This is an Australian band that I have always been fascinated by, and I spent decades of my life looking for their CDs, which are almost impossible to get here in Brazil. As soon as I had access to the internet in 1995, they were one of the first bands I managed to get in touch with.
For those who don’t know the band, they became world famous for the super hit “Send Me An Angel”, which had a new version in 1989 that was even more successful here and is still played on the radio and dance floors today.
They even sent me autographed CDs and I also had the honor of meeting Allan Johnson, the band’s bassist, in person in 2000 when he came to spend New Year’s Eve in Rio. It was a unique experience, where we chatted for hours talking about music, and even about my songs that I told him were very inspired by Real Life’s work. He even asked to listen to them, but at that time I only had them on cassette, and I didn’t even think about taking one for him.
When they released the album Imperfection in 2004 in the US by A Different Drum, it would come with an extra CD with remixes made by several important bands in current electronic music. I chose the song “Painless”, a very calm song that was very difficult to work with. I did a very 80s remix that pleased both the band and their fans.
But unfortunately, there was an unforeseen issue regarding the number of remixes and a lack of communication between the band and the record label, and there ended up being a flood of remixes to be included on just one CD, which caused many to be cut. Todd (Label Owner) ended up prioritizing the bands from his record label, as it was a great opportunity to show them to all the Real Life fans who would buy the CD. As a result, I would not have a place on the CD.
The band apologized to me and if my remix were not included on the double album, or on any single that might come out, they promised that I would have my remix on their official website, with links to my website.
On January 4th, the band inaugurated the session D.I.Y. REAL LIFE REMIXES posted on their website and released vocals for 4 songs: “Painless” (which I remixed), “Kamikaze”, “Celebrate” & “Imperfection”, so that any fan in the world can remix their songs and if they approve, they will put them on their website.
The page was already live with my remix published as it was already one of the winners, there was a link to my website. And as other remixes were approved, they were gradually added to the website.
Later, when I talked to David Sterry (the band’s vocalist) about my remix, he said that although he really liked my remix because it brought the essence of the band in the 80s, he would like to hear a version with a more modern sound, like I had done in other works.
I started doing it to practice some experiments with my remix, until I got an invitation from Synthphony Records to release my first remix album. So of course I had to invite Real Life to be a part of it and they agreed immediately after ADD‘s approval, of course. So I gave my previous remix a good modernization and it was released on Synthphony REMIXed! Vol.2 with great acclaim.
- Virtual Server “Why (Would I) [Hajas 2K4 RMX]”
- Droom “Blood Culture [Hajas Arena Mix]”
- Real Life “Painless [Hajas 5T4T3 RMX]”
- Opium “Faked Emotions [Hajas Vladivostok Mix]”
- Tristraum “I’m Under No One [Hajas SWOS Mix]”
- New Concept “Station Man [Hajas NER Mix]”
- Anything Box “Clean [Hajas Hope Mix]”
- !Distain “Sex’n’Cross [Hajas Universal Mix]”
- Project David “We’ll Go On [Hajas Dark Mix]”
- The Dignity of Labour “XRV [Hajas Rio Mix]”
- Color Theory presents Depeche Mode “Sweetest Perfection [Hajas Sloth Mix]”
- Will Loconto and Steve Paul “The Last Good Day [Hajas Lost Mix]”
An interesting fact about the name of this remix: 5T4T3 came from 5T4T3M4CH1N3, which stands for STATEMACHINE, an incredible band from Sweden that I’m also a big fan of. On the band’s first CDs there was a notice stating that the use of their sounds, loops, etc. was permitted, and they would appreciate it if you mentioned them in the credits. I used some of their drum samples to build this remix, and of course I credited them.
These other experiments were kept for years in some lost folder on my HD in my Studio, and when I decided to publish everything online I also decided to publish the Hajas Pop Mix and Hajas Future Mix versions. All of them are also available on my Bandcamp.
