Michael Gaiman
The Duke of New York tells us about his Graceland remixes
> A classic album like Paul Simon’s Graceland needs to be treated with care by a seasoned expert. Enter Michael Gaiman, aka the Duke of New York… “Depending on who you speak to, it’s all my fault,” laughs Gaiman. “About three years ago, Native Instruments announced their Stems creator tool and the release of stem sets for DJ use. I got really excited, and I set up meetings with all the major labels. Every label guy I went to looked at me like I was from Venus. ‘No idea what you’re talking about.’
“One of my oldest friends, Jeff Kramer, said that Paul [Simon] would get a rise out of this. He calls Paul up, right there at breakfast, and Paul says, ‘I love it’.”
How long was it after the project was greenlit that it came to fruition? “The final deal was made in August 2016. The whole rest of the year I spent travelling, taking meetings and thinking, ‘Who’s going to be perfect for this?’. I met with some big guys in Amsterdam, and they wanted to pitch all the big names, but I decided against it. It’s not as important that it be the biggest name in electronic music, but the people who are sympatico. We needed a more ethnic vibe, more esoteric. A good remix has the DNA and the elements of the original, to a greater or lesser extent.”
How did it start to come together? “Then came the time to find the original multitracks, and that was the real adventure. You would think for a famous record that they know where all the elements are forever.
“As the mixes came in, everyone had their own stamp on it. Photek was a little bit dubstep, Joyce Muniz found Mother Africa deep inside Gumboots, and Rich Pinder and Djoko hit it out of the park.”