. I sat there doing mental gymnastics to try to triangulate the right thing to say.

I pulled a couple napkins from the dispenser and offered them across the table. She took them and began blotting at her cheeks.

"It's... it's my father," she muttered. "He lives in the past. He doesn't understand that it's 1962. He still thinks it's 1941. The world has changed. His war is over." She poked at her pancakes with a fork. "And my mom knows he's wrong, but she refuses to stand up to him."

"He hits her?"

"What?" she smiled. "No. No." Then she laughed. "They love each other, but they got married very young. They had been dating for a year when the bombs started falling in Pearl Harbor. He rushed to sign up, and she... well she was only eighteen years old."

"Then the war happened. I know it was bad, but people... people aren't bad. And when he finally got back, there I was. Three years old and he didn't even know me. Then a year later my brothers came."

"Neither of them knew what it was to be young, but I think both of them know what it means to love. So I don't understand it. I don't see how he can be so pig-headed. I'm older than he was when he got married."

I sipped my coffee.

"Does this have something to do with the man who was kicked out of the party last night?" I asked.

"What?" she looked inside. "I don't remember. I had too much to drink." Then we started laughing again.

"The problem is that my boyfriend is half Japanese. His father was a soldier and his mother is Japanese. We've been dating in secret for over a year, but my father and my cousins refuse to allow him near me. He proposed to me on Friday and I said yes."

"So what's the problem?" I asked. "You're an adult."

"Well it's not that simple. My dad somehow convinced me to break it off with him, and for some reason I just went along with it."

"And now you regret it."

She nodded at me as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I need to find him. I need to tell him I was wrong."

"Well," I said as I held up the keys to the car, "it's a good thing we have a car."

I paid for our breakfasts in cash. Fortunately the cashier didn't look too closely at the bills. Then we got in the car.

"So where does he live?" I asked her as I started it.

"I can get us there."

The Full Story

Her boyfriend's apartment was way across the city, in a neighborhood that is posh today, but was not posh in 1962. He lived in a low slung, yellow-brick apartment block that was totally featureless. We parked in front of the building.

"Are you sure you can do this?" I asked her.

"Yes, but you will come with me, right?"

"Sure," I said, even though I had planned to stay in the car. We got out and walked over to the buzzer. She pressed the button for her boyfriend's apartment, and we were buzzed in.

We walked up one flight of stairs and found his door in the middle of the building. She smoothed her dress and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I just realized that I'm still wearing the same clothes," she said with a nervous laugh.

A short young man with incongruously thinning blond hair answered the door wearing a tee shirt.

"Hi Vlad, is James here?"

"Hi Teresa." he said with a light Russian accent. "I thought he was with you. I thought... didn't you meet up with him last night?"

"No, I don't think so."

Then Vlad opened the door to reveal a startlingly empty apartment.

"Oh my!" Teresa exclaimed as she stepped in, "What happened? Were you robbed?"

"No..." he stopped mid-sentence, noticing me for the first time.

"This is Fynix. He drove me here."

"Uh, I thought he spoke to you. He moved out last night. He sold all his furniture. He said he was leaving forever. He said we should find a new roommate."

"What?"

"And as you can see, he owned most of our furniture."

"Well where did he go?"

"I assumed he was going somewhere with you. He said he would write with his new address."

Teresa toured the empty apartment in a daze. She looked at the dust bunnies hiding in the corner, and peered out the window for a moving truck.

"Okay," she said, her voice almost quivering. "If he comes back can you tell him to call me."

"Yes, of course." He walked us back to the door. "Nice meeting you, Fynix."

We walked out of the building in silence, then stopped on the sidewalk outside.

"Well?" I asked.

"He might be at his mother's house."

We got back in the car, and drove to a neighborhood filled with small, nearly-identical houses. We pulled up in front of a gray single story home with a chain link fence around the postage-stamp front yard.

"Can you talk to his mom?"

"Why? Don't you get along?"

"Well, it will just be easier if you do. Just ask for James. If he's there, then send him out."

I walked up the path and knocked on the screen door. A short, narrow asian woman answered the door wearing a green apron.

"Hi, I'm looking for James?"

"He not here," she replied in clipped english.

Finding The Party

There's so much greatness in this track that it's hard for me to talk about. The original song and vocal part by Courtney Grace is excellent. It was really easy to recontextualize it in an interesting way, and Drizz's featured verse really ties it together.

Check out the original here: https://soundcloud.com/courtney-grace-11/i-wanted-you-you-wanted-me

Check out Drizztopher Walken here: https://soundcloud.com/drizzty

Courtney Grace - I Wanted You, You Wanted Me (FYNIX remix, feat. Drizztopher Walken)

If I were to title this tape, it would be, last chance to evacuate planet Earth before it is recycled.

Intro (Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth)

All my demons look so good.

Check out the original here: https://soundcloud.com/nck_v/braver

nckv - Braver (FYNIX Remix)

Here on Mars - Phantom Sounds (FYNIX Remix)

Check out M. Jay's amazing work here: https://soundcloud.com/mjayofficial

M. Jay - Love Is (FYNIX Remix)

Check out Darius Mines on SC: https://soundcloud.com/dariusmines/tracks

Darius Mines - Alone (FYNIX Remix)

Check out M. Jay: https://soundcloud.com/mjayofficial

Hooked (feat. M. Jay)

Check out Cameron London: https://soundcloud.com/cameronlondon

Rise Above (feat. Cameron London)

Check out On Tilt: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6vLWc0YAtJYuOzRkF4c9bs?si=8AEBY7H3R6W2nVHsdny0Tw

Minimal Funk (feat. On Tilt)

Check out Meltt: https://soundcloud.com/melttmusic

Meltt - Love Again (FYNIX Remix)

Darius Mines - Fish Out of Water (FYNIX Remix)

Check out Informal here: https://soundcloud.com/musicofinformal

Check out Drizztopher Walken here: https://soundcloud.com/drizzty

Informal - Close (FYNIX Remix, feat. Drizztopher Walken)

Check out the original here: https://soundcloud.com/gianni-matteo/boo-hoo-1

Gianni Matteo - Boo Hoo (FYNIX Remix)

C3LO really transformed this beat. I think I made it a little too syncopated at first, but he managed to find the groove and turn it into gold. Check him out: https://soundcloud.com/celoambriz

C3LO - InMyCity (prod. FYNIX)

Check out Flüsso: https://soundcloud.com/nicoluciani

Work (feat Flüsso)

Drowning

Knocking

Don't sleep on C3LO: https://soundcloud.com/celoambriz

C3LO - Inception (FYNIX Remix)

A preview cut from the Drowning EP coming in December.

When It Breaks

I'm just a DJ with a time machine.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Send me a DM for bookings/remixes/collabs, or hmu on email: contact [at] fynixmusic [dot] com

"FYNIX has taken the time and consideration to build something from scratch yet that allows the natural soul of the original song to shine with absolute brightness. Beautifully done." - Stereo Stickman

FYNIX

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