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Stemchain: A global remix initiative

Remember that old game telephone? You start with a phrase, whisper into the ear of the person next to you, and as it gets passed down the line of people the phrase gets twisted and changed? Well, Stemchain, the newest project from 8Stem founder Bruce Pavitt, uses a similar concept, but it’s all about song.

Stemchain is a music sharing initiative and talent discovery contest, which gives amateur musicians in a given country, access to music stems that they can remix and revamp to their personal tastes. Those remixes are then entered into a pool for that country, and the winning submission receives exclusive distribution rights to the song. The winning song will be turned into stems and used in the next country where the competition takes place. Each pack of stems is available on the Stemchain site for three dollars.

The original song is called “Love You Better” and is written and performed by Daniel Pak. The first stop on the Stemchain global initiative was Mexico. A Mexico City producer named Borchi was the winner on this leg of the trip, with his remix titled, “LVUBTR”. The original by Daniel Pak is a straight up reggae song, but Borchi’s remix ­was influenced by Rasterinha, a style of Brazilian electronic music. It’s almost a completely different song from the original.

But that’s the whole point. Music is nothing if not diverse. So, the beauty of Stemchain being a global initiative is that we expose ourselves to genres that we may not usually come into contact with. The project is made for musicians alone. It bypasses mainstream media to remain as an independent project and source of inspiration for aspiring musicians. The end goal is to discover hidden gems; wells of untapped talent in the music scene that just need an outlet to showcase their skills.

The project is now on it’s Canadian leg of the journey, and 12 stems from Borchi’s “LVUBTR” are the pieces that musicians will have to work with. Each musician who downloads the stems has full creative control over their version of the song. We all know that Toronto is ripe with musical talent, just take Spadina station buskers for an example. If you have musician friends let them know about this! They could be the next big thing.

Thomas Dennett

Past student, current writer and future superhero if all goes according to plan. I love all things musical and geeky. When I'm not writing scripts or lists I'm probably playing music, reading graphic novels, doodling monsters in a notebook or melting into my bed and playing video games.

Thomas Dennett has 18 posts and counting. See all posts by Thomas Dennett

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