Remix composition - Eric Chapus

In early 1996 Eric Chapus' alter ego Endorphin entered the North Queensland stage of the Triple J Unearthed initiative. The track 'Relapse' was selected as one of the winning entries. Triple J professionally recorded the track and gave it high rotational airplay. Due to this exposure and the well-crafted nature of Chapus' songs it was not long before Sony music had signed Endorphin to a five album recording contract. In May 1998 Embrace Endorphin's debut album, was released, and went on to sell upwards of 11,000 copies, making Eric Chapus the biggest selling Australian Dance music artist.

As I was keen to explore the use of dance music beats and structures in my own music, I interviewed Eric on Tuesday 3rd July 1999 at his house/studio in Sydney. I wanted to discuss and understand the compositional process that he goes through and the equipment he uses in writing his music.

The hub of his studio is the computer, a Macintosh G3 power PC with an Event Layla sound card with an external breakout box to input and output the audio. The computer programs that he uses most are Cubase VST 24bit Version 4 and a range of plug-ins from various manufacturers. During the writing of his latest album he also started using software synthesiser programs such as Rebirth to generate some of the bass parts and other tracks for the songs. His midi interface is through a Opcode 64/x, which links his Akai S3200xl sampler, keyboard control, Bass Station (bass synthesiser) and drum machines (Yamaha RY10 and QY70) together with the computer. He has a Berringher composer (compressor) and a Sennihizer Microphone that he uses to record any vocal parts or other acoustic instrument that he may use in the composition of his music. He monitors the sound through a pair of Event 20/20 powered speakers.

Chapus said that he nearly always starts with the beat or groove using a combination of sampled loops and midi patterns. He creates a four-to eight-bar working area within his sequencer program and over this he combines tempo-matched, sampled loops to make a complex rhythmical groove or texture, usually using between two and six sampled loops to achieve this. He then records a midi pattern (via the keyboard) of kick and snare hits emphasising certain main beats, applying a strict sixteenth quantise to the midi parts.

What I'm doing is working out all the grooves for the song in this four to eight bar stack. All of the loops may not be arranged like this in the song, but by doing this I know that at least they all work together. Once I've got this vertical stack of grooves I can start spreading them out into the structure of the song, using grooves to build and drop the intensity of the piece.(Chapus 1999)

He has a wide range of sample discs from different manufacturers to select from, with no one disc being more predominately used than another. He adjusts the tempo of each loop by means of lowering or raising the pitch of the sample. This was not because he preferred the sound but that he was just unaware of other methods of doing this like computer software.

By using the track mute function in Cubase, Chapus can now see how individual loops work with each other, thereby gaining information for later when he uses these loops to build the structure of his song.

Still maintaining his four to eight bar looped working area Chapus will start on the instrumentation of his piece, either looking for a wash or pad sound to give the song atmosphere, or improvising with his bass synthesiser to come up with a riff. Once he feels he has enough pieces he starts arranging the structure. He does this by dragging the loops across and arranging them into sections. Chapus' music is not often laid out in a traditional verse chorus way, but instead it tends to build to a climax about half way through the song dropping to a breakdown in the middle before building again to a high climax, then either tapering off or ending abruptly.

Every eight bars I introduce something or repeat something again to keep the interest of the listener and me the composer. The songs structures all tend to build in these eight bar amounts until about half way through the song where they drop right away, then build again this time to an even higher peak. Then they either fade out or reduce in intensity again before the end or sometimes they just stop sharply. (Chapus 1999)

Much of what Chapus composes instrumentally is improvised, as by his own admission he has a very limited theoretical knowledge of music, finding that improvisation is the quickest and easiest way to compose riff or lead parts.

I only really compose at the computer because I do not play any instruments like the piano that well. I know no music theory apart from what the notes are that I'm playing, but by using the computer it enables me to be able to play the piano or guitar or any instruments I want to just using my ear to guide me.(Chapus 1999)

On occasion he will include excerpts from a classical piece of music he likes. These are predominately a piano line or motif. If he wants to use these parts, he looks for a midi file of the piece of music he wants on the Internet then edits this to just the line he wants. The song 'Satie' from his first album Embrace is an example of this.

When Chapus is satisfied that he has enough parts to start arranging, he copies and drags the various parts across compiling the structure and form of his song. When this is done he ornaments this with sound grabs from various sources.

I like to compose using collage, I sample television, radio or even the sound of the street, manipulating these sounds and then adding them to my songs. In a song from my new CD, I got my little girl to sit alongside me and tell me a story while I recorded what she was saying. Then I cut up her dialogue and used it for the vocal of the song, manipulating some of the samples by speeding them up or down. There are a lot of subtle sounds and samples in the music that the listener may not hear straight away but they all add to the collage. (Chapus 1999)

After Chapus has the majority of the composition completed he re-records each individual midi track as a separate audio file in Cubase, so he can more easily add effects and manipulate the sounds. In the production of his composition he uses large amounts of tempo-based delays and reverb's to thicken and change the textures of his songs. It's hard to say what is production and what is composition, when the mixing process plays such a critical part in the composition. Chapus is aware of the limitation he must impose on himself if he wants radio exposure for his songs. Talking about his composition techniques, he says:

I try to keep the length of each track below four minutes as demanded by radio but I know which track the radio will play and which they won't when I write them. I also like to write and mix quickly because I can get bored very easily, so I try to get the songs finished in one session although some songs can take longer.(Chapus 1999)

At the time of the interview Chapus had just completed work on a re-mix of the Men at Work song Land Down Under. It would seem that the process that he goes through to compose a re-mix and that of composing any song is very similar. The main difference is that before working on the grooves he already has some idea of the vocal and instrumental samples he will use or select from for some of his collage.