Bristol indie shoegaze five-piece The Fauns have signed to the city’s ace Invada Records, and will be putting out a new album through the label later this year. Ahead of that, Invada is releasing a two-track remix 12", taking a couple of cuts from their self-released 2009 debut The Fauns and giving them the rework treatment. Alongside Invada boss Redg Weeks upping the hazy, sun-dappled ante on ‘The Sun Is Cruising’, film scorer supremo Clint Mansell has given the track ‘Fragile’ a reworking, which we’ve got an exclusive first play of below:
The original track was already on an anthemic tip, and Mansell draws this out to epic proportions. His central piano line and Alison Faun’s plaintive cadences gradually get subsumed and hazed by shoegazey guitars, until it’s a full-blown, widescreen affair, but one that’s lined by buzzing synth waves, eventually resolving to a Loveless-esque wavering flute loop.
Having just finished work on the Stoker soundtrack, we asked the man himself a few questions about the mix:
How did the remix come about? Had you heard The Fauns before?
Clint Mansell: I discover most new music that I hear through Twitter and blogs these days. A follower of a follower retweets something, and the next thing you know, you can’t get all the new ‘punkrockcarcrashtechnometal’ on your iPod!
What made you settle on ‘Fragile’ as the track to remix?
CM: I can’t remember what came first — whether I heard the Fauns or if I’d met Redg from Invada through Twitter and he’d sent it to me… #seniormoment. ‘Fragile’ really has a mood and vibe to which I’m drawn. When Redg asked about a remix, it was my first choice. I like mood music, for want of a better word, music I can get lost in. ‘Fragile’ has it.
How do you go about producing a remix – do you have an idea of the type of sound you want in mind at the beginning or is it more a case of experimenting as you go along?
CM: There is no particular starting point for me, I tend to just mess around with elements of the track to find something that sparks a direction and an idea. There’s a lot of looking out the window and deep thinking over red wine involved!
It’s a chance to experiment also. I made good use of both the Grendel Drone Commander and SleepDrone 5 [analogue kit] on this mix — and they’re both becoming a big part of my current indulgences!
How do you find the right balance between the original track and the parts that you bring to it?
CM: For years I was always comparing my own work to others — why doesn’t my track sound as good as so-and-so’s? …it’s a crippling debility.
Finally, I decided that the important thing is to find your own ‘truth’, as it were. Your own sound, do your own thing. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as its true to you — and that’s what I look for in everything I do. Find something that speaks to me and go with it. I find it’s more important to pursue the things that mean something to me and to work with people who inspire me — this way I feel I can do my best work, both for myself and for my collaborators.
Stay tuned to Invada’s website for more updates on The Fauns’ LP.
