We Are the Champions! (Patreon)

Hello Beastlings!

Before we kick off the new year, I did want to leave you with one more project I have been working on. It is a collaboration with no other than my dear friend and extremely talented guitarist, Alex Skolnick. You probably know him from Testament or Alex Skolnick Trio. You may also know him from his own Patreon page where he not only gives you valuable insight into playing guitar but also has a really popular podcast called Moods & Modes! If you are looking for some new creators to support here on Patreon I definitely recommend checking out his page!

Alex and I connected a few years ago when I jumped on stage at SwedenRock (I think?) to sing “Into the Pit” with Testament - quite impulsively, might I add. We became fast friends as we have a lot in common both inside and outside the world of music. Since then I have performed with him multiple times with Metal Allegiance and now we present to you our video covering one of our favourite bands; Queen’s "We Are The Champions”!

A little background: Earlier this year, Brian May (legendary Queen guitarist/astrophysicist/luthier and more) shared a post of himself at home playing just his guitar part, encouraging others to join in. This was back when lockdown “challenges” were still new, during the height of shutdowns across the UK (where he was ), Europe and North America. Among the many public answers to the challenge was a longer form video involving more than a dozen musicians and singers paying tribute to first responders, essential workers and others.

In that version, each line of the tune is sung by a different vocalist, but I actually sang the entire song back then to be sure there was at least one voice for each line. There are also stops, breakdowns and an extended spoken word section. It was quite the undertaking to coordinate (courtesy of our friend Jason McNamara), for a good cause. Alex and I are proud of our work on this song and encourage those who haven’t seen it to do so (it’s on our IG and other social pages). At the same time, these tracks had come out well enough that we couldn’t help wondering: With respect to the longer project, what if there was a version with no stops, starts or spoken word interludes, just the song - top to bottom - with all the verses expressed by just one voice (as had been the case with Freddie on the original)?

In order to make this happen, we’d have to speak with some of the musicians, get their blessings (thanks guys!) and take some of the earlier rhythm tracks and make them fit the new format. When I originally tracked my vocals to this song I was basically singing along to Brian’s short instagram clip on a loop, that’s it! So for this new version, I had to sing some new lines and redo some parts, including a full wall of backup vocals. To achieve this, I changed my physical stance around the microphone and played with repositioning my larynx to change the formants of my voice so that I could get a rich, full sound as if multiple different humans were singing. 

I also wanted to film a bit more with my trusty Nikon and f1.8 lens to give a bit of depth to the shots in addition to the "livestream" footage I had already recorded. Plus - with the multiple AWGs singing the backups, I could not help but to pay homage to the Rocky Horror Picture Show a little bit and include some singing lips for the additional voices! So I changed my lipstick colour according to the harmony part being sang and voilà!

While Alex’s guitar parts fit as is and wouldn’t have to be replayed, there’d be a whole job in store: Mixing!

Alex took on the mix after wondering if we should opt to have it professionally mixed or try to do it ourselves. It seemed like a good opportunity to learn, though, since Alex and I are both at about the same level when it comes to self-mixing and we use the same DAW. After much research, educated listening, bouncing mixes and masters back and forth,  even referring to solo Bee Gees backups as heard in their new documentary (!), it feels like it came together well. Here it is, exclusively for both of our supporters here on Patreon.

Full disclosure - At some point, we will likely make this publicly viewable, (but still on Patreon) but for now it is for patrons only. edit: It is now publicly viewable! Many thanks to all who participated in the original version and to Beatriz Mariano (also a Patreon creator!) for editing the video for us!

I will upload the file of the song in a separate post so you can listen to the song on your phone as well! Take a look at my next post for that. 

We hope you enjoy this as much as we enjoyed making this for you. Thank you for getting through this year with us. 

       You our OUR champions.     

                                    - AS & AWG