Starr Ackerman's Music Production Blog & PR/AR

Fans of the 90’s electronic music rave era, and lovers of the WMC, Zen and Ultra Music Festivals know and love one band in particular, and they’re called Rabbit in the Moon. Leading the electronic music era with songs and remixes that spanned a 20+ year culture of new and interesting electronic music, RITM is offering a remix contest featuring one of their greatest song releases from the early 90’s, called “O.B.E.”(Out of Body Experience) Musicians and producers who are interested in remixing the stems for “O.B.E.” can enter their remixed songs for review by September 8, 2020. Interested in entering the Remix Contest for “O.B.E”? Find out more about it by visiting RITM’s Bandcamp page, and check out the history of how the song was made from David Christophere of Rabbit in the Moon‘s inspiring story!

Some words about the contest and the origination of the song “O.B.E” from Rabbit in the Moon‘s David Christophere (aka Confucius):

“The OBE remix contest is underway. There have been some great entries so far. The deadline to turn in your remixes will be Sept 8th, 2020!”

“The Summer of 1992 was a special time. It was the Orlando Summer of Love. It is when I sat on the stage at a party at The Edge late at night and decided to create a new project that would be called “Rabbit in the Moon.”

“Two months later that psychedelic dream would become a reality. I had written a track called “Freak to the Beat”.  It was on the heals of the project Anarch-e that Monk and I made. It was full of crazy punk and hiphop samples put over hardcore rave beats. But I knew I wanted something different. Something more emotional from the heart, something that combined my love for dance music, but with a tribal atmosphere and spirit of people like Peter Gabriel.”

“I was at work one day (I had fallen into managing a t-shirt screen printing shop) and we used to always play music while things got done. One day, someone played the Tori Amos record Little Earthquakes. All the sudden she let out a howl, I was hooked! I never thought much of it after that. Other than wouldn’t it be fun to sample that. As I was at The Edge parties, and Ahhz at the Beachem Theatre, I kept hearing tracks like Future Sound of London’s “Papua New Guinea”, “Belfast” by Orbital and Opus III’s “It’s a fine day.” 

“As I was looking in one of the stacks of books that Monk had lying around the workshop, I found this book about spiritual symbols and legends. I happened on a page that told the story of the Rabbit in the Moon. It went on about how different cultures that had no contact with each other all shared a similar belief. That the Rabbit was magic and represented balance as well as religious ceremonies. I related to it – how music is the true universal language. You don’t have to have lyrics and people can all feel the same vibe. I also liked how in the Aztec legend it talked about balance. You can’t have dark without light, or hard without soft, fast without slow. It made me feel like my new music could take on all feels and speeds. Not just be tied to one or the other.”

“As September rolled around, I was in full swing with making a Rabbit in the Moon single. But I started thinking about that howl…Tori’s howl. It sounded like she cracked open a piece of the universe and let us glimpse at the other side. I decided to try to use it. It was Oct 5th, 1992. I called Mark and asked to make some studio time. That’s when I got the bad news. He was moving to New York in 3 days. So basically, if I wanted to use the studio I had one day to write the song at home. ONE DAY to record it, and ONE DAY to mix it. I thought ‘Shiiiitt!!! I’m screwed!’ I haven’t even started writing the track. Something told me to just book it. So I did.”

“I went in the studio and started to write. By midnight, I had the bones of a track. But something was missing. I usually would do most of my writing by myself and Monk would pop in to check things out when they were done-ish. By 1am I was starting to freak a little…still nothing! I asked Monk to come into the studio, ‘Hey, come check this out.’ He probably thought he’d get to hear a finished song, but nope. We sat and listened and talked and I said, ‘This song needs glue, something to bring it all together.” My favorite synth at the time was a Roland JD-800. It had such a wide range of sounds you could get out of it. As I searched some presets to see if any vibe inspired me, I heard something. It was a sample of a Fairlight Sampler sound (one of Peter Gabriel’s main synths he used). It had some potential! It was very dynamic when you hit the keys hard. So I edited the parts in the sound to see if I could make it my own. As the track played and Tori’s scream part came in…I slammed the keys with the chord of the song started to howl. The oxygen in the room changed; my hairs on my arm and neck stood up! Monk sat up in full attention and said, ‘Wow that’s amazing!’ Two days later we had a song called O.B.E. (Out of Body Experience).

“Thanks again for everyone who is doing the remix contest. I can’t wait to hear the final results in September!”

Love, DC – RABBIT IN THE MOON

https://dcrabbitinthemoon.bandcamp.com

Posted in Contests, electro, My favorite music