RAC ON THE ATTACK
Grammy winner spins first album
When RAC picked up the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Remix Recording for his thumping version of Bob Moses’ Tearing Me Up, it reinforced to the in-demand producer/musician/songwriter that he was pursuing the right path. RAC (Remix Artist Collective) began in 2007 in Greenville College in Greenville, Ill. Founded and co-ordinated by then senior music business program student Andre Allen Anjos, 32, RAC has operated as an umbrella for numerous different configurations over its decadelong run. It has encompassed a multi-member production team, Anjos on his own, and the live five-piece touring act presently performing at clubs.
This unit is heard on Ego, the Counter Records release that dropped July 14, a star-studded affair featuring guest spots from such household names as Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo (I Still Wanna Know) and former Vampire Weekend-er Rostam Batmanglij (This Song) to upand-comers K Flay (Heartbreak Summer) and MNDR (Unusual). The 14 tracks range from upbeat pop to downtempo grooves, with all having some of the characteristics that made RAC so in demand since his mix on The Shins’ Sleeping Lessons.
RAC’s 200-plus remix tracks include work for U2, Lady Gaga, Linkin Park, Lana del Ray and Odesza, whose Say My Name was nominated for a 2016 Grammy but lost out to Dave Aude’s slamming remix of the Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars hit Uptown Funk. The 2017 win made up for that loss, but Anjos says the really important thing is the depth of talent in the category. The nominees for both years proved the judges were taking the award and the idea of remixing as a far more serious art form than they had in the past.
His craft is best described as “old/new.” He is a lifelong gearhead who has married passion for laptop tech with vintage sounds such as the 1973 Univox MiniKorg and 1982 Roland Juno-60 synths that appear on many RAC mixes. He is also never opposed to throwing in such eclectic sounds as a homemade theremin or repurposed toy instrument alongside live playing.
He described his approach as trying to find something else inside the song than what you might hear in the original.
“When I think about songs from different bands, from pop to country, there is always an essence or a core that you can sit down and play on a guitar or a keyboard,” he said. “If you can do that, then you can work it from there into something else not with the intent to change it for change’s sake, but more in a way to respect the original intent but expose something additional in it. I’m really not the guy you go to if you are after some epic banger, because that just isn’t what I do.”
To better grasp what he does, an essential listening guide to RAC remixes includes the following: The Shins: Sleeping Lessons: The first cut is the deepest? Not really, but this still stands out. Working backwards on this textbook-perfect remix, RAC subdues the guitar and drops in some nifty buzzes and clips that are like aliens landing in the grooves. What isn’t that groovy a song becomes sublimely so, making you tap your foot along.
Bloc Party: Hunting for Witches: By placing the plaintive, angry vocal further up and building a bunch of smashing, flighty noise underneath it, RAC gives this potent tune more oomph. Some spectacular reverb ideas. Depeche Mode: Enjoy the Silence: Who says he doesn’t drop bangers? He turns this heavy, mood-filled tune from the OE’s (original electropoppers) into an upbeat dance number complete with disco-ized horn break and double-time kick drums. Love the wah-wah alongside the descending bell tones.
Theophilus London ft. Sara Quinn: Why Even Try: Proof he can move outside the indie rock designation with aplomb, this version with Sara Quinn’s guest vocals sounds like it could be included in an animated montage from something like a My Little Pony movie. Delightfully upbeat and cheery owing to the vintage keyboard riff and rising chorus. Ellie Goulding: Lights: OK, this song has been remixed so many times it could have its own double album. So how does RAC bring something new to it? By heading in the reverse direction of the Depeche Mode mix. This one gets slowed down and adopts a less urgent and more bouncy midtempo groove that totally works.
Listening to RAC remixes of artists from Tegan and Sara (Hard to Hold) or 2014’s pulsing Let Go featuring Kele and MNDR, one thing that becomes clear is Anjos has the kind of intuition that can only come from a songwriting background. It’s this experience that enabled him to come at the material on Ego differently. The brand he built has been heavily focused upon singles and an active web presence. Now he enters the world of hard vinyl and live performance.
“Ego is my first foray into that and it meant I really needed to figure out the who, why and what I am as an artist and what I care about,” he said. “The remixing is mostly in service of the original track and I’m not imposing my own thing, but I am eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to try different things and get a sense of them before laying this album down. At first, I was really planning on more of a dance album to be more of a compliment to my DJ career, but when I sat down to write it, that didn’t come out at all.”
What came out was pop music that tends toward pretty pristine indie rock with a tinge of electronica. He says it draws heavily from music that influenced him as a kid.
“A lot of Ego pulls from early influences, pairing indie rock vocalists with some more modern sounds,” he said.
It can be challenging adapting music with “700 overdubbed guitar parts” into music a quintet can dig into. But Anjos says it has been a complete blast putting it together.
“I’ve surrounded myself with really excellent musicians who can play anything, but they really like to get out there with the lights and so on and put on a show.”
RAC has 21 concerts on its 2017-18 tour in support of Ego. After that, Anjos may produce that dance-oriented album. But chances are he’ll be deep into remixing other artists’ work as well.