Premiere
Track 9: Fly Remix
Produced by Perk Pietrek
In a month we celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday. There’ve been numerous activities in celebration. My crew at Lush have been working real hard on one and I’ve thought a lot about what it means to turn 50 without actually turning so myself – what it means to be Singaporean and how I portray that as one.
It’s a complicated question in the context of a cosmopolitan society, where different generations and races reflect on our history and present, trying to make sense of who we are collectively. There aren’t exactly too many Chinese-Indians making music, working in media, who started out in theatre but I’m not along in feeling equal parts conflicted and proud about growing up in Singapore. My approach to collective identity is anchored in tolerance and compassion for other people’s feelings. It allows you to empathize with someone even if you did not experience the context. We all just want to be understood after all.
Today the first single off the Vandetta EP Remixes premiered on New York based magazine, Blackbook (link below). It’s a lovely write-up and I reflect back on the first time I met Perk Pietrek.
In true fashion to our current times, I met Perk Pietrek online through social media. He dropped me a message on Facebook saying he loved the Vandetta EP and would I be cool to let him remix Fly. I wasn’t exactly too familiar with him but my instinct was to just say yes. He was the first producer to ask me and his remix of Fly was the first track I got while a remixes EP was still just an idea more than a year ago.
When I first heard his remix, I was completely blown away. Where the fuck did this guy come from? Super sick beats and how he reworked the vocals into a chanting chorus that bounces over bumping bass turns Fly into an anthem. There’s a slickness in his production and approach of both music and melody, which makes me see why he’s had nods from Mad Decent, and also gets me excited about the talent in Singapore’s electronic music scene.
