Week 12: "Simon Says" w/ itsDB & AlmdMilk

This track came about when Daksh Bhatia (itsDB) and I finally hung out in NYC and strapped down to make a track together! We both started working using a loop that I had created in a sound design session…

…and we both started messing with it to see what weird sounds we could make. This is the kind of thing we got.

We spent the afternoon sending files back and forth and messing with what each other had created but at the end of the day, itsDB had a more solid vision of the song heading out of the session. He sent me stems after and tbh they sat on my hard drive for a few months… UNTIL I got a message from DB saying that he had sent Mark the stems just to see what he could do, and Mark (almdMilk) had layed down some drums, guitar, and vocals!

I was blown away by what Mark had created and after I received the stems I basically focused on mixing what was already there, adding breaks/cuts/sound fx, and (my favorite) adding STRINGS! After this round, I sent the stems off to DB who did the final mix/polish and we all decided that we wanted this song mastered by mine and Daksh’s mastering mentor, Alan Silverman, since not only does he have an absolutely magic touch, but I am usually Daksh’s mastering engineer, and he is usually mine XD.

Through 4 revisions and one new mix sent to Alan, we had a final product and “Simon Says” was solidified as a “chill tf out” banger for the rest of time… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Check out the final version of “Simon Says” here!

Connor Riley