We Are Temporary (
wearetemporary.com) takes the raw and grimey sound of UK hip hop artists Ruane Maurice (
facebook.com/ruanemaurice), and creates a hopeful, lush, and dream-like rework.
Quote from We Are Temporary:
"Being able to remix Ruane Maurice was a very special thing for me. Not only am I a huge fan of theirs (which is why I also signed them to my Stars & Letters label), but it was the first time in over 20 years of writing music that I got to work with a rap vocal. At first I was really intimidated by the idea, because I wasn’t sure my production aesthetic is a natural fit for hip hop, but as soon as I got started laying down tracks for the remix, I realized I felt totally free and liberated by a vocal that carries no melody.
Most of the time, especially in popular music, a vocal melody’s central status sets significant boundaries on what you can and cannot do—i.e. key of the song, song structure, arrangement, etc.—but working with a rap vocal was a creative dream. I felt free to develop the song almost as an instrumental, with Ru’s gorgeous vocal timbre just floating over the production.
It’s an odd thing to say for a musician, but I feel genuinely proud of the work I did on this remix—it’s a big departure from the original song, as well as from the music I ordinarily release, and I think there’s something really special and compelling about mixing our two distinct musical voices into a new song.
At the end of the day, the flow and pulse of the vocals and music just take me to a really good place. There’s something about the result which sounds hopeful to me, like the world isn’t just full of disaffection, irony, aggression, and cynicism. And more than anything, that’s the quality I wanted to also bring out in the video: I wanted to show joy—the joy of friendship and camaraderie, the joy of movement and expression, the joy of connecting with strangers and making the world an ever-so-slightly smaller and more intimate place for a few stops on a subway ride."
released July 24, 2015