Penguin Prison – Fair Warning (Club Clique ‘Actualité’ Remix)

Here’s one from around June 2011.

Really interesting working process on this one. The Clique guys came to me with the stems for the original track, but had quite specific plans for it. They didn’t want to use any of the the original music, and they had already worked out some edits to the vocal to subtly alter the lyrical thrust of the song. The idea was to de-emphasise the break-up regret aspects of the song, and bring out it’s more ‘I Will Survive’ qualities.

Before we even put down a note, we spent a couple of sessions playing different records and discussing how to create (in their words) “Paradise Garage break-up anthems”.

Key tracks we listened to were Girlfriend by Pebbles, Teardrops by Womack and Womack and I distinctly recall a fairly extensive adventure in the forbidden zone of the Hall and Oates back catalogue. So a very 80s kind of sound, but we also knew we wanted a more modern, very focussed low end on it.

Very pleased with the end result. I also play a ludicrous guitar solo on this one.

Technical notes:

  • Recorded and mixed in Sonar X1 Producer.
  • Guitars recorded through a Pod XT live
  • Rhythm guitars are a Strat, lead is a Variax 700 modelling a Les Paul
  • Bass sound is from the Rapture synth.
  • Most other synths are Dimenson Pro