23rd Jul 2009
La Roux are certainly a band on the up, having just today been nominated for this year's Mercury Music Prize, so it was a pleasure to be able to remix their latest single, Bulletproof. The original tune is a chirpy little 1980s-style pop song, and so I decided to do my best Duran Duran impression for the remix, adding a few guitars and a vaguely Andy Taylor-esque riff. One of the main features of those old Duran Duran records is how amazing and inventive John Taylor's bass parts were. I can't match his skills, but I think my bass line for this remix eventually turned out okay.
My remix has a touch of the Rio Grande about the verses, but then becomes a lot more rock once the chorus kicks in. This part kind of reminds me of Republica - which wasn't intentional, it just turned out that way. Maybe not the most fashionable of bands, but I quite liked them at the time. Plus, I think they still play Ready To Go at half the football grounds in the country. The chorus on this one has the same kind of vibe, I think – and having a song played on the Sky Sports outro is a secret ambition of mine!
If you want to compare mine to the original version of Bulletproof, that can be found here on La Roux's eponymous debut album.
Thanks for listening!
Bulletproof (James Merrifield remix)
[ download mp3 ]
