It just felt like the right title with everything thats been going on. I connected with it on a personal level.
![[Brand New Day - Starting Over]](bnd.gif)
AT: The Brand New Day material uses several vocalists; how did you hook up with vocalists across the country (not to mention at least one in another country)?
JR: Yes, I use vocalists and remixers from around the world. And thanks to the Internet, it can work. Using the internet has only begin to open new doors for me. I'm also using different vocalists and remixers for the 2nd CD which is in progress right now. Although it has a long ways to go before being released, I'm hoping for a early 2006 release.
AT: How did you locate the vocalists that worked with - just as an example, David Penpek (who I don't believe is in a band currently) or Miss P. Pyre (of Venus Virus, who sang on the current AeschTunes hit "Don't Blame Me For Paradise") - were you already familiar with their work or did they respond to a query you put out somewhere looking for singers...?
JR: Most of the vocalists answered a post that I put on different forums that I frequent. Thats how I met David Penpek, Miss P. Pyre and Paul Whitmer. Breye Kiser of Provision, and Aidan Casserly of Empire State Human, I knew of those two because of their bands beforehand. And two more vocalists, Troy Silvey and Lloyd Cooper, I knew of before, from my past locally, those two I didnt meet on the Internet.
AT: Are you using any of the same vocalists for the second album?
JR: Right now, the 2nd album only has 1 song finished with vocals and 1 song remixed that are finished completely. So its so hard to comment on who will be on it, because until I hear their versions, I'm reluctant to name any bands/vocalists or remixers until I approve of them.
I can say that David Penpek from the first CD is working on stuff, but I haven't heard anything yet. A couple of others have volunteered to be on the 2nd one if I need them, and I may consider them, but I'm trying to go with a different cast, that way I'm increasing my chances that the 2nd BND cd is nothing like the first one. Which is why I'm calling BND "Diverse Electronic Pop". The same goes with remixers, I'm trying to use different people on this next CD too.
One confirmed vocalist is Owe from the band, A BLUE OCEAN DREAM. Owe finished 1 song on vocals and the same song as a remix.
AT: How do these collaborations come together? Do you start with a vocal and work up from there, or does the music come first?
JR: The music is usually finished, and sometimes the lyrics too, and I mail out the package to the vocalist or remixer, and they add their touch to it, and then email me links to hear their work for my approval or not, and once its done, its sent back to me through the postal mail. This isnt a fast way to do it though, it can take a long time to write something. Because of several factors, one, being these vocalists or remixers have their own musical lives to lead with their own music and that always comes before side projects. It would be quicker if we were actually in person to write and record. But I enjoy doing it this way. Its an element of surprise to open an email with a link to go hear your song in a version you never heard it in before. Its fascinating to me.
AT: Regarding the original versions of songs... have you ever tried doing it the other way around (take an existing vocal and build the music around it) or would it seem too much like doing a remix? :)
JR: I've never tried it that way before, maybe I will down the road. I guess it does sound like how a remix is created, but I usually have the music done before hand. I've done a couple of songs lyrically this way, one is "Tear Down These Walls", I wrote the lyrics and vocal melody before the music, but when David Penpek did the vocals, the music was already done, and he sang over top with my lyrics and melody ideas.
AT: How did the process of securing the remixes differ from the process of securing the vocals for the original versions?
JR: When I posted on the forums looking for vocalists, I did the same for the remixers too. I don't see a difference, other than the fact that the remixers had to wait quite a while until the vocal tracks were done. Several of the remixers on this CD also worked with me previously on remixes for EuroVision. So the past working relationship had a lot to do with their work on this CD as well. I enjoyed their remixes of EV and wanted to try again with BND.
AT: Only one of the remixes ("Style [Foretaste Remix]") is of a track that was NOT sung by David Penpek; did this have to do with timeframes for acquiring all the necessary tracks?
JR: Yes, Timing played a part in this. It was January 2005, and I was hoping to have the CD out already. My label, Leg End Productions wanted me to not go ahead with the 2 CD plan and instead make 2 separate releases, one being the CD and the other a single style of CD with remixes. Well I wanted to do the double CD thing, to be different, and pitched a temper tantrum until I got my way. Hehe, no, seriously, Leg End then agreed on releasing the CD as a double if we could do it as a limited edition CD with bonus tracks.
Well I was looking at my songs, and David Penpek was the lead vocalist on all of the remix songs, so for a bonus track, I picked "Style," and FORETASTE did an excellent remix of it. And as it turns out the limited edition idea was scratched and the bonus track of "Style [Foretaste Remix]" and also "Starting Over [Ataritron Remix]" (another bonus track) became regular CD tracks. Ataritron is the band of Leg End Productions A&R head, Ryan Egan.
AT: Did you handpick particular songs for particular remixers?
JR: Not really, I picked who I wanted as remixers and I sent each of them cdr kit containing like 2 songs each with the original version and with the vocals only mix, for them to choose.
AT: What prompted your choice to place the two instrumentals ("King Of The Hill" and "Galaxy") on disc two, rather than on the main album disc?
JR: Not really sure I know why, hehe. I guess instrumentals, to me, are considered bonus material, so I instantly placed them on the remix CD. Even on the EuroVision CD On Fire, there were no instrumentals, but on the "Without You (I Just Dont Belong)" single, We included the instrumental, "October". I like instrumentals, but I normally write with vocals in mind and pop vocal songs to me are the main thing. So they (pop vocal songs) went on CD #1, and CD #2 was meant for remixes, instrumentals, etc. I never really thought why I did it until you asked me and I'm shrugging my shoulders trying to come up with an answer. Hehe.
Also, I was actually having a 3rd instrumental on the CD, but decided not to use it as it still needs more work and didn't flow with everything out as well. Maybe I'll use it for the next CD or maybe not.
AT: With the songs having been written over an extended period of time (at least one dating back several years) has it been a challenge to get the songs to come together as a whole?
JR: Yes, this is one of the challenges I was warned against when I started this band. The other being, using different vocalists, and then trying to mesh them altogether on a CD to make it sound like a band release and not a compilation. My oldest song on the CD is "No Way", written back in 1989. Two other ones, "Welcome To The World" and "Touch" were written in 1993. Other than "All I Wanted" which was 1996, all of the others were written in 2003 or 2004. Obviously over the years my writing style has changed along with different musical tastes that i'm influenced by at the time I write the song. This is one of the reasons I labeled BND as "Diverse Electronic Pop". That way the listener wont freak out after hearing a dark pop song followed by a dancing beat, followed by a slow ballad, followed by a screaming guitar solo such as the one at the end of "No Way".
AT: What has been the biggest challenge of the Brand New Day project?
JR: Getting the songs finished for a certain time frame. Like I mentioned earlier, working with others from far away has its drawbacks specially in the "Time" department. You dont want to keep pestering them to see if any progress has been made on your song, but at the same time, you're curious if they've even started or not. So yes this can be a challenge.
AT: The album is being packaged with a bonus CD of remixes and additional tracks. Did any of the remixes surprise you with the direction that they took?
JR: Absolutely. Now some of these remixers have done remixes for me before with EuroVision, so I knew their type of work, and wanted to try it again. These remixers were Hajas, Sequencia, Horizonte Lied, Chinese Theatre. I did use several others that I hadnt worked with before, and overall, the remixes are very dancable. I'm actually been in contact with club DJ's to send out promo CD's with some of these remixes that would be great on a dance floor. But there are some incredible remixers out there. I hope that the person that buys the "Starting Over" CD will also check out some of the CD's from these bands on disc two, along with CD's from the vocalists and their own bands themselves.
AT: You've stated that one song appears on the second disc of the set in an "alternate recording"; how is this distinguishable from simply being a remix?
JR: I goofed up when sending out song kits to different vocalists, and happen to include the same song to two different vocalists, one being Miss P. Pyre of the band Venus Virus, and the other being Paul Whitmer. The only thing done on this song were the music, so the vocalists were to write their own lyrics and sing over the music. The song kits that I sent out normally included 5 different songs to each artist, that way the artist can choose one or more from the five to work on, and until this mixup, i'd never sent any 2 artists the same song, well with my luck, they both chose the same song. And once I heard both versions, I liked both versions and was trying to figure out a way to use both. Which is why I called it an "Alternate Version", but actually these versions share no common thread outside of the music being the same. So this version isnt a remix. Its like a new song altogether.
AT: Will Brand New Day continue to use a rotating vocalist approach or do you foresee yourself settling on a single vocalist at some point?
JR: I like to continue doing it the way I'm doing it now. The only other drawback is the difficulty in taking this on the road to do live shows. Which for now means BND is only a recording band. I love to perform though, and sometime in the future I may come up with a "live" band with only one vocalist, but to help keep my title of "Diverse Electronic Pop", I like using different vocalists. It keeps the music and style fresh and myself too musically. This way each CD is different from the next, well at least thats what I'm trying to do.
AT: A "free" question - what would you like to tell the readers of this newsletter, about the band, yourself, life in general...?
JR: A free question. Ok, let me share some upcoming news.