Valholla

Italian Jazz band, The Tainted has released the Valholla Remix of “DEHOY”. The remix also serves as a collaboration with the rotating collective Vince & The Valholla Empire and is produced by Ruben Raymond (of The Track Burnaz) and Vince Valholla.

After completing the song, Vince and Ruben discussed the making of what would be the pair’s first Jazz-produced release. The conversation has been edited for length.

Vince: So with the remix, I think initially, the reason why I wanted to work with you on it was I knew because of your expertise in composition of, [you know stuff] that has to do with the piano. That’s why I wanted to work with you directly on this because I knew you would bring something that somebody else wouldn’t be able to. So that’s why I’m happy that you were down to work with me on this.

So tell me, after we spoke and then, when we got the stems that I got everything… I wanted you to lead because I knew that you would have a way to kind of, bring the translation of what we wanted to do. Tell me what was your initial thought when you were going into it.

Ruben: Sure self first you know, I listened to the record first and wow man that’s such a good arrangement. (Vince: Oh, I agree). Very good arrangement. The piano player killed it and played in all the right spots you know, and let me just say this real quick, if you just allow me to musician geek out a little bit, you know in a rhythm section, you know you have like the bays, the piano, the drums, and you have like auxiliary, percussion like you know, Kongos she like that piano’s job is to fill in the spaces to kind of glue that entire section together. It’s called a piano comping. It’s kind of complementing, now the piano player, comped in all the right places. Really, just glued that entire rhythm section together into one cohesive piece. I loved it, that’s what really gave me kind of like the ear to hear such a thing… like a 6/8 timing, not normal a4/4. It gave me the idea to do, like OK let’s do let’s do a Latin jazz version reminiscent of Tito Puente or Mongo Santamaria, right… And I don’t know if you’re familiar with Tito Puente, but he’s a drummer who didn’t even really want to play drums like that, but he was put in school to learn how to play drums and he was trying to do like a duo with her sister like a dancer/singing duo. Anyway, that’s really what he wanted to do but, ended up, taking off as a percussionist, and an arranger, and he ended up doing very famous songs like “Oye como va,” like he has a lot of records that are just staples in like 1950s like jazz. So I’m a fan. And so I thought like, you know what if I brought that here to this song they had all the all the great elements, and they did such a wonderful job, so it was kind of all laid out there already. I just moved a couple of things here and there like if you listen to the beginning of the record. In the original, the drum was kind of riding – a little bit at the symbol and it’s just him and the bass player, so how do we make that mango? How do we make that Tito? So I put like these conga heavy rhythmic lines in the beginning and that’s what kind gives it that feel to it like it is 1954 Latin Jazz you know with the with a big auxiliary percussion team behind it, and I was so from there, I just thought about like all the elements in some of the some my favorite songs from that era. Upright bass guitar, piano, drums, vibraphone, Kongo like I said, and we got the timbales, the claves, the shakers and I even put like some layered horn line sprinkled around and in different sections of the verses but that was really like the basis of everything like how can I make this like a mango, you know Cuban, Puerto Rican, Latin 1950s jazz version of this wonderful creation they made.

Vince: And you nailed it, when I say you nailed it, you nailed it, and I remember when you, got we got the first version back [of our] mix I remember me thinking like man, it’s almost like you went in a direction that I didn’t expect but it was a of breath of fresh air. That’s why I wanted you to lead with this one because, it’s something different when someone’s classically trained to compose music. Like it’s something different from having a Producer lead on that verses a producer that, I can hum to you, I could you know, but this was different for me, so I’m happy that you took it the direction that you did.

Ruben: It was a lot of fun because the two worlds kind of collided. The music production side and the deep musician side of it. Even in like the beginning, you hear, “OK OK OK” like that’s not a clip from anywhere that’s me. I just did it on the mic and I was like, “alright, let me put a bunch of effects on it to give it that vibe.

Vince: You Nailed it!! I’m happy you told me that was you, cause I never asked, but I’m happy you told me. That’s awesome man. And it’s far is on the mix, when I sat down with Danny, my emphasis was to make sure he obviously that the instruments were in place, and nice but I wanted the vocals to sit on the top of the record, and I feel like we nailed it as far as on that because the vocals not only sit, but it’s almost like, I think the remix I think it does something different, slightly different, to the vocals and puts it in a certain atmosphere, (Ruben: like a certain texture) yea, a different texture. It’s like a different take of the same vocals, it’s crazy.

This song is going to connect with a Western audience (United States). I think they could connect with this because of just the global vibe of it, and sonically, it doesn’t sound like something that… it’s almost like you don’t know when it was made. It has a time period, but you couldn’t tell me this was made on “this or that” time frame, this era. It tells you where the inspiration is, but not it does it scream “oh it was made then, it was made now”, it’s a perfect marriage. I think that’s kind of what did with FOREVER too, with the original version.

What’s one of the takeaways you want people to take away when they hear the remix that we did?

Ruben: Oh, one thing I would say do you know this song is kind of serious, but I wanted to bring like a very rhythmic and kind of like a, like a happier vibe to the seriousness of the record and I hope that’s what they feel when they hear it. I want them to feel that rhythm that’s there. That’s really what, I want the same thing like with FOREVER, how said I want everyone to feel like how that bassline moves through it all like, it’s the same thing, like it’s let’s restore the feeling you know what I mean so it’s it’s a feeling that I want them to get from it.

Vince: Awesome, and you know what I will I will say the same and then I also add is I really feel like the record itself really should be heard obviously the original, but the remix as well, and I’m gonna make sure I do everything on the power to make sure people hear this record because I feel like this is the description of when you talk about collaboration, it’s textbook collaboration. So many different elements, so many different vibes, merging making this beautiful art.

LISTEN TO DEHOY (VALHOLLA REMIX) ON THE PLATFORM OF YOUR CHOICE BY CLICKING HERE!

Credits:
Written by Sergio Orso
Songwriters: Sergio Orso
Produced by Ruben Raymond & Vince Valholla
Mixed and Mastered by Daniel “StayLookingOut” Russo
Label – Bit & Sound Music, distributed by Valholla Records