Mixing it up

Lau.ra’s skills as a remixer have been acknowledged by the MPG this year, as she has been nominated for a prestigious gong. We asked her to detail her general remixing process, and how it feels to be nominated? “It was quite a nice surprise to get the MPG nomination,” Bettinson enthuses. “Ever since I’ve had that nomination I’ve been doing more and more. I’ve had eight remix projects since January this year. I always enjoy doing them, and it’s been good this year in the wake of the pandemic, being unable to tour. It’s a really nice way to connect with other artists across genres that I wouldn’t usually be in touch with. In terms of how I approach them, it’s not that different to how I approach writing a track from scratch to be honest. I will usually always isolate the vocal or lead instrument first, then start to pick the hooks and samples out of that. That’s usually the starting point. I’ll then map it out a little bit, next stage is programming a beat and a bass line.

“I’m really consciously trying to make the most banging tunes using as little musical information as possible,” she continues. “It’s something that actually I learned from a lot of those tech house producers. Someone I’ve recently ended up on a record with is Chris Lake, who’s an amazing producer. I would play a lot of his songs in my DJ sets because they’re just so ‘anti-music’ sometimes. There’s really not a lot of melody in them, but you play them in a DJ set and everyone just loses their mind for it. I wanted to make some stuff like it. But not throw the kitchen sink at it. Make sure that every instrument in the mix serves a purpose, and be really meaty.”