Easy Star All-Stars Break Down Origins of “Moonage Daydream” Cover with Rush’s Alex Lifeson: Exclusive
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The post Easy Star All-Stars Break Down Origins of “Moonage Daydream” Cover with Rush’s Alex Lifeson: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.
Origins is a recurring series giving artists a space to break down everything that went into their latest release. Today, Michael Goldwasser of Easy Star All-Stars digs into their cover of David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream.”
Reggae group Easy Star All-Stars have released a new cover of David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream,” which features Alex Lifeson of the rock band Rush. The new single is part of their upcoming album, Ziggy Stardub, a reggae reinvention of Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars.
The mesmerizing rendition strips the gritty sound of the original, leaving a slick and sultry cover in its place. Lifeson closes out the track with an ethereal guitar solo, while Naomi Cowan’s vocals flow through the chilled track, blending his celestial guitar stylings seamlessly. Perfectly balancing an aura of psychedelic and reggae, the essence of Bowie’s classic sci-fi song finds a new purpose in this genre-crossing performance.
“It’s been one of my favorite Bowie songs since I was a teenager — I’m now a few years removed from that — so it was fun to reexamine and reinterpret it now,” Easy Star All-Stars co-founder Michael Goldwasser tells Consequence.
Lifeson reveals he already had admiration for Bowie going into the recording of the track. “Bowie was such an incredible artiste and the reggae concept for the project was an interesting approach,” he explains. “Naomi Cowan’s vocals were inspiring to track to and the arrangement was fun to play to, as it should be.”
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Cowan adds, “I found it beautiful that we used the power of reggae music to give new life to these tracks. The character Ziggy Stardust represents freedom and we all know this is part of the mission of reggae — to unite the world through music. ‘Moonage Daydream’ directly introduces us to the Ziggy Stardust character, which is also why I chose this song — my last project Star Girl was similar in nature in that I envisioned her as a multi-genre musical superhero that existed in another realm/universe.”
Over the past two decades, Easy Stars All-Stars have made a name for themselves as one of the most powerful voices in reggae. The band have released several tribute albums in the past, including reggae renditions of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Radiohead’s OK Computer.
Ziggy Stardub is set to be released on April 21st via Easy Star Records; pre-orders are ongoing. The night before, Easy Star All-Stars will be performing an album release show at Sony Hall in New York City. The special April 20th performance will also showcase guests Sister Carol and the Cannabis Cup Band. Grab your tickets here.
Check out Easy Stars All-Stars’ “Moonage Daydream” below, followed by Goldwasser’s breakdown of the track’s Origins.
David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream”:
It goes without saying that our version of “Moonage Daydream” was inspired by David Bowie’s original. It’s been one of my favorite Bowie songs since I was a teenager — I’m now a few years removed from that — so it was fun to reexamine and reinterpret it now. Bowie’s version really conjures up a science fiction vibe that figuratively takes me out of this world and to a different place. And while I went heavy on the reggae vibes, I tried to pay homage to the original with some of the other instrumentation, such as the string arrangement and the interlude in the middle of the song.
Sci-fi Media:
Since Bowie’s subject matter for this song was steeped in a world of aliens, I was also inspired by all the science fiction books, movies, and television shows that I’ve enjoyed over my life. At the time that I first got into the Ziggy Stardust album, I was into reading classics by Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov — I can still remember reading that stuff on my living room couch and then going to my bedroom and falling asleep listening to the Bowie album. And the line “keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe” always makes me think of Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984, which Bowie actually explored on a subsequent album. As an adult, I still enjoy a good trip into the Star Wars universe via film and TV.
Jamaican Reggae:
Aside from Bowie and sci-fi, I took inspiration from classic Jamaican reggae sounds from the late ’70s and early ’80s when I was coming up with the arrangement of the rhythm track and then in terms of recording and mixing. I’m a big fan of producers from that era such as Junjo Lawes, Linval Thompson, Jah Thomas, etc., so I tried to create a hard drum beat with a bassline that never changes even though the chords on top of it change. And the amazing dub skills of Scientist are always an inspiration. We used a lot of analog gear to get the dub effects in this one, and there’s even a full dub version of the song included on the album.
Hypnotic Feelings:
Photo by De’Andre Bush via Unsplash
One of the things that I tried to capture with this song was a hypnotic feeling, which I did by playing the bass ine that stays the same throughout the song. In fact, I kind of fell into a zone when tracking the bass on this one where I was almost in a trance: Was I consciously playing the bass, or was the music just flowing through me? I’m hoping that when people listen to our “Moonage Daydream” or “Moonage Daydream Dub” (at top volume on big speakers!), they can concentrate on the bass and fall into the same trance that I was in when I played it.
Easy Star All-Stars Break Down Origins of “Moonage Daydream” Cover with Rush’s Alex Lifeson: Exclusive
Grace Ann Natanawan
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