Mashups
As both a musician and producer, the Mashup is a wonderful juxtaposition of the two roles. It is like musical collage, the creation of new music from cut up bits and scraps of the music that inspires - the proto-song.
Leland made his first Mashup in 2012, shortly following his 40th Birthday. It was during a 10-day birthday excursion in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, that Leland was introduced to the work of Wax Audio, and discovered a new appreciation for the genre, and inspiration to try his own hand at the artform. The tracks on this page are the results of that inspiration.
Please enjoy them. They are free to all who want them.
Sweet Southern Werewolves
"Sweet Southern Werewolves" is comprised of:
- "Sweet Home Alabama" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
- "Werewolves of London" - Warren Zevon
- "Home Sweet Home" - Motley Crue
My very first mash-up!
Driving home from a gig one night, "Sweet Home Alabama" came on the radio, and during one of the instrumental sections, I found myself singing "Werewolves of London" on top of it. I've been a fan of the mash-up work of Wax Audio, and had wanted to try my own hand at mashing-up some songs. I've had plenty of experience with digital recording software, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give it a try.
Sweet Southern Werewolves
Download Sweet Southern Werewolves MP3
Another Rapture Under Foot
"Another Rapture Under Foot" is comprised of:
- "Trampled Under Foot" - Led Zeppelin
- "Rapture" - Blondie
- "Another Brick in the Wall" - Pink Floyd
- "Jungle Boogie" - Kool & the Gang
... with some additional inspiration from Dread Zeppelin's version of "Jungle Boogie."
My second mash-up...
and this one is a lot more mashed-up, so to speak.
Like my first mash-up ("Sweet Southern Werewolves"), this one came to me because I was hearing one song, and started to hear the other one on top of it, in my head.
This time, I was in a restaurant and heard Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Under Foot" coming through the small speakers above me. I wasn't listening very closely, and in the noisy restaurant, I couldn't actually tell what song I was hearing, I was simply getting a hint at the chord progression, hearing mostly bass. So I started to 'hear' in my head the words to Blondie's "Rapture," and it fit perfectly.
Once I started to listen closer to the music coming from above, I realized that it was a completely different song than I'd thought I was hearing, and the inspiration for the mash-up was born. I added parts of "Jungle Boogie" because I'd heard an amazing version of it done by the band Dread Zeppelin, who incorporated the riffs from "Trampled Under Foot," so I knew it would work. And since most of these songs' main chord progressions aren't really progressions at all, but a single minor chord, I knew that "Another Brick in the Wall" would probably fit in there somehow as well.
Another Rapture Under Foot
Download Another Rapture Under Foot MP3
Full credit to the original artists - please buy their original releases! Without their wonderful music, I wouldn't have the fodder with which to create these.
[Please forgive the crude slideshow-style video. It was better than a single still image, and I didn't want to spend a week perfecting a 'real' video just to get the mash-up posted.]
