After receiving over 500 remixes through a world-wide producing casting call for their 2012 hit, Eye Wide Open, Brooklyn psychedelic dance-rock duo, Dynasty Electric, decided to abandon the traditional studio approach to record their next album by experimenting with an open source, cross-collaborative platform. Through the help of crowdfunding and the online genius of music networking site Indaba, the Dynasty duo were overwhelmed by the creative responses from stems and tracks which subsequently turned into material for their latest full length album, Euphoria.
Out of the hundreds of submissions that literally ‘poured’ in from every corner of the globe, as far as India, Jamaica and the United Kingdom, 13 tracks made it onto the album creating a hugely eclectic mix of rock, EDM, reggae, ambient, and a host of other unclassified and novel genres. Jenny Electrik (vocals, theremin, synths), and Seth Misterka (guitar, sax, synth), discuss their revolutionary approach to exploring Euphoria in all its inherent cosmic glow, which has seen them cross more continents collaboratively than your average, run-of-the-mill music producer.
- OPEN SOURCE PRODUCING -
Seth: It all started in the fire at Burning Man. In the summer of 2012 we hosted our first remix contest with Indaba Music for Eye Wide Open, and as we drove from New York City to the desert in Nevada, we listened to hundreds of remixes of the track in every style imaginable, many of them quite wonderful. It really opened our minds and we thought it would be interesting to produce an entire original album this way right from the onset.
Jenny: The creation becomes something so much greater than the self. There are many different expressions of the same vibration, so your message is heard in a more expansive way and encompasses more of a global perspective. And simultaneously it empowers artists from vastly different backgrounds, and bonds them together in their love for a particular song idea.
"Also, you really need to clarify your vision, right from the beginning, because you are involving the community in the process."
I approached Diana Shams (Renuvo) to develop a visual representation, eight months prior to the album’s release. She created an extraordinary piece of album art, which has been with us since the project’s inception.
- EUPHORIA -
Seth: The submissions extend across a wide spectrum from orchestral and classical, to jazz, experimental, blues, rock, pop, electronic, noise, glitch, new wave, hip hop, reggae, ambient, as well as new formations and combinations which don’t even have names yet. Indaba Music is an amazing global community and a fantastic amount of genres are represented and invented there every day.
Jenny: I love Politru’s (Kitami, Japan) version of Euphoria (intro). "It’s the most pleasing and harmoniously flowing glitch pop track I’ve ever heard.'" It’s not even really glitch pop. I’m not quite sure how to ‘classify’ it, but that’s what I really like about it. Electrify Your Mind, produced by Nova Glam (London, UK), also incorporates the dissection of vocal parts to create contagious, nonsensical and rhythmic hooks - a very unique experience of EDM, classic rock, and experimental orchestra. The vocal harmonies sung by Tracy and Shawn from VulGarrity (Providence, RI) are extraordinarily powerful and lush. Nova Glam also produced the genre-defying version of Euphoria, which incorporates elements of jazz, rock, EDM & dub fusion, as well as the EDM anthem Night Light. Outbreak Music’s (Italy) version of Supersonic is a really well-crafted electro house dance sensation. Outernationale’s (Scotland, UK) RockitShip mix is an electro alternative pop hit. He utilizes the elements we created in New York and turned a powerful message into a celebration;
“Let the music lift you up. Up up up. Up into space. Escape the rat race.”
There’s also a short experimental piece from India by Chandrodaya Biswas (Electrik Interlude), and a Supersonic reggae tag from the incredibly talented Jamaican producer, P. Nyne.
Seth: Floating Around The Sun was a nice surprise collaboration with TC Campbell of Jamaica. On the album, it’s right after RockitShip, so I kind of think of it as the feeling you have after you've blasted into space and you’re floating around in zero gravity, like dancing in the stars on a Sunday afternoon.
- COLLABORATING -
Jenny: There are two ways we initiated the collaborations. Firstly, we started with writing and recording songs and providing stems of the various elements (vocals, guitar, electronics, saxophone, theremin, etc…). Our other approach was to receive instrumental tracks produced by artists in the community, and then we would develop the lyrical concepts, along with their accompanying melodies and additional instrumentation.
An example of the first type of collaboration is Steve Sauder’s Euphoria (Track 12). He took the concept of Euphoria to symphonic heights. Adding his orchestral score to the album created a larger than life context through which to experience the vibration - fully emotive and rich with texture. Steve is currently composing orchestral scores for a number of Dynasty Electric songs, preparing for a live performance with the band and an orchestra in Toronto next year.
TC Campbell, from Jamaica, sent us a “pop riddim” he created. From this, Floating Around the Sun was born - a anthemic song about the law of universal return. Give and you shall receive. One love.
- RECORDING VS OPEN SOURCE -
Seth: It would be the same set of songs, so there would be some similarity but it really would be a completely different sound. You can actually hear an example of how different it would be by listening to track six Euphoria, a collaboration with Nova Glam, and track fifteen, Euphoria, which is the original version of the song that we supplied to Indaba Music.
On crowdfunding and artist interpretation...
Jenny: Any time you have an opportunity to hear another artist’s interpretation of a song that you created, you grow enormously as a songwriter. The collaborative process allows you to more fully understand and explore a vibration.
Seth: Crowdfunding allows artists to finance the production of music without being tied to any record labels. It’s liberating in that sense and it’s a great way to interact with fans and spread awareness about the new album.
