A new track which features heavy use of electronic percussion is rocketing up the charts with more than a million views in just two weeks.
The remake of the Beatles’ Something by producer Charlie Z (AKA DRMAGDN) with vocals by Michelle Ray from The Voice is topping Spotify playlists and getting heavy play on Soundcloud, Instagram and YouTube.
The drummer/DJ/producer tells digitalDrummer that the track was recorded into Ableton using an extensive gear array that includes a Roland SPD-SX LE.
“I have a host of plugins I used to create the entire track from the ground up myself on Ableton. No Beatles Samples were used on this since I had to change the key to fit Michelle Ray’s vocal range,” he explains.
“After tracking everything on MIDI and layering the many layers of live drums and electronic drums on my hybrid kit for the track, I overdubbed the Grammy Winning Strings & Horns on the song.
“Then I finished by layering the live guitar/bass tracks and had the 7″ vinyl mastered by Andy Vandette, the engineer who mastered U2, Aerosmith, David Bowie and more,” he says, adding that he mixed and mastered all versions other than the vinyl and also directed and produced all the videos.
DRMAGDN has been featured in American Songwriter Magazine, NFL Channel on Sirius/XM Radio and has been seen in The New York Times. He has toured 31 countries, 43 US states and has played at The Winter Olympics, Lollapalooza, Warped Tour, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Metlife Stadium, Bamboozle Fest, MTV’s TRL, The View, The Today Show and Royal Albert Hall.
Catch the new single on Spotify or Soundcloud.