Braxton keeps up his run of remarkable releases with his brilliant remix of Matt Fax feat. RBBTS ‘Set Your Sails’ on Colorize, out now. The label invited him to choose any track from Fax’ album ‘Progressions’ to rework, a vote of confidence fully justified by the result.
The Brighton-based producer is a by-word for quality and thoughtful composition, finding favour as a regular with imprints including Anjunadeep and Colorize. He has put lockdown to best possible use already, with his recent double A side ‘Torn/Chiaroscuro’ (Anjunadeep) gaining attention from Phil Taggart, Jaguar’s BBC Introducing Dance Show, and more.
His entrancing rework of the driving dance-led cut from French DJ/producer Matt Fax adds dreamy synth chords and a breakbeat element, giving full rein to the haunting, sumptuous vocals of European duo Anne Kalstrup and Hendrik Burkhard aka RBBTS.
‘Set Your Sails’ (Braxton Remix) is Out Now. Get it here: https://colorize.ffm.to/0227r1
Hey Braxton, thanks for speaking with us! Congrats on your new release, the absolutely stellar remix of Matt Fax ‘Set Your Sails’. Can you tell us how this remix came about?
Thank you for having me! Well Colorize got in touch with Matt’s new album and let me choose a track to remix, there were a couple on there I liked but this one really stood out.
Have you got much of a relationship with Matt Fax too, or is it more the label? How did you pick this song as the one you wanted to remix, what swayed you?
I think it was the vocals mainly, I prefer to remix tracks with vocals because it gives me more flexibility to bring something different to the track. I had a go at remixing another track but I struggled to do something meaningful with it, then this one came along and I could really get stuck in.
A lot of the tracks you’ve released have these really special vocals. Is this something you look for in a track you want to remix, is it one of the key components that grabs you?
Yeah absolutely, a lot of the music I make has a kinda anthemic quality, sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it’s really in your face. I like my tracks to sit somewhere between the club and headphones, and vocals really help me to get that balance across.
And when it comes to making an original track, what is it that you tackle first? Do you pick or write a vocal, then create the track around it, or the opposite?
It’s usually the opposite, but there’s never a right or wrong way really, the most important thing I’ve found is to let the track develop as naturally as possible. Sometimes vocals it will happen early on in the writing process, and it’ll involve humming along some sort of topline idea before getting the vocals down properly. Other times I’ve gotten to the ‘end’ of the process with a track before deciding I want vocals on it. I try and keep all options open at every stage as it allows much more freedom to experiment during the writing process.
What can we expect from you in the rest of 2020? You’re an Anjunadeep favourite, will we be seeing your name on the label again this year?
I very much hope so, it’s a label I’ve admired for such a long time now and to be working with them is still a little bit mind-blowing 🙂
And on a more personal note to finish – what has this time in lockdown taught you?
I learned that people deal with complex situations in completely different ways and we all need to show a lot more empathy in order to better understand each other.
Thanks for your time!
No, no……Thank YOU! x
