ReMix:Final Fantasy VIII "Filthy Lies / Wasted Virtue" 6:38

Particularly off of the strength of Final Fantasy VIII: SeeDs of Pandora, The Vodoú Queen has quickly emerged as one of OCR's bolder and more experimental contributors! The added value of being surrounded by a community like this one is getting to chat about inspirational musicians and uncovering like-minded collaboration partners. In this case, The Vodoú Queen linked up with Rockos for a production assist on her distinctive take on "FLWV", and we have the makings of something cool, according to VQ:

"This song, "Filthy Lies / Wasted Virtue", came off the back of me getting so burned out between music competitions and two other songs on the album, I just went, "Ahh, eff it...", threw the base MIDI together on Reaper, and sat staring at it for an hour. That hour passed, and, after trying too hard to fit the pieces of the puzzle together by force, I metaphorically flipped the table, and stripped the MIDI to its barest bones (about 4 tracks): bass, lead melody, harmony line, and some other synth pluck thing. And then, I muted everything bar the song's OG bass.

I dug that bassline.

I *loved* that bassline.

After I played with some sequenced bass synths from Hybrid 3, that single track struck a chord with me. And therein were the beginnings of something fruitful.

I believe the old tried and true Bob Ross adage really describes this remix in full. From that one bass track & its harmonics, honing in what I wanted to do with it, to having found further inspiration from listening to a couple of Infected Mushroom albums earlier that same day, to the random friendly convo about IM I had with my wonderful (not-quite-yet-at-the-time) collab partner a day or two prior in the general Discord group chat... it all just, fits, and honestly, I am proud of my contribution and ability to bring this song into a new light.

Phew... sorry. TL;DR -- I guess with all that said, my last few words are: keep persevering despite your self-doubts, even if there's no current clear path to your endgame. Big shout-out to the heads of this project, Darkflamewolf and Jorito, for pushing me to challenge myself, helping with their robust critiques when we needed it most, and even allowing me the benefit (even as a first-timer to these big project-type collaborations in general) to do THREE (very) differently styled songs for this headbanger of an album. Huge thank you and props to my new psytrance-loving buddy, Rockos, for his stellar additions to the track and advice on how to add more depth and fine-tuning to synths and low-end sounds. And thank *YOU*, for listening to our finished work. Hope you enjoy! :D

And always remember: "We don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents." <3"

Perseverance is often the difference between someone getting posted to OCR or not, and it's needed for really any creative endeavors worth pursuing, so respect to VQ for staying the course. As a result, we've got quite the off-kilter attention-grabbing version of "FLWV", as this never stays in one place and explores the source theme incredibly well. The production felt impactful, with dark & omnious vocals, loads of good stuttering & choppy sound design, and the overall mixing was spacious & clean. Great work by VQ and Rockos!