Mashing Up the Industry
White-hot bands Passion Pit and Chairlift recently co-released an interesting take on the ubiquitous indie rock remix, tackling each others recordings with their own band’s signature style. While the results are very cool, it also signaled a further embrace of a growing trend in the industry: musicians embracing recording technology and the role of the producer in the creative process.
While your typical indie rockers are still playing guitars and drum kits, it’s not unusual to see a few laptops on stage alongside them now. Every day the sophistication and variety of digital music tools makes it easier for artists to expand their sonic horizons, and makes free experimentation and professional results possible. Two bands can now afford to make great music together for nothing more than some great promotion and the love of music. Chairlift and Passion Pit released these tracks for free across the blog-o-sphere and major media outlets like Rolling Stone.
As bands continue to collaborate, pursue side projects and in more and more cases produce each others records, it appears that not only is the industry’s traditional business structure melting down, but the traditional band structure as well. And if the results sound this good, I’m all for it.
Download the tracks and see for yourself (right-click and save the link to download):
Chairlift – Bruises (Passion Pit Remix)
Passion Pit – To Kingdom Come (Chairlift Remix)
Tags: Chairlift, collaboration, indie rock, Passion Pit, remix