A7PHA - Many Headed (Controller 7 Remix)
Back in July of 2023, Dose emailed me the files for the Many Headed session. On January 29th, I did my last mix down. The process from start to finish involved a lot of starts and stops, thinking, tinkering, and plotting. I’ve probably run this song back hundreds of times at this point. I have about 60 different Pro Tools sessions, eventually getting up to over 50 tracks in the session. I eventually had to bounce it down to consolidated stems so that I could mix it because my computer wasn’t happy. That’s not to say that it’s insanely full of layered content, but those 50 tracks were made up of various little bits, change-ups, and some abandoned ideas.
I don’t think I’ve ever spent as much time on one particular song before. I’m not too sure many people would put that amount of time into a remix, but the lineup was impressive and I didn’t want to pass up a cool opportunity. I’d never worked with Self Jupiter or Aesop Rock before. It’s a remix, so I didn’t work directly with them, but it’s still an honor to be part of something official with such a talented group of emcees.
Mestizo, Buck 65, Self Jupiter, Aesop Rock and Doseone all on one track. That’s pretty crazy.
It took me quite a while to sort out the Pro Tools session and make sense of the files. The vocals were for the “Many Headed (Deluxe)” version that included Why? Originally, I intended to leave him in there, at least for one section. As I kept working on it and things fell in place, it made a bit more sense to just keep the momentum going with just rapping. It took me a few months to get everything lined up and to have a sense of what I was doing for each person. Originally, Dose’s section was different and the song ended with a different feel.
Around December, I started to feel good about where the remix was headed. It was still rough, but I had the bones in place. Now that I could see the finish line, I started getting crazy ideas. I felt that the new music was a pretty dramatic change and I’m sure people would have enjoyed it, but I wanted to add something to make it truly unique. It seemed crazy since the song was already long, but I got the idea to add in a new verse.
I bounced a few ideas around in my head and then I felt like there was a perfect opportunity at hand. I had finished the ShrapKnel album back in May ‘23 and we were just doing the behind the scenes stuff to prep the album. I asked Curly Castro and PremRock if they’d want to jump on the remix. I pitched the idea of doing a tag team style, like they did on billy woods and Kenny Segal’s “Babylon By Bus.”
Castro and Prem are really talented artists and have been a pleasure to work with. We made a great album and I knew that they’d nail this assignment. I made them their own little section and sent them just that little clip. Over the 5-6 months that I’d been picking away at the remix, I never let a single person hear any of it. Prem and Castro got the first taste, with just the tail end of Aesop’s verse and a line or two of Dose’s section.
In the end, I was able to make a special track with some old friends (Mestizo, Buck, and Dose), work with some legends for the first time (Self Jupiter and Aesop Rock), and bring in some new friends (Curly Castro and PremRock). I think this is the perfect intro to me and ShrapKnel. Our album is some of the best stuff I’ve ever worked on.
On December 30th, I sent a rough version to Zack from Handsmade. I had reached the point that I was losing my mind, unable to hear it objectively anymore. I hadn’t let anyone hear it yet, so I wasn’t even sure if I’d just wasted a few months of my life. I liked it, but you can fall in love with almost any demo if you listen to it enough times.
Zack loved it. Almost like a light switch, I went from feeling like I had so much left to do to feeling a big sigh of relief and being ready to set it free. I sent it to Dose shortly after. Further confirmation that it was done. Dose eventually helped me mix the ShrapKnel vocals with the same setting as the original vocals so they’d sit right.
Zack pitched the idea of doing a 10 inch. I stewed over ideas for art for awhile, never landing on anything that seemed right. Then it popped in my head that the song was called “Many Headed” and one of my favorite artists would be perfect for this. I’ve been a fan of Ian Johnson for a long time. I bought some art off of him a long time ago and we ended up becoming friends over the years. He also makes great music with Deep Search Collective. He’s got some great paintings up in his shop right now.
He nailed the assignment. I’m really proud of this project. It’s an honor to get to work with these vocals, an honor to bring in my friends ShrapKnel, and also an honor to have Ian draw all of us (including me on the back cover).
To be honest, humble me feels like I’ve made quite a fuss about a remix. I mean, it’s a remix. It’s not even the original (shoutout to Meaty Ogre), but I’m proud of this record. It feels a lot like when I remixed the Deep Puddle Dynamics song “Rain Men” in 1999. That was a huge opportunity for me at the time, getting to remix a song with Slug, Sole, Alias, and Doseone on it. I had a very modest setup and a very modest set of skills at the time, but I tried to push it into something new. 25 years later, people still comment about it.
This remix has reminded me a lot of that remix. Both songs have a beat that changes with the verses. Both end with Dose. This “Many Headed” remix feels like the full execution of what I was trying to do back in 1999. I think I made it my own. I hope people enjoy it. I think the instrumental stands strong on its own too.
At the beginning of my “Rain Men” remix, I cut in a sample of Rakim saying “I take 7 emcees, put em in a line.” 25 years later and that feels like a prediction.
Mesitzo, Buck 65, Self Jupiter, Aesop Rock, PremRock, Curly Castro, Doseone
7 emcees.
I hope you enjoy it. Vinyl is available at Handsmade where you can also pick up some other great releases, including the original Many Headed EP.
Digital is available on Doseone’s Bandcamp page and all other streaming platforms.
Everything about this rules
Really enjoyed this post, and really enjoyed the remix too. Great work!