EMPIRE STATE HUMAN

cover or indeed the cover of The Cult's "The Witch" we recorded for one album. It's important to us that we widen the scope of our music when possible and we really do enjoy surprising people and hope that they respond to these type of tracks in the way we intend them to. So far, people have really enjoyed "Melancholic Afro" and that's a fairly decent sign to its potential."

Is this why you think it's best suitable for remixing?

"I think it's definitely the major reason, as well as the Kraftwerk connection which makes it a very exciting proposal. It's such an honour for us to have worked with Wolfgang. He's a super gentleman and one of the nicest people we've ever met in the business. You can't over estimate what he has done for electronic music with his work as Yamo and of course Kraftwerk. We really loved the Yamo album he did, which was produced by Mouse on Mars. Wolfgang is a very naturally creative man, a great writer, you should read his book "I Was A Robot". He currently tours with the band Dyko, playing classic synth drums like he did on Krafterk's album "Autobahn". We're the first Irish band to ever work with an original Kraftwerk member and that was actually picked up by Hot Press (a major Irish music magazine), which lead to us performing at Retrofest festival in Scotland. We played that festival with 10cc, Howard Jones, Boy George, The Christians, Paul Young, Nik Kershaw among others which was quite staggering for us!"

Talking about Kraftwerk. How did you guys get involved with Wolfgang Flür?

"Last year Wolfgang was DJ'ing here in Dublin with Dave Ball from Soft Cell. Seán was asked to video the full set by the promoter and to produce a promo DVD from it. From that evening Wolfgang became aware of our band. At that time we were in the middle of recording "Audio Gothic" and Seán sent him a number of the completed songs. As Wolfgang liked our 'pop' sound mixed with darker electronic elements, Seán discussed the possibility with him to join us on a track. We decided to sent him the files for "Melancholic Afro" because it was different to our established sound and also Wolfgang's sound with Yamo (his current project) and obviously Kraftwerk. Wolfgang was really impressed and added his elements in a studio in Germany. We then mixed the final track in our Electric Eye Studio here in Kildare/Ireland. Wolfgang did record more parts, which didn't make the final album version, which we've decided to add to the remix kit, so as to really make this a special competition.

"We're thrilled Laptoprockers is hosting this competition for us and very much look forward to the results."

Know what? Izotope, the makers of the best VST mastering plug-in around filled the prize pool with three great prizes for you to win - Ozone included! We're now preparing to get things ready for you to go krafty next week. We Are Laptoprockers. Cheers!

Update: All details about this remix contest are posted here.

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