Today I’m presenting you to the first song taken from the collaboration EP With which was released last Friday. This tune is made by me and the Australian composer and musical magician Richard Labrooy!
I remember how this song started out clearly. I was sitting by the piano in a house in Falsterbo, Sweden and playing some nice chords. One of my sons improvised a melody and sang to it, and that’s how I found out how musically talented my oldest son is! Of course I didn’t remember or use any of what my son sang, but I recorded the chords and sent them to Australia. After a couple of weeks I got this track back by Richard and I was ecstatic to hear what he had made out out these chord and short melodies!
So Richard, tell us something about the track from your point of view!
Well, I can definitely say that the collaboration with Johan was very much overdue. Having known each other for a while now, and being a huge fan of what Johan was doing for the industry, I jumped at the opportunity to collaborate on a track.
I’m usually a little cautious when approaching a new collaborator, but Johan and I were very much on the same page. Basically, he sent me a couple of short ideas and snippets that he had been working on, and I knew exactly where I wanted to take it. I’m a very melodic writer, and I think what he started out with, very much complimented those tendencies.
I already had an idea for a string arrangement that I had been sitting on for a while, and I experimented with fusing it in with Johan’s ideas. It blended perfectly. Once I had the harmonic base I was looking for, I then played around with a little sound design. But the piece didn’t need too much. I like how simple it is, and it really didn’t take long to complete. Although that never stops me from overthinking it…
I very much enjoyed the process of playing with fragments of ideas and seeing how they play off each other, and fuse together. It’s very much like sampling. I think that’s one of the directions music is going, whether it’s hip hop, or neoclassical. There’s a real process in it. And I think that’s one of the best reasons for collaborations like this.
Here’s some links to all of Richards pages. Check them out!
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