The Secret Sauce Behind the Scary Pockets

"Scary pockets" is CNN Tech's weekly, offbeat look at what it takes to turn a pop hit into a viral funk cover. This week we talk with Jack Ryan and Rihanna about the secret sauce behind their powerful vocals.

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Scary Pockets is the musical collective that has been transforming pop classics into funk anthems for over half a decade. Each week they release a new cover on YouTube featuring razor-sharp instrumentalists and a rotating cast of virtuosic lead singers. Amazingly, each of their 200-plus covers is arranged on the fly, in a span of about 90 minutes—capturing the talent and spontaneity of a group of musicians at the top of their game. We here at Switched on Pop were struck by the band's ability to infuse familiar songs with syncopation and backbeat, and rack up millions of views in the process, so we reached out to Scary Pockets's leaders—guitarist Ryan Lerman and keyboardist Jack Conte—to arrange for Nate and Reanna to be flies on the wall during their creative process. After documenting the behind-the-scenes dialogue that led to a slow-burning interpretation of the Bee Gees's 1977 classic "Staying Alive," we called up Ryan, Jack, and the song's lead vocalist, Lizzy McAlpine, to hear their insights on making a song that everyone knows sound fresh and unfamiliar

Songs Discussed

Bee Gees - Staying Alive (Scary Pockets Cover)

Paul McCartney and Wings - Arrow Through Me (Scary Pockets Cover)

Beatles - Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Coldplay - Fix You (Scary Pockets Cover)

Parcels - Tieduprightnow

Bill Withers - Just the Two of Us (Scary Pockets Cover)

Justin Bieber - Peaches (Lizzy McAlpine Cover)

More on Scary Pockets

Watch the video of Scary Pockets and Lizzy McAlpine covering "Staying Alive"

See them LIVE with David Ryan Harris & John Scofield, November 16 at Echoplex in Los Angeles! Tickets

Subscribe to their YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/scarypockets