That Sweet Stuff: Paul McCartney Remixed

Timo Maas and James Teej on the Beatles icon...

Almost everyone on the planet has a favourite Paul McCartney moment.

Whether it's his work with The Beatles, the commercial triumph of Wings, his lengthy solo career, or his many side projects, Paul McCartney's work simply an unavoidable and much-cherished part of pop's landscape.

It's intriguing, then, when something comes along to challenge this. On Record Store Day this year, a limited edition seven inch single emerged, which found Wings' apocalyptic cut '1985' spun into a completely different direction.

Now given a general release, the material was a remix helmed by Timo Maas and James Teej. Both legends in their field, the producers actually harbour a prologned appreciation for McCartney's work, dating back to their childhood.

Here they explain a little more.

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Timo: I was born in 1969 and I love a very wide range of music. I grew up with the music of Paul McCartney and the Beatles as the music was and is until today very present, distinctive and unique…yeah, and popular of course, too.

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Growing up, I was first exposed to Paul's work through all of the incredible music from the Beatles. Simply just amazing music throughout their entire catalogue, on so many different and interesting levels. They were pioneers in introducing creative production techniques throughout their music, and the songs were always as sophisticated as they were catchy. The epitome of popular cultture in my opinion.

Personally, Sgt. Pepper was always my favorite album, as I have always loved the whole idea of concept albums, and this is spot on one of the best ever crafted. And on it, by far my favorite song was always 'With A Little Help From My Friends'. What else can you say? The Beatles fucking rocked.

Timo: Only in the past six to seven years have I been able to really learn more about their songs and dive deeper into the songwriting and arrangements to gain such a deep appreciation of the genius of albums like 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' and Paul's solo work.

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James: As I grew older, and my tastes evolved, and I dug further into the music, McCartney's solo work came onto my radar. 'Too Many People', which was released on McCartney's 'Ram' album, is my favourite cut from the LP (and also, if I remember correctly, the album's opener). The song really for me has some amazing melodic elements, and really represents that tougher and eclectic sound from the early 70s that really inspired me a lot throughout my music career.

At points it almost reminded me of a Stones tune, but its interesting structure and quirky other worldly elements just really grabbed me, and by far, is the stand out track of the album. You could hear McCartney really pushing on and evolving from the Beatles, but still totally capturing that exciting classic sound of the time. Good old, straight up, rock and roll.

Timo: The 'Band On The Run' album is a masterpiece of its own… Sir Paul`s most successful solo album, also. I think, and quite frankly, I am also in a continuous learning process… that this fact possible approached me of being interested in giving such a masterpiece song like '1985' a new shape and interpretation.

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James: Of course, I feel, like many other people will say, that Paul's album 'Band On The Run' is truly his finest solo work. Diverse, progressive sounding for the time, catchy, and expertly put together. It is quite frankly for me a masterpiece. And the title track (again) for me was always one of my favorites of the album (I suppose I do have things for album openers in general), as I always loved the duality that the track opened the album with. The first couple minutes are still to me some of the most iconic melodies in contemporary music.

It is still totally unbelievable that we have had an opportunity to work on the album's closing track, and I suppose it will take a while to fully digest that reality.

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Timo: When I heard '1985' for the first time (that was, when my friend and agent David Levy played it to me seven years ago…) I was immediately hooked on that, and with all my experience of working in writing and re-interpretating music I felt like this needs an update, in a best case scenario the combination of the the original 70s vibes with a tasteful modern touch and emphasis on Paul's amazing and very intense vocals on this song.

Luckily my partnership music and friendship wise with producer wizard James Teej worked out with the right vibes and moments to proceed it the way we both felt is right, tasteful and brings out the best of both worlds.

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James: And finally, I could not revisit some of my stand out McCartney tracks without mentioning 'Live And Let Die'. One of my favorite Bond films, and this track, albeit another massive hit, is just fantastic. I loved the meshing of orchestral composition with Paul's amazing voice, the incredibly creative transitions, and overall the melodies are quite simply, inspiring.

I remember listening to this over and over on a VHS copy of the movie… and still remember being so excited to hearing this during Bond marathons on television (for you guys out there that pre-date the Netflix on-demand world… you know what I'm talking about).

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In the end there are just too many incredible songs from Paul's long history of writing music to list off, but this is just a bit of a glimpse into the tracks that I still listen to today and feel massively inspired by. It is truly amazing to see the sheer amount of music Paul has been a part of… and I have to say I feel blessed to have, in some small way, had the opportunity to intersect artistically with one of music's undisputed legends.

To say this all has been a dream come true, though cliché, can't even begin to describe the feelings, and I don't think I can ever listen to Sir Paul's work again without feeling that much closer to it.

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Pick up the track online HERE.

Paul McCartney's new compilation 'Pure McCartney' will be released on June 10th.

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