In this episode, John links up with Thomas Wesley Pentz, aka Wes aka Diplo, to talk about his work under various guises with Major Lazer, Sia and as Thomas Wesley.
With on-going exploration of far reaching and cross-cultural mashups at the centre of his approach, Wes reflects on how working with so many specialists from across the globe has helped him forge a diverse sound and career.
Breaking apart three songs, Wes shares his thoughts on the considerations and care that have to be taken when sampling a ‘classic’ South African song, the gatekeeping in Country music and why new sounds are emerging around the genre, and the weird and wild things that Sia often gravitates towards in a song.
Listen to find out the specific rules of Amapiano, some of the elements that are essential to any pop song, and why it’s important to fail a lot.
Tracks discussed: Mamgobhozi (Major Lazer), Wasted (Thomas Wesley), Elastic Heart (Sia)
LINKS TO EVERYTHING TAPE NOTES
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Listen to ‘Piano Republik’ here.
Listen to ‘Wasted’ here.
- Mad Decent, Columbia, Sony
Listen to ‘Elastic Heart’ here.
Intro Music - Sunshine Buddy, Laurel Collective
GEAR MENTIONS
Fab Filter Plugins
Serum Synth
Synplant
Celemony Melodyne
Serato Sampler
Native Instruments Massive
Algoriddim Neural Mix
Output Arcade
Shure Mics
Teenage Engineering OP1
Operator Synth
Roland TB-303
Akai MPC3000
Whurlitzer
Ableton Mellotron Preset
Ableton Sampler
Ableton
Magix Sound Forge
Cool Edit Pro
Logic Pro
Splice
OUR GEAR
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TAPE NOTES TEAM
Will Brown - Executive Producer, Engineer & Editor
Tim Adam-Smith - Executive Producer
Will Lyons - Editor
Guy Nicholls - Production Assistant
