Behind The Rework: Yeah Yeah Yeahs 'Zero'


Yeah Yeah Yeahs
 'Zero' (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 Yeah Yeah Yeahs came about after I worked with Nick Launay (he mixed the Mystery Jets album 'Twenty One' which I produced) who insisted that I remix something from the next YYY album he was producing. I already knew the band well as they played one of their first ever UK live shows at Trash back in 2001, so it felt pretty natural to do a mix for them. I respect Nick a great deal so I wasn't going to question anything, I just asked him to send me the parts before I'd even heard the track.

Looking back, I'm not sure why it went down the scarcely trodden 'Indie Rock meets Chicago House' route, I suppose I subconsciously wanted to hear Karen O's vocals over a raw backing track of just the Roland SH-101 and Drumtraks (I used this drum machine on almost everything back then) and it was a style which could fit easily into my Dj sets around this time.. Or maybe I must have been listening to Adonis a fair bit? I chopped the drum fills out of the original stems as I loved them, they gave the mix a real sense of impact and made the track all a whole lot more interesting. I spent a couple of days on this one, most of that was spent getting the timing right on some of the sounds which fly in and out the mix, or moving some parts out of time so it became less predictable." - Erol Alkan

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


Older post Newer post