Track 12: Tears Of Seraphis [Decon Theed's “Dry Your Eyes, Love, It's Christmas" Remix]
Original Artist: Arcade Child
Remix Artist: Decon Theed, Arcade Child
Original Track: soundcloud.com/103_records/arcade-child-tears-of-seraphis

Throughout much of the album, I've said something to the effect of "I dreaded having to do this", and I fear that gives off the impression I didn't want to work on the album at all. That's not the case; when I say I dread having to work on certain things, it's usually the case that I'm worried about doing justice to a song or idea in a way that lines up with the "mental image" I have in my head, or I'm stressing about technological factors going in.

I bring this up in now because this was easily the song I dreaded doing the most. Why? Well...

For starters, Decon Theed songs are typically some of the hardest to do for me; there's a balance between more freeform/experimental elements and more loopy/techno-y ones that can be difficult to hit, similarly to J-MACHine ideas on how to make the songs interesting don't always come easily, and for some reason, I tend to restrict myself to mostly in program assets when doing DT stuff. Maybe partially that's down to the fact that Life Song was worked on around the time I really solidified what I wanted the alias to be, and because I intended selling that song from the get-go I went out of my way to avoid any potential copyright kerfuffle and it just kinda stuck, I don't know. But that's just Decon Theed in general; that's not counting the fact that the base song this is a remix of was incredibly sparse, barren, and generally left a lot of room for interpretation. I was stressing over not only how to make the track interesting, but how to keep it as true to the original as possible without going as minimal.

You're probably wondering why I bothered going through the trouble if I seemed so down on the idea, and the truth is this remix HAD to be on the album. The second I settled on the theme for this years album, I knew I wanted to remix this track in particular, and specifically as a Decon Theed song. Tears Of Seraphis, I'm pretty sure, is one of the single oldest pieces of music I've made that I still have access too- I'm fuzzy on the exact date, but it was no later then 2008 and no earlier then 2007. It's in terrible quality, it's simplistic not out of style but out of amateurism, and it's just in general not very good. But the sentimentality it carries for me, especially by this point, cannot be overstated. It's one of the songs where everything started for me. One of the songs that, if I didn't set out to do when I was younger, I'd never have wound up where I am now.

And was it worth the trouble? I certainly think so. This version certainly plays fast and loose with what the original offered- which, as stated, wasn't much- but for all the trouble it gave me in preparation AND in practise (and oh man, did it give me no end of trouble working on it, believe me), the song really started coming alive as it came together. Although DT stuff normally isn't done from a 'soundtrack' mentality, I wound up taking this one in an almost "cinematic" direction, using the progression of the song to deliberately tell a story rather then just infer the idea of one. What that story is I couldn't tell you- whatever the original song was composed for, I have long forgotten (I don't even know what the fuck a Seraphis is)- but the "cinematic" progression felt like the most natural way for the song to evolve.

This project, like all 12 Days before it, was hard. Very hard, filled with stress and worry, and once again I've come through the other side not really knowing how the hell I managed to pull it off. It's not been hard on just me, either; on top of running three of her own Advent calendar projects this year, Dio also supplied all the song art for every alias (I know, she's mental). I'd be lying, though, if I said it wasn't worth it in the long run, with some solid material produced and an end result of an album that came out more or less exactly as I'd planned it to. Kinda. Sorta. If you squint.

You folks have a very merry Christmas, and I'll see you all on New Year~