The Speedies Remix: TV, Music, Videos, and Pictures
TV Commercial: The Speedies remix story starts with the development of the HP commercial called “RoadTrip”. Once advertising agency Goodby Silverstein and music design firm DeepMix had decided upon use of the Speedies song “Let Me Take Your Photo” as the musical focus of the spot, it was then decided that a remix would be needed to strengthen the song for nationwide broadcast. The first challenge was to see if the original Speedies recordings from 25 years ago were still available for remix work. Amazingly, the 24 track recordings for the original “Photo” song were found safe and in good condition in the Brooklyn home of Speedies drummer Allen Hurkin-Torres. The tapes were then “baked”, (a special process to revitalize older magnetic tapes) and the tracks were loaded up for processing using ProTools (a software tool from Avid/DigiDesign). A special remix session was led in Los Angeles by Danny Saber including Speedies band member John Carl and DeepMix Executive Producer Dave Curtin. The result is a bigger, brighter, and fresher version of the song packing more punch and power-pop power. This is the version used in the HP commercial and available now as “Let Me Take Your Photo (2005) on Apple iTunes (along with a special set of Speedies tracks and more remixes). The creative team behind the HP “RoadTrip” commercial is the same group that won ADWEEK’s Campaign of the Year Award in 2004 for “PictureBook”, featuring the music of the Kinks, the Cure, etc.
Music: The Speedies decided to create new mixes and versions of their music whenever and wherever possible. In addition to the power pop strengthened 2005 version of “Let Me Take Your Photo”, the band thought it would be fun to create a 1980’s style dance mix (in the spirit of Billy Idol) for the “Photo” song and so an entirely new dance mix was created including a special appearance by Martha Quinn (original MTV VJ and now a host of her own show on Sirius Satellite Radio) singing harmony backing vocals. The brilliantly simple and fun “Let Me Take Your Photo” lyrics from John Marino were re-used in a new context, mixed and re-mixed along with the original tracks into delightful new material forming the basis of a new “Photo” EP. Likewise, the original B-side for “Let Me Take Your Photo” which was called “No Substitute” was completely remixed and augmented too with new 12 string guitar, new background vocals, and digital processing to make the guitars sound beefier and far more powerful; the result is a dramatically improved song. Both tracks were produced, engineered, and mastered by Jordan Tarlow (The Fuzztones and Jordan Tarlow's TONE-BENDER) at his new state-of-the-art Malibu facility.
A number of the Speedies songs have not (yet) been located in their original format; indeed, the band’s second single “Something on my Mind” with B-side “Time” was only available as a 45 record. Producer Jordan Tarlow transferred these songs from the vinyl and used his extensive set of mastering tools to bring forth a rich vibrant sound that greatly enhanced these fantastic recordings originally produced by Blondie's Clem Burke back in 1981. The Speedies have indeed been radically remixed. And stay tuned for more developments – a set of archival Speedies recordings have just been located as master eight track tapes and these should soon be ready for the power of remix as well. The full collection of Speedies tracks have been made available for worldwide distribution by the world’s leading distributor of digital music, the Orchard in NYC.
Video:Between 1979 and 1981, The Speedies created three music videos - “Let Me Take Your Photo”, “Time”, and “Something on my Mind”. The videos were all created at the time for less than $500 – an incredible feat given the large budgets for music videos today. Also, the “Let Me Take Your Photo” video was shown on MTV in the early days of the MTV network and received favorable mention at the time in Billboard too. The “Photo” and “Time” videos are remarkably fun, fresh and power-pop centric. Fortunately, the original Director of the music videos – Danny Cornyetz – managed to keep original versions of the videos for a period of more than 25 years. Danny provided the videotape originals in ¾ inch tape – these were converted onto Betacam SP (by Tobin Productions) and DVD formats (in LA). Danny Cornyetz (Video Mix Productions) directed and edited the “Let Me Take Your Photo” video together with Dennis Politakis; Danny also directed and edited the “Time” video with production by Chris Martinez and Vinnie Longobardo. To support digital access, the two best videos were converted into QuickTime digital video by Keith Putnam at Tobin Productions. The clips are now available in multiple resolutions and bit rates at a variety of the leading digital media web sites and video distributors for Internet distribution (with more coming soon).
Album Cover Art:Due to an unexpected turn of events, the Speedies had to change plans for cover art for the digital album and EP at the last minute. In a period of less than 24 hours, a special remixed set of covers were created. Band members John Carl and Greg Zap suggested use of images from the band’s music videos; John Carl also proposed logo lettering developed by Damien Knaupf from a late 1970’s poster used for a Speedies band concert. Kenny Wessel, an LA based graphic artist cleaned up and enhanced the logo from the original poster to make it usable for the cover art context. After these basic ideas were agreed to, the creative process for the “You Need Pop!” digital album was led by Maya Leah Hoffert Topitzer, the 12 year old daughter of Speedies band member Eric Pop. She conceptualized an approach to capture the high energy and sense of fun for the band. Using Adobe Photoshop, a multi-element cover was created by Maya using a still image from the “Time” video (Directed by Danny Cornyetz) along with the Speedies logo from the original poster. Eric Pop led the process to create the first version of the “Let Me Take Your Photo” cover art; Greg Zap contributed the idea of including the World Trade Center towers in the cover art image as a tribute to the heroic efforts of the people of NYC on September 11.
That is the remix story. It is pretty wild. And it has only just begun… join us for the adventure