Behind The Rework: Franz Ferdinand 'Do You Want To' (Erol Alkan's Rework)

Franz Ferdinand 'Do You Want To' (Erol Alkan's Rework) taken from his 'Reworks Volume 1' compilation, a track long been out of print and highly sought after on vinyl.
"This rework for Franz Ferdinand could have ended up totally different, my original vision was based on the old Duran Duran extended mixes, or 'Night Versions' as they were also known, I focused in on the disco element which you can hear in the original chorus and then expanded it for around 6 minutes, I think I added some keys and also used the full vocal. The next morning I listened back and felt completely underwhelmed by my work, it seemed like it had added nothing of note to the original. So through sheer yet mild anger at an evenings wasted time, I went about chopping up what I had made the night before. 


Once I had the bands parts all in place, I played the bass line into the computer and fired the midi out to my Roland SH 101 and Arp Axxe, both of which are slightly out of tune, to thicken out the sound.. I then played in Alex's top line melody for the middle 8 by hand, got it slightly wrong, but I liked the mistake and kept it, and then mixed it down and sent it to the label.

I learnt that there is usually an element in what you create that you can still work with even though if you are largely unsatisfied with what you have. It's just a case of refocusing your vision, being honest, and chucking away what you don't like and zoning in on what you do, and then not to give up.

This was also one of the first instances where I saw a band play part of a rework in their live set, it was hugely flattering." - Erol Alkan

Pre-order 'Reworks Volume 1' on double CD, five piece vinyl boxset or separately on 12" vinyl with his Yeah Yeah Yeahs rework on the flip side HERE

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