Here's our first ever remix EP: We Went To Jupiter To Get More Stupider. It contains bootleg remixes of some of our favorite 90s rock and metal bands: Nirvana, Garbage and Pantera. The songs have been destroyed beyond recognition and dignity. Give them a listen!

We Went To Jupiter To Get More Stupider

Wrapping up our first ever remix EP, we pay tribute to arguably one of rock's greatest icons, Kurt Cobain, while also apologizing to him for doing this to his art. This is our bootleg remix of Nirvana's "Something In The Way" off of their historic Nevermind album. It's our progressive house - or is it cooler to say "melodic techno" nowadays? - take on it. Either ways, it's something that Nirvana fans should probably avoid.

Click the "Free Download" above to grab your copy as well as DJ-friendly Extended Mix. We prefer not to put "fan gate" to the free download, i.e. force you to follow us + repost the track to get your copy, as is common: if you genuinely like it enough to repost, we'd appreciate that :) You'd be helping our music reach people we wouldn't be able to reach ourselves. If you wanna go one further and have our stuff directly to your inbox about once a month, join our inner circle here: https://www.pirateradiomusic.com. We'd love to have you.

If you wanna know more about how the song came about, read on..
 
  
 
ABOUT THIS SONG
We originally wrote this remix as a time-boxed writing exercise last summer. We got further than we expected within the deadline, but didn't complete it and just moved on to the next one. A few months later, when we got the opportunity to do a set for the Rapture Radio series (https://soundcloud.com/club-rapture/rapture-radio-035-pirate-radio?in=pirate-radio-nyc/sets/rapture-radio), we decided to pick up where we left off, and spent about 2-3x more time on it to bring it to its current state. Along the way, we got some valuable guidance from our long-time friend and mentor, Pete Cuppernull of https://soundcloud.com/weareanden. We've never made a song in this style before, so we got some great feedback on the song's arrangement and mixing from him. If you've listened to Anden's music, you know how good they are. So reach out to him if you ever want to do a 1-1 music production session with him! Or let us know and we'll connect you.
 
 
 
AMATEUR HOUR
Here are some of our production notes, in case it helps any other producers. We use Ableton.

1. We luckily found a pretty decent quality of Kurt's vocal track while acapella-hunting on YouTube. It's often one of the first places we search for acapellas.

2. Some of the samples used in this song came from Dave Parkinson's sample pack on Freshly Squeezed Sounds: https://www.freshlysqueezedsamples.com/dave-parkinson-house-essentials-volume-2.html. We use his sample packs quite a lot, especially for drums and sometimes basslines.

3. The arps were all written on the Ableton Push. Last year we spent some time re-learning it after it had been collecting dust, and then while writing this song, realized how easy it is to write arps on it: set the scale, throw on even the stock Ableton Arpeggiator plugin, and start jamming out different chord shapes on the Push for a few minutes.

4. The haunting piano part at the start is one of the wild "Burning Piano" presets in Omnisphere. That preset was created by PLAYING A PIANO THAT WAS BURNING. That instrument and its presets, and their makers all exist at a different level.

5. Mastering chain: we're noobs at mastering, and our mastering chain looks like this, in this order:
Oxford Inflator -> FabFilter Saturn -> Fielding DSP Reviver -> soothe 2 -> FabFilter Pro Q3 (reductive EQ) -> Waves SSL Compressor -> Ozone Dynamics -> Ozone Exciter -> Ozone Imager -> Sausage Fattener -> FabFilter Pro-L2 -> Reference (for levels, by Mastering The Mix)

VSTs:
Here are some of the prominent VSTs used:
1. Guitars: Guitar Rig -> Custom patch. We've yet to make a song that doesn't use Guitar Rig, it's Brian's main guitar amp.
2. Bass: Diva + Diva layered
3. Pads & arps: Omnisphere
4. Cello, to mimic the cello from the original Something In The Way: Stock Ableton preset

Free download

Nirvana - Something In The Way (Pirate Radio Remix) (Free Download)

The first "release" (it's just a SoundCloud upload, really) of our bootleg remix EP titled "We Went To Jupiter To Get More Stupider": our attempt at remixing Pantera's Suicide Note, Pt I. We love Pantera! And so it felt daunting to remix them. But we're happy with how it turned out, and worked well as a set opener for our recent Rapture Radio set: https://soundcloud.com/club-rapture/rapture-radio-035-pirate-radio. If you want to know more about how the song came about and/or parts of the production process, they are below.

ABOUT THIS SONG
This song came about because we wanted an opening track our Rapture Radio set. We thought it'd be cool if we made a mashup of using an unexpected vocal track, so we spent a few hours looking for metal tracks that might work, based on the vocals themselves and the BPM. Then once we found this one, we thought it'd be worth giving a shot at remixing it ourselves. Brian's a much bigger Pantera fan than I am, so when I sent him this, he initially felt the pressure - it's daunting to remix your heroes. He sent me back some instrumental parts that were really nice, but he didn't think they fit well enough with the vocals. I used a couple of those parts, added a couple different ones, arranged the track with the vocals and sent it back. He liked the sketch, and we then took it from there. The first arrangement didn't have the big drop chords, the song ended before that. When we added the drop, my original version was quite weak... until Brian added the big guitars and the rock drums, and that's how we ended up with this final version. We're happy with it! Especially considering that we didn't have even one joint session working on it together, this song was made in pandemic style.

PRODUCERS' CORNER
A few relevant / share-worthy parts of the production of this song, in case it helps any other bedroom producers! We use Ableton.

1. The drop: we were able to get a big sounding drop, thanks to layering two main bass patches, a sub bass, Brian's guitars, and an organ synth patch. It also helped to mix that section first, and then the rest of the song relatively quieter to it... when we tried mixing the song from the start -> finish, everything was too loud by the time we got to the breakdown + build, so there wasn't much room left to make the drop even louder.

2. The echo feedback effect just before the drop: this is something that Brian often does with his guitar, but this time we achieved this inside Ableton. We used the stock Echo plugin on the "again, again..." vocal part, and automated the feedback to beyond 100% until it started feeding back. Important to slap on a Limiter after that just so that things don't go crazy with feedback and blow through.

3. Mastering chain: we're noobs at mastering, and use this same chain each time, in this order:
Oxford Inflator -> FabFilter Saturn -> Fielding DSP Reviver -> soothe 2 -> FabFilter Pro Q3 (reductive EQ) -> Waves SSL Compressor -> Ozone Dynamics -> Ozone Exciter -> Ozone Imager -> Sausage Fattener -> FabFilter Pro-L2 -> Reference (for levels, by Mastering The Mix)

VSTs:
Here are some of the VSTs used, along with a starting preset that we either used as-is, or modified:
* Guitars: Guitar Rig -> Custom patch. We've yet to make a song that doesn't use Guitar Rig, it's Brian's main guitar amp.
* Intro droning bass: Trillian -> "Slowly Droning Away" preset
* Verse bass: FM8 -> "Attacker" preset
* Drop bass 1: Omnisphere -> "Beef Reese" preset
* Drop bass 2: Omnisphere -> "Reduced To Pieces Lead" preset
* Rock drums: Superior Drummer 3
* Plucks and arps: several Omnisphere patches

In case any of ^ this helps you, leave us a comment!

Pantera - Suicide Note, Pt 1 (Pirate Radio Remix) (Free Download)

In our continuing effort to ruin classic rock and metal songs, here's our latest: a bootleg remix of Garbage's "I Think I'm Paranoid". It's a progressive house take on the legendary 90s alt rock track, with Pink Floyd-inspired guitar solos.

Click the "Free Download" above to grab your copy of the version here as well as DJ-friendly extended mix. We thought long and hard about putting a "fan gate" to the free download, i.e. making you follow us + repost the track to get your copy (as is common), but decided against it: if you genuinely like it enough to repost, we'd appreciate that :) You'd be helping our music reach people we wouldn't be able to reach ourselves. If you wanna go one further and have our stuff directly to your inbox about once a month, join our inner circle here: https://www.pirateradiomusic.com. We'd love to have you.

DJs: if you do give it a spin, even at a house party, let us know! You'd make our day.

Finally, if you wanna know more about how the song came about, read on.

ABOUT THIS SONG
We wrote this song for our Rapture Radio set late last year. https://soundcloud.com/club-rapture/rapture-radio-035-pirate-radio?in=pirate-radio-nyc/sets/rapture-radio. This was the last song to be written for the set. We had to pivot pretty late in the set preparation, after multiple efforts to write a Weezer bootleg just wasn't working. By then we had our bootlegs of three 90s bands in the set (Pantera and Nirvana being the other two) which just happened organically. So  then when it was time to replace the Weezer fail, we deliberately stuck to the 90s/2000s rock bands theme: we tried our hands at remixing Deftones and Korn, both of which failed. With just a few days to go, we then found the acapella for Garbage's "I Think I'm Paranoid". After a couple of days of working on it, this too looked to be headed towards where regular garbage ends up... but then Brian added his guitar solos, and the song was instantly transformed. That's the version you hear today.

AMATEUR HOUR: HOW WE PRODUCE
Here are some relevant / share-worthy parts of the production of this song, in case it helps any other producers. We use Ableton.

1. A few of the prominent samples in this song are courtesy one of our favorites, Jaytech's sample pack on Splice: https://splice.com/sounds/sample-magic/jaytech-wavelengths. Splice Sounds has been our go-to for some time now, and it makes life so easy when your favorite producers are selling samples there.

2. The kick sample was taken from another progressive producer we love, Fehrplay, also off Splice Sounds: https://splice.com/sounds/sample-magic/fehrplay-parallel-sounds.

3. Mastering chain: we're noobs at mastering, and use this same chain each time, in this order:
Oxford Inflator -> FabFilter Saturn -> Fielding DSP Reviver -> soothe 2 -> FabFilter Pro Q3 (reductive EQ) -> Waves SSL Compressor -> Ozone Dynamics -> Ozone Exciter -> Ozone Imager -> Sausage Fattener -> FabFilter Pro-L2 -> Reference (for levels, by Mastering The Mix)

VSTs:
Here are some of the prominent VSTs used:
1. Guitars: Guitar Rig -> Custom patch. We've yet to make a song that doesn't use Guitar Rig, it's Brian's main guitar amp.
2. Bass: Serum + Diva layered
3. Breakdown synths: Omnisphere

Hope this can be of use to someone!

Garbage - I Think I'm Paranoid (Pirate Radio Remix) (Free Download)

Pirate Radio is a cross-genre, Alternative Dance Music act from Brooklyn comprised of Brian Taylor & Karan Mehra that combines electronic dance music with live instruments. Over the years they have blazed trails in the local dance music scene at an incremental pace, climbing all the way to #2 on their moms' favorite bands list.