Otherwise Fine
I instantly loved what Otherwise Fine did on Emily Rowed’s song “Shipwreck”. Nowadays, some remixes don’t offer anything new and sometimes people just add a feature on a song and they call it a remix (which is quite a joke to me), but Otherwise Fine did not disappoint on this one. Their remix is cinematic, epic and uplifting. They took the song to another dimension by adding their own musical signature and that’s what makes it a great remix and overall a great song.
I’m only getting to know Otherwise Fine but I really cannot wait to hear more music from them.
Go stream “Shipwreck” now :)
Introduce the band - what's your story?
Otherwise Fine consists of myself, Spencer Baird Parent, and Jake Sinclair. Otherwise Fine came about from a collection of music that what was essentially the first EP. I have played music all my life. In High School I used to tour in the summers paying drums in bands, and then in University I got into music production and DJing; but I never considered doing anything serious with music. I always thought I would pursue a “real job” and music would just be something I did for fun on the side. Cut to the end of 2017 and I had a pretty shitty month where my relationship of two years ended, and I was let go from my job in essentially the same week. Music has always been an outlet for me, so I ended up writing a ton over the next few months and found myself with this collection of music that felt like its own cohesive project. For the first time I felt like I had something that was worth pursuing. I decided to hit up Jake, who I had become friends with a few years earlier after sharing a DJ residency at the same club, to help out with creating a visual aesthetic and branding for the project since he was a strong graphic designer. We packaged up that first set of tracks into the IwantU EP and just kind of put it out into the world later that year. It has been absolutely amazing to see the reception on the project and how much it’s grown since then.
How would you define Otherwise Fine, the band?
I have always liked the mission statement of ‘combining the musicality and emotions of acoustic song writing with the textures and energy of electronic production.’ When I first starting writing music as Otherwise Fine I coined the phrase ‘Sleepy Bangers’ which I take to mean: a song that might be on the chiller side, but it still connects with you in a way that’s emotional and powerful; it may be sleepy, but it’s still a banger. I think most electronic music gets easily lumped into “DJ music”, and as much I love DJ culture, I really would like to carve space where Otherwise Fine can be seen as just “music”.
You’ve just released your version of "Shipwreck" by Emily Rowed - what made you want to do a remix for this specific song?
So, it was actually Emily who made the choice to have Shipwreck, specifically, remixed. I had initially reached out to Emily looking to work with her on some of the upcoming demos I have lying around. From the very first time I heard her music I was immediately drawn to her voice and writing style. It felt very cinematic and emotional in a way I really connected with. At the time I sent her the email reaching out she was working on finalizing her EP and so she asked if I would be interested in remixing one of the tracks, and it was an easy yes.
Could you describe the production process for this one? What was the inspiration?
When approaching remixes, generally I like to try to strip it down to the fundamentals in order to create something new - the first thing I always like to do is to bring in the stems and try to determine which one or two core elements I want to focus on and go from there. With Shipwreck, the original version is already so stripped - essentially just piano and vocals - so I knew I would have a lot of room to build. At the same time, I knew I wanted to stay true to the beautiful and emotional foundation. Odesza have always been a big influence on the Otherwise Fine sound, and at the time I had been listening to the Ford. (released on Odesza’s label Foreign Family Collective) album. On that album there is a track ‘Hold On’ which has some really cool use of harps, which were also quite prominent on Odesza’s In Return album, so that was a big inspiration that went into this remix. Going back to what I was saying about my normal approach of going through the stems, there is an element in the remix that isn’t actually in the original which is the “oh ahs”. In the stems Emily sent over, she included all the vocal stacks, and buried in there I came across this little hidden gem of a vocal adlib that didn’t make the cut for the original, but I instantly fell in love with it. It was the perfect element that the track needed to give it a slightly new energy balancing uplifting and melancholy.
What do you like the most about this song?
Can I say everything? Haha In all seriousness though it is really hard to pick out something specific. Emily is honestly such an amazing writer, both lyrically and in the melodies she comes up with. And then on top of that she has such an incredible voice that literally gave me goosebumps when I was working on the remix.
In the remix I’m partial to the addition of the “oh ah” sample as well as the washed out call back out “I won’t run I won’t Run” in the chorus.
What is your goal for this remix?
The goal for this remix is the same as with all my releases. I genuinely just hope that people have the chance to discover it and connect with it. Trying to pick a favourite release is kind of like picking a favourite child, but I really love this song and it is definitely one of my favourites from the Otherwise Fine catalogue. Like a proud kid showing their mom the macaroni art they did in class, I just want to share this song with as many people as possible.
As an artist, what lessons have you learned since the beginning of your career?
I think the biggest lesson I have learned, mostly from watching and speaking with friends in the industry, is that you need to just keep going. The journey of an artist is filled with criticism and self-doubt and it’s not uncommon to question why you are even pursuing this path and feel like you want to give up. I think it is important to have a close network of people to talk to who can support you because the career of an artist is a marathon not a sprint. (A marathon through an Indian Jones style booby trapped ninja warrior course, if I may) There have certainly been times I have wanted to give up on Otherwise Fine, but I kept going and now I am fortunate to work with people as talented as Emily and make something that feels incredibly special to me.
You've worked with different artists - what are you looking for in artists when working with them?
Mostly I just look to work with people whose music I connect with and who inspire me. Generally, that will come in the form of unique song writing or production that makes me wonder “how they hell did they do that?”. After that I need to feel like we could make something interesting together. For the HIGS remix for example, they are a super indie band but I’ve always been a huge of them and when I first heard NYC I felt maybe I could do something cool with it. For I Don’t Belong Here, I had been in touch with BARDZ for a while and I knew that his unique style would be able to elevate the demo I had to a new level. Ultimately I just want to make the best music I can, and that’s a lot easier when you get to work with super talented people that force you to be better.
As a producer, what equipments and softwares do you usually use?
So, I produce almost exclusively in the box using Ableton. Occasionally I will record some guitars (just picked up a Jazzmaster a few months back that I am in love with and have been using on a ton of new projects which has been fun), but the rest is just VSTs. Diva is my go-to for all the analog synth sounds, but I also really like the Arturia Prophet V which I use a ton for bass sounds. (If everyone wants to run this remix up to a million streams I would love to get my hands on an actual prophet haha)
What advice would you give to young producers?
I would say the two biggest things I could say to anyone relatively new to production who wants to improve would be: have focused practise, and a little goes a long way. So, for the practise, there are a lot of concepts in production and it can be overwhelming. It can be easy to get caught in the trap of watching hours of tutorials but never actually practising the skills or techniques you are learning about. Making a concentrated effort of practising the things you are trying to learn, focusing on how adjusting parameters and settings affects the sound will help cement the concepts 10x quicker than simply watching the 100th video on compression. With that, a little goes a long way. Producing, and more specifically having that creative ‘ah ha’ moment, can sometimes feel like a blackhole of time where you need at least a 4-hour block to get anything done. The reality is, even just 30 mins a day of opening up your DAW and playing - making a quick beat, advancing 8 bars on a song you are working on, or just trying a new effect - will get you to your production goals much quicker than a single 4-hour session once or twice a week. Consistency is key.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
I feel like in the last few years, especially the last year with the lack of any real live music, music has been accelerating towards this “feed the algorithm” mentality. Not that there isn’t still a ton of amazing, unique, forward thinking music being made, but a lot of music is trending towards this formulaic ‘checking the boxes’ of what is required to hit a big Spotify playlist, rather than try to create anything of substance. Especially with the popularity of TikTok where all you need is 15 seconds to go viral. And I mean I have no issues with those who only care about creating viral hits and want to optimize for that by creating music that checks the boxes, everyone needs to pay their bills. But I think the by product is that the general population are becoming increasingly a passive audience that has no little to no initiative of discovering new music. I can think of plenty of examples of artists that have millions of streams but no real audience as their streams come from playlists that are listened to in the background. I am sure this is nothing new and that people probably made the same observation when music came to iTunes in single format back in the day, so perhaps I am just getting older. But if I could change one thing it would probably be that I just wish there were more investment in people taking charge of the music they listen to rather than let an algorithm or single playlist editor dictate what they hear.
How would you describe the music scene in Canada?
I think it is hard to comment on the Canadian music scene since Canada is just so larger. There are a ton of great pockets across the country, notably Montreal is quite the hot-bed, and good friend of mine Alex Walsh of Cloverdale speaks highly of the electronic scene out in Halifax. What I can say is that I think we are very fortunate to have some great opportunities in funding from things like FACTOR. Additionally, the fact that Canadian Radio has thresholds for the amount of Canadian music they have to play also gives rise to opportunities for up-and-coming artists that wouldn’t necessarily be present otherwise.
What's the best part about being in a band?
Sharing the workload. Otherwise Fine is a unique project since I actually write and produce everything, and then Jake’s role is to handle all the content. As an independent self-managed act, this is extremely helpful. The visual identity of Otherwise Fine is super important to me, so being able to spend more time on just writing and producing knowing that the content is being handled is super valuable.
What biggest life lessons have you learned so far?
You only regret what you didn’t do. In the two years of Otherwise Fine I have more than once looked at some of the successes the project and wondered to myself “What if I only had tried to pursue music earlier, where would I be now?”. I try not to dwell on that since maybe I would have made different music that I would not be as passionate as the music I am making as Otherwise Fine, or maybe I would have gotten massively successful and been on tour and gotten into a fatal car accident while driving between states. But even starting later than I could have, I know that in 20-30 years from now I won’t have to look back and regret never having given music an honest effort. Especially with the last year, I’ve come to realize that nothing is promised. So get out there and do what you love so you can look back at the end and not have to wonder “what if”.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
Accepting that it is ok to not know something. I think we have all been guilty of pretending we know something that we don’t this at some point in our lives, I know I have. But I think as social media has taken over it’s become this dangerous tool to allow people to propagate insane ideas that mostly stem from people who can’t admit they don’t actually know something. I heard an interesting take one time that conspiracy theories often stem from people who try to make themselves feel better about not understanding a subject by creating this reality in which they are in fact intellectually superior because they know the “truth” and everyone else is the idiot for believing the conspiracy. I think there is probably some truth to that. I would much rather live in a world where people can say “wow, the science behind global warming or vaccinations or pathology/ epidemiology is really complicated, and I don’t understand it” rather than “global warming is a hoax propagated by the same people who made COVID in a lab in order to inject microchips into you when you get vaccinated.” Or maybe I’m just getting at the fact that the world would be a better place if we had better scientific literacy? That would be also be great.
What message do you want to deliver to the world?
I’m not sure if I have a particular message. Those who know me personally know I love to talk, but I can’t say I ever have a greater message to deliver. Hopefully, Otherwise Fine’s music can serve as that message and the end goal can be something net positive.
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