Okay folks, I’m listening to an amazing new CD, “Indaba Remixes From Wonderland.†This is a clever remix of Marcy Playground’s songs from their 2009 release, “Leaving Wonderland…In A Fit of Rage.â€
It all started when Frontman John Wozniak met Dan Zaccagnino, Indaba Music co-founder, back in 2009 at a party, and they got to discussing a social network on the Internet for musicians where they could make music together through online collaboration. Indaba had just completed a project with hip-hop artist k-os and Wozniak liked the idea and wanted to do something similar.
“I wanted to make this record to show people what the online music community is capable of…musicians feed on inspiration they get from other musicians. Music is not meant to be a solitary endea
vor…but maybe you live in a remote part of the world, or have problems with mobility because you’re physically disabled, or have severe social anxiety, or simply can’t find other musicians in your locale who share your musical interests. Indaba side-steps these limitations, giving musicians all over the world a way to get together and create anyway, which is revolutionary,†explains Wozniak.
It’s the first time an entire album has been produced exclusively using crowd sourced remixes from IndabaMusic.com’s worldwide community.
Wozniak wanted to be more involved with the project and so the mixes were judged by the band (which includes Dylan Keefe on bass and Shlomi Lavie on drums), with the prize being the opportunity to have the winning entries included on the album; the winners also receive royalties from album sales. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
“We received a lot of submissions. We expected to see between 50 and 100 submissions. But we underestimated. By the end, members of the community had submitted over 330 individual remixes. We were overwhelmed by the response and also impressed by the multitude of musical directions and interpretations. It took a lot of time to judge the winners because every single submission deserved consideration, and multiple listens. I kept notebooks filled with observations in order to keep track of what I liked and what I didn’t. Eventually I whittled those 330 down to about 60, and then took that list to the band. The guys helped trim those 60 down to 30. But then we had to get those 30 down to 13, and that was painful. Those 30 finalists were all outstanding. At the end of the day, everybody put so much love into their remixes, I’m just thankful to have had the opportunity to experience them all.â€
While all the remixes are exceptional, worth special mention are “Blackbird†remixed by Max Kourilov for Colors Entertainment, the Ben Crea remix of “Gin and Money,†which Wozniak tells me has been a single on the dance charts in Canada, and “Emperor†the Chinese Emperor Remix by Mariko L.K. Langan. And not that you need to, but the enjoyability factor will quadruple if you listen to the original CD juxtaposed against a listen of the remix release.
The current live shows are a blend of all the years of Marcy Playground releases and sure to satisfy both old and new fans. Check ‘em out, this Tuesday night, February 1 at the world famous Whisky a Go-Go.
www.marcyplayground.com
