View From Inside - Neil Tennant on Remix Culture Interview
Posted: Tue 16 Oct 2007, 7:53 pm
Taken from Friday's October 12th edition of "Metro" newspaper...
View From Inside
Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant On Remix Culture
"When Chris Lowe and I started songwriting as the Pet Shop Boys, around the start of 1981, remix culture was just starting - there was an explosion of hip hop and hi-NRG music. One of the first projects I was fascinated by was the remix of The Human League's album "Dare".
Also inspiring was Patrick Cowley's 16 minute remix of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", which builds to an orgasmic climax. I liked the way that a very slight song could become a monolothic electro remix.
We were always fascinated to see what people would do with Pet Shop Boys tracks. It seemed a shame that remixes were ephemeral: we wanted them to be in our catalogue - which inspired our 1986 remix album, "Disco".
It was an incredible seller, to everyone's suprise. In fact, our best-selling album internationally was "Introspective", which applied remixing to pop production.
The first remix we did for another act was Blur's "Girls And Boys"; a 1994 song about package holidays which we turned into a sleeker Euro record, although I think it's more dated now. It's not on "Disco 4", which this time consists of Pet Shop Boys remixes of other artists; we've generally worked with rock bands like The Killers and Rammstein.
We've turned some of the tracks into duets, including Madonna's "Sorry", which was a great dance record to begin with. She liked our mix enough to include it into her live show.
The club scene is fantastically snobbish; pop music often has a lot more going for it. One song I'd love the Pet Shop Boys to remix is "Golden Skans" by Klaxons - every so often you get a song that defines an era - and I think that's it.
View From Inside
Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant On Remix Culture
"When Chris Lowe and I started songwriting as the Pet Shop Boys, around the start of 1981, remix culture was just starting - there was an explosion of hip hop and hi-NRG music. One of the first projects I was fascinated by was the remix of The Human League's album "Dare".
Also inspiring was Patrick Cowley's 16 minute remix of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", which builds to an orgasmic climax. I liked the way that a very slight song could become a monolothic electro remix.
We were always fascinated to see what people would do with Pet Shop Boys tracks. It seemed a shame that remixes were ephemeral: we wanted them to be in our catalogue - which inspired our 1986 remix album, "Disco".
It was an incredible seller, to everyone's suprise. In fact, our best-selling album internationally was "Introspective", which applied remixing to pop production.
The first remix we did for another act was Blur's "Girls And Boys"; a 1994 song about package holidays which we turned into a sleeker Euro record, although I think it's more dated now. It's not on "Disco 4", which this time consists of Pet Shop Boys remixes of other artists; we've generally worked with rock bands like The Killers and Rammstein.
We've turned some of the tracks into duets, including Madonna's "Sorry", which was a great dance record to begin with. She liked our mix enough to include it into her live show.
The club scene is fantastically snobbish; pop music often has a lot more going for it. One song I'd love the Pet Shop Boys to remix is "Golden Skans" by Klaxons - every so often you get a song that defines an era - and I think that's it.
!
