Given that a remix is an edit of an existing, complete song, one could assume it's easier to craft than an original track. The 2024 GRAMMY nominees for Best Remixed Recording prove otherwise: When done right, the remix is a rather painstaking craft that can give entirely new life to a song, even ones you already thought were perfect.
The nominees for Best Remixed Recording demonstrate the breadth and magic of the remix. Alt-jazz group BADBADNOTGOOD amps up and expands on Turnstile and Blood Orange's "Alien Love Call," while DJ/producer Dom Dolla turns the Gorillaz collab with Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, "New Gold," into a trippy dance floor heater. Chicago house legend Terry Hunter gives an unreleased '90s Mariah Carey track, "Workin' Hard," a timeless house groove. Dance pop artist Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs speeds Lane 8's instrumental piano house ballad "Reviver" into a bright jungle gem, and Wet Leg's debut remix is a dark dreamy disco edit of Depeche Mode's "Wagging Tongue."
GRAMMY.com recently spoke to all six nominees about their nominated songs, what constitutes a great remix and their favorites remixes of all time.
Congrats on your nomination! What does it mean to you to be nominated for the GRAMMY for Best Remixed Recording and to be acknowledged by your peers in this way?
Dom Dolla: I mean, it's the highest honor in music. I never thought it would be something that I would be considered for. Funnily enough, my manager said his gut feeling was it would have been for a remix first because that's where I started. I started as a DJ and when I moved into music production, I started off by remixing things and became known within the scene for remixes. This was before I delved into learning to be a lyricist and a songwriter. It's kind of like finally getting the nod for all of those remixes I punched out over the years.
Terry Hunter: Man, it is really dope to go back-to-back with this [category] with two major, iconic artists. [Editor's note: Hunter earned a nod last year for his remix of Beyoncé's "Break My Soul."] Each time, I wasn't expecting it.
Most of the Best Remixed Recording [2024 nominees] are dance records. I'm from Chicago, the city that birthed house music, so to have that represented on such a major level is really amazing. That's a great achievement in my opinion.
Wet Leg guitarist Josh Mobaraki: It's f—ing crazy, so cool. We had literally no idea that was gonna happen. We had so much fun making it. We'd never done a remix before; we're a band and were just wondering what people might expect. It's really encouraging and exciting.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: First of all, it is my second nomination in my career, so I can persuade myself that it's not a fluke…it makes me think that maybe I do have a seat at the table. Also, the track that got nominated is surprising to me. It's not something I thought a lot of people would understand and certainly not put forward for a GRAMMY nomination. It's not a commercial remix or a style that's often recognized by institutions. I'm really pleased about that, because I think the only way that this could have got through is that people really listened to it.
BADBADNOTGOOD producer and drummer Alexander Sowinski: It’s a huge honor! We honestly never thought we would achieve something like this and to be recognized by an institution like the GRAMMYs is amazing.
How did you approach remixing the nominated track?
Dom Dolla: This was actually one of the most fiddly remixes I've ever done. I'm a huge fan of Gorillaz, Booty Brown and Tame [Impala] and I just wanted to get it right. Knowing that it was the only remix that they were going to do for [2023's Cracker Island], I was like, I can't f— this up. So, I approached each section individually. I had one entire Ableton session built upon drums and toms, one for sound design, one for sampling the record and using interesting delays, one for chords, and then I put them all together. There were hundreds of channels as opposed to 40 or 50 like I would normally have.
It was the third attempt [that finally worked]. It took a bit longer than a remix normally would for me. At my first solo show at the Shrine in L.A., I opened with it and the crowd reaction made me feel, Yep. We're onto something.
Terry Hunter: I got the call that [Mariah Carey] was working on this 30th anniversary remix project of the Music Box, her first album. [They asked me to remix] "I've Been Thinking About You." I love that song. I mean, Mariah is the diva of all divas, and she shows it in every way with her amazing vocal performance. When Mariah came out [onto the music scene], I had a major crush on her, so that made it even more special.
I was even more humbled and shocked that once she had heard what I did, they called me to remix another record for an unreleased song that she recorded in 1993, produced by C&C Music Factory. In the '90s, C&C Music Factory ran it — they were the number one guys to go to for production and remixes — I had to do them justice on the unreleased track. The original has that classic '90s C&C feel to it and to go more house, more soulful, a more gospel feel with it was really amazing. It's a reproduction in my opinion.
Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): Hester [Chambers] was like, "Let's do a disco song," which is basically her response to quite a lot of "What are we gonna do?" I'd seen other remixes of Depeche Mode, which are a lot of quite long electronic tracks. We found another way to do something in a similar vein but a little bit closer to us. We just played and experimented and that first session was really great and fun.
Then Ellis [Durand] came around to do the bassline and we spent the whole evening trying every single different bassline that we could come up with and ended up on a single note. Hester wrote and performed the new vocal on the remix. And she picked up a flute — really, a piece of bamboo with some holes in it — and it just happened to fit. We wrote around that and then plopped the lead vocal. Rather than affecting it loads and loads, we sped the whole thing up and that brought a new timbre to the vocal.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: I get asked to do a lot of remixes and there has to be a few things that are right for me to say yes. I have to like the project and want to be part of it — because you're then forever part of it — and I have to like the music. I have a lot of respect for Lane 8 and the world and career he's built. I liked the song because it was a very upfront EDM track, in the original form of EDM from 2010, 2011: big drums, big synth melody, what I would call kind of trance-y and very emotive.
I took bars two to six of the eight-bar chord sequence and built my remix around those bits because that's where the lush stuff was for me. Once I found my mood with it, I went to 165 BPM or so — it was probably 120 to start. I tried doing a couple of house mixes which didn't feel exciting to me at all, probably because he'd already done a big four-four version of his idea. I basically did a (melodic) jungle remix, which is really fun for me because that's the first type of music I started making when I was a teenager and the thing that got me into music. I'm really grateful that he allowed me to take that risk because now there's a GRAMMY nomination. [Chuckles.]
BADBADNOTGOOD: The track came together in a pretty informal way. We were sent the stems for the Turnstile song and ended up jamming with a few friends in our studio in Toronto.
How do you generally approach remixes?
Dom Dolla: You're a lot more limited. When I'm listening to something someone asked me to do a remix of, I'll often listen to the vocal and the main hook elements, to see if there are things that stand out. As I'm listening, I try to delete the other elements in my mind.
If it's a melodic vocal like Damon Albarn's sung part in ["New Gold"], I'll imagine the mood I want to convey by changing the chord progression behind it. [The song has] these little ad-lib vocal rap parts and little grunts as well that I liked. I pick the elements that I really like and compound all my favorite sections and delete everything else that I don't think I'll use in the remix and limit myself to the sections that I love. Then I change the chords and get weird with production and stuff. And then drums are a whole other thing. I treat drums separately.
Terry Hunter: I still have the same formula. With a remix, for me, everything starts with the drums. They have to be in the pocket and then I start building from there. If I'm sitting down with any of my musicians, we may come up with a bassline or some chords. But before any of that, I gotta have the drums 75 percent done, because that's gonna tell the direction of where we're gonna go with the remix.
Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): Obviously, we [haven't made other remixes]. I've been making beats in my bedroom for 10 years and when I was younger, I was doing the band thing. [With this remix], I got to do my thing, in a way. Like every other bedroom producer, I spend a lot of time making four- or eight-bar loops. I love writing music with a computer. I've spent ages trying to work out how to make the sounds that I really love from other records, or even sounds that I don't really like so that I can sort of like them.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: I'm looking for what I love in the original and I try to focus on and build something around that. For me, it's a really fun opportunity to do a particular kind of creative work where you kind of kick a ball of string down a hill and see where it ends up. I don't go into them knowing exactly what I want to do. You're re-presenting somebody's musical idea through a new lens, and I think it should feel like you've really gone there creatively and intellectually and pushed it. I think even the remixes that appear very simple still do that, the good ones.
It's definitely a big creative endeavor for me, maybe more so than writing original music sometimes. With original music, you might not turn an idea upside down and shake it out as much. With remixing, I'll take every sound that the artist gives me and I'll try and make something new out of it. I imagine other people approach it very differently.
BADBADNOTGOOD: Generally, we like to isolate the vocal track and take it out of context as much as possible. For this one, we thought the tone and timbre of Brendan [Yate]’s voice really sounded interesting over our groove and gave it a different feel. We also had a lot of fun with the dancey section over Dev Hynes’ [a.k.a. Blood Orange] bridge.
Does remixing feel like a separate muscle from making your own productions or collabing with another artist?
Dom Dolla: Remixing is a similar creative muscle but with a bit of a different mindset. It’s often a balance of re-imagining the hooks within the original record by surrounding them with a different mood or energy. I’ve always been super selective about remixing tracks for that exact reason, I never try to force it or use elements from the original that I don’t love. Writing original music is much more of a blank slate, which can make it as daunting as it is exciting.
Terry Hunter: It definitely is a different muscle that you're using because with remixes you have no control over the song. You have to make your idea of what you're feeling with the song and you have to work around that. And sometimes you have the pleasure of working with artists where the vocals were a little different and you ask if they can recut them to the music. That sometimes gives it a better feel to make it sound more original or organic. In the case with Mariah and Beyoncé, the vocals were perfect so there was no need to recut.
When you're collaborating with people, it's always great. It's a different energy because someone might come up with a sample or a bassline and that might trigger some drums and a chord progression.
Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): I over-intellectualize it a bit and then the girls are both, "Let's just have fun." And then I'm like, "Oh, yeah, let's do that."
[The remix] felt a bit like when we started making "Chaise Longue" and Wet Dream. That was me, Hester and Rhian [Teasdale] in this flat that we're talking to you from now, and that's the same place that me and Hester started this remix.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: Yeah, it does. I think I have a remixing style that's separate from my original music production stuff. I think it's a part of my character as a musician that's slightly different from my other bits, if that makes sense. [Laughs.]
BADBADNOTGOOD: Absolutely, it’s a nice in-between because we can lean on the artist’s vocals and figure out a unique way to support it. It makes the initial writing process fun because you have such a strong starting point already.
What do you think makes a great remix?
Dom Dolla: It depends on the intention, I suppose. If we're talking about house music, I think it's about great drums, great bassline, great hooks and it working on the dance floor. I think the intention of a great remix is giving it a new direction and introducing it to a whole different audience who wouldn't normally listen to it. For me, it's What are the parts of the song that I love and how do I introduce that to the house music world?
Terry Hunter: When you remix a record, the [original] artist or label is calling on that particular remixer to try to adapt what it is that you do sonically so you can stay true to yourself and your fans but also pay respect and complement the original. A remix is a hard thing to do. But technology allows people to make, in my opinion, lazy music. It can be quick and onto the next, but the feeling is not there, it's kind of cookie cutter-ish.
I think as long as you pay homage to the original and stay true — and even if you don't, sometimes you can just strip everything from it, and just come up with your own creative ideas. There's no right or wrong way. I feel there's no rules in music. It's just, when you hear that song, does it do anything for you?
Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): Sometimes a remix or a mashup almost feels like a magic trick. If you can make that feeling, that's really amazing. Usually that [happens by] recontextualizing a song that you really love.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: When something really has its own flavor. A [good remix] takes a step back from the original source material, and you can hear that. There is always an element of deconstruction and reconstruction, and I think people like hearing that. Even with the very first ideas of the remix with the 12-inch mix and singles in the '80s and '90s, people enjoyed hearing the extended intros and outros. We still enjoy that; hearing the ideas spread out and chopped up.
BADBADNOTGOOD: Really just hearing elements of artists’ work taken out of context and infused with the energy of whoever is doing the remix is so fascinating.
What are some of your favorite remixes of all time by other artists and what makes them special?
Dom Dolla: The trentemøller remix of "Moan" is one of my favorites. It has really interesting sound design that stands the test of time. It's always just been really quirky and interesting. I feel like if it came out now, it would be really relevant and cool. The Thin White Duke remix of "What Else Is There" by Röyksopp is a melodic, euphoric, favorite moment of mine, I love playing that in sets.
Terry Hunter: I'm gonna have to shout out Masters at Work. They're good friends of mine so I'm being biased but not really because I get inspired from their work. They've remixed Saint Etienne, BeBe Winans, Madonna, Roy Ayers; everybody under the sun. Also, big shout out to David Morales and the late, great Frankie Knuckles, all of who are both GRAMMY winners and an inspiration for me for remixes and DJing.
[Picking] a favorite remix is so tough. It's not a remix, but it's a cover of a song by Rotary Connection; "It's All Right, I Feel It" by Masters at Work [as Nuyorican Soul] featuring Jocelyn Brown is probably one of my favorites. And Frankie Knuckles' remix of "The Pressure" by Sounds Of Blackness. David Morales has done a lot of major things but his remix of Jamiroquai "Space Cowboy" was massive.
Wet Leg (guitarist and vocalist Hester Chambers): That's a tough question. The Soulwax remix of "Midnight Dipper" by Warmduscher is a great remix. Soulwax in general, obviously. Also, the Soulwax remix of ["A Hero's Death" by] Fontaines D.C. is one of my favorites. My favorite part about that one is the steely synth line — it's a new addition, a new melody from the original song, but it's so catchy and really rad. Maybe that's what's so special about remixes is you can love a song and then somebody remixes it and it's a new interpretation and a new interaction for your brain with the song that you already love.
[I also love] the Confidence Man remix of CHAI ["END"]. Deftones put out a really fun remix album a couple years ago of White Pony. I have so much nostalgia for that album, so it's lovely to have a new experience of it.
Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): This is an answer to a different question, but my first favorite remix was that Linkin Park and Jay-Z [EP], Collision Course. I think my mom was listening to loads and Linkin Park at the time. and stuff like that. I was like, Whoa.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: For me, one of the kings of remixing is the producer Shep Pettibone. He's kind of the godfather of the original pop dance floor remix. That sometimes is about just making a slightly punchier 12-inch version of the track and sometimes it's about really turning it upside down. His remix of "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order is one of the best songs of all time, really, and his remix is better than the original. His remixes are about maximizing the pop song in a dance floor context. His Paula Abdul "Knocked Out" remix is a bit crazier and dubby and strange.
He's a big inspiration for me and one of the people I heard in my late-teens, early-20s that made me think I could get into four-four music, like house and disco, because I was very against that. I was all about breakbeats and hip-hop beats and jungle as a teenager. He was also a producer-producer and did a lot of Madonna's stuff. His remix of Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall in Love" is so good.
BADBADNOTGOOD: Some of our favorite remixes are the versions of songs that draw you further into it with fresh energy and feeling. A few of them: D’Angelo "Lady (feat. AZ) [Just Tha Beat Mix]", Björk "I Miss You (Dobie Rub Part One - Sunshine Mix)," Janet Jackson "If (Kaytranada Remix)," Sade "By Your Side (Neptunes Remix)," De La Soul "Stakes is High (J Dilla Remix)" and Nas "The World Is Yours (Q-Tip Remix)."