
Behind The ScenesThe Making of the Remix of “Touching The Eiffel Tower”Larry Ross of Starways Productions gave us a #1 Country hit last year with Gari Geiselman’s “Pocket Full of Stones.” He always wanted to release the title cut from her CD and with the help of a “song angel,” he did just that.
When producer Larry Ross first heard the song, he thought it would be perfect for young singer Gari Geiselman, but he wanted to give it more of a pop feel than the original. Drawing upon his early love of the Beatles, and later from working with the Electric Light Orchestra, he incorporated some of their sounds into the production. ‘It’s very organic. We did use one electronic keyboard and a sound effect. The rest is layered acoustic and electric guitars, real drums and bass, topped off with at least 20 tracks of Dennis Caplinger’s amazing string work,” explained Ross. “And then of course there’s Gari’s joyful performance”. When it was finished, he was so pleased with the result that he and Gari decided to title her first CD after it. But it was 5 minutes long, and there was no way any radio station would ever play it. So it sat largely unnoticed while “Pocket Full of Stones” got all the attention. “Pocket” brought people to her Myspace page, and then they began listening to the other songs on her CD. One of those listeners was an engineer named Andreas Leonhard, whose home studio is in Germany. He also loved the Beatles, and was heavily influenced by Bruce Swedien and Quincy Jones’ work with the Michael Jackson. Leonhard had worked in radio before becoming an engineer, and eventually realized that mixing music was his real passion. He also loved listening to new artists on the Internet. One evening, Leonhard happened to come across the Myspace page of Gari Geiselman. “I caught myself listening to Gari’s music again and again. I loved her voice, and I fell in love with her songs”. On a whim, Leonhard sent a message to her Myspace page offering to do remixes of two songs. One of the songs that fascinated him was “Touching the Eiffel Tower,” and he asked Ross, who also takes care of her online presence due to her very young age, if he could remix it. “I immediately said yes,” stated Ross. “There were a couple of things I wished I had done differently, plus I was curious as to how someone else would approach the song. There are over 65 recorded tracks, so I knew the result would at least be different. Andreas and I had one phone conversation, and the rest of the time we would correspond via email. Because of the time difference, I would wake up in the morning and find Andreas’ work from the evening in an attachment. I’d respond what I liked, and what I wanted him to go back and address. As the mix progressed, we both realized we were doing something good together, but the song was still too long. We decided we had to find a way to shorten it, without losing the meaning of the lyrics, which are very special to all of us. We eliminated an entire verse and chorus, changed a couple of her lines, and got it down to a perfect radio length, with the song’s message intact.” Ross continued, “Because of this collaboration, I now have a new friend on the other side of the world. I find that to be both ironic, and also very fitting. If there are song angels, I think they are smiling.” Radio seems to be smiling too as the remix is getting a lot of attention and is feature on IMN’s syndicated radio show. For more information go to www.starways.com.
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