Introducing our latest album "Walk, Don't Talk". Click below to check out a sample of the track, read the lyrics and check out the story behind the track by DJ Control.
To check out our previous releases, click here!
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1. Walk, don't talk
[listen to sample]
written by: A. Soivio, T. Backlund, M. Monroe / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by: Michael Monroe & Alimo / guitar, harmonica, drums & chorus bass by: Michael Monroe / horns, programming, rhodes, bass, additional drums & synth by: Tapio Backlund / guitar, scratches & dub bass by DJ Control / produced by Beats and Styles & Tapio Backlund
I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT TO KNOW IS NOT TO KNOW / AND THAT NOT TO KNOW IS TO KNOW / YOU KNOW / I DON’T KNOW / CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOU UNDERSTAND / THAT’S THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND / ABOUT THE MAN / OH MAN / IT JUST GOES TO SHOW THAT THE LESS YOU KNOW / THE MORE YOU HAVE TO SAY / THE WAY YOU PLAY / NOBODY CAN TELL YOU HOW IT’S GOT TO BE / TO BE OR NOT TO BE / IT’S UP TO ME / AND ONLY ME / CHORUS: WALK, DON’T TALK / WALK, DON’T TALK / MY BULLSHIT DETECTOR’S ON RED ALERT / IT’S MY PROTECTION AGAINST MORE HURT / SO PLEASE SPARE ME YOUR DIRT / HYPOCRACY, A GREAT LUXURY / YOU CAN SELL IT TO ANYBODY / BUT NOT TO ME / NOT ME / NOBODY CAN TELL YOU HOW IT’S GOT TO BE / TO BE OR NOT TO BE / IT’S UP TO ME / IT’S UP TO ME / CHORUS / I DON’T HAVE TO RUN FOR MY LIFE / I’M WALKING / I DON’T HAVE TO RUN FOR MY LIFE / I’M WALKING / CHORUS
This song was originally recorded at Tapio Backlund's Studio by Alimo and Tapio Backlud. Tapio's playing bass on most of our gigs. He's also producing his own band Happy Go Lucky. The whole song is about the catchy and hypnotizing groove. While filming the video for "Ocean Wave" we worked on the groove together with Michael Monroe. The lyrics are mostly some old song ideas by Alimo. We've had a lot of demos with the line "i want you to know that to know is not to know and that not to know is to know", but it never really felt right. Only after it was put down by Michael, we knew this is the way! "Walk, don't talk" means do more, get things done and speculate less!
The final touch to the track was made at our own studio where Michael played the drums and we mixed the whole track together.
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2. Move
[listen to sample]
written by: A. Soivio & J. Manninen / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by: Alimo & Minna Lehtonen / guitars, bass, programming, clavinet & percussion: DJ Control / produced by Beats and Styles & DJ Monique
THIS BLEEDING HEART DON'T BLEED THAT MUCH / I WEAR THE BULLETPROOF WEST FOR THE HUMAN TOUCH / MY MIND KEEPS GOING ON / AND I SING MY LITTLE SONG / I QUIT EATING / I QUIT SLEEPING / I WANNA STOP THIS REPEATING / DON'T FLATTER YOURSELF / IT'S NOT BECAUSE OF YOU / I'VE ALWAYS BEEN LIKE THIS / IT IS JUST THE WAY I MOVE / BRIDGE: I GOT TO KEEP ON / I CAN'T SLEEP ON / I GOT TO KEEP ON, I CAN’T SLEEP ON / CHORUS: OOH , I WANNA MOVE NOW / OOH I MOVE / OOH I WANNA MOVE NOW / OOH I MOVE / I SPENT ALL THOSE NIGHTS ALONE / LISTENING MUSIC IN MY CAR / I KEEP MOVING ON AND LET OTHERS HOLD THE BEER IN A BAR / BUT STILL I GO AND I'M DREAMING / IT'S SO HARD FOR ME TO STAY AWAKE / AND WHEN YOUR HEART IS BLEEDING / THEN YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY FAKED / NOW I GOT TO WORK SO MUCH HARDER TO KEEP MY SPIRIT ALIVE / AND THERE IS NO REASON TO STAY BY YOUR SIDE / I KEEP MOVING / I KEEP MOVING, HEY! / BRIDGE / CHORUS / BRIDGE / WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG / THE LIGHT IS BRIGHTER THE TASTE IS SWEETER ON THE NIGHTS OF WONDER / UNDER THE BRIDGE I HAVE TO FACE THE TRUTH / I WAS RUNNING AFTER YOU / CAN YOU EASE UP MY STATE OF MIND / WHEN YOU SEE ME GETTING HIGH / I JUST CAN'T HELP MYSELF / I'M STILL MAN / GOTTA TRY, AYE! / CHORUS
The music was originally created in Frankfurt together with DJ Monique, who's done some great remix work for us. I went there to do some new house stuff, but after playing around with some old blues records this groove came out. At the same time as the beat was being made, Alimo was being locked out of the apartment he was sharing with his girlfriend at the time. Girlfriend had left the country for 5 days and so Alimo had to stay in his car for that time without change of clothes, ID or a bank card. He wrote the lyrics during that weekend in several sessions with some cool random people. When I came back from Frankfurt with the beat and played it to Alimo, he just ran into the singing booth and we basically recorded that track on the spot! The song is all about turning the next page in life, trying to make a change, making the next move and also, moving out of that apartment he couldn't get in to!
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3. Ocean Wave
[listen to sample]
written by: A. Soivio, J. Manninen & M. Monroe / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Alimo & Michael Monroe / acoustic&electric guitar, programming by DJ Control / guitar, shaker & piano by Michael Monroe / produced by Beats and Styles & Michael Monroe
CHORUS: WE’RE SO ALONE SO ALONE / CAN YOU BELIEVE ME / CAN YOU HEAR ME / SO ALONE SO ALONE / CAN YOU BELIEVE ME / CAN YOU FEEL ME / IF YOU DON’T SEEK / IT FINDS YOU / OCEAN WAVE / THAT DROWNS YOU / NOW AWAKE / CRYING OUT / DROWN AGAIN / INTO THE SOUND / INTO THE SOUND / I'M REACHING OUT / AND IT'S NOT THERE / FALLING INTO THE SILENCE / THE INNER REACHES FOR THE ONE / TIMELESS INSTANCE / IT COMES AND IT SEEKS YOU / I TRIED TO CATCH / AND CONTAIN IT / BUT IT'S GONE / BUT IT’S GONE / CHORUS / I'M IN EMPTINESS AGAIN / DEEP PASSIVE WAITING / IT'S SO DELICATE / PRECARIOUS / THAT IT'S EASY TO MISS / AND I MUST ADMIT THAT THERE AIN’T NOTHING / SO BEAUTIFUL / LIKE THE MELODY / THAT YOU HEAR / WHEN YOU DON’T LISTEN / WHEN YOU DON’T LISTEN / CHORUS
This has been a true cornerstone in the history of Beats and Styles. This was created during the most depressing winter in Helsinki. Alimo wrote it while I was on my honeymoon in Cuba and Mexico. This song was his escape. It can be seen in many ways, but one of the key ideas in the lyrics is that being alone is not meant to be seen as a negative thing, it's more like freedom! Freedom from opinions, freedom from egos, freedom from roles...
Musically we wanted to create a Röyksopp-style etheric feeling to the song. In the beginning it seemed to be a shock to the people around us: "How can you make a song like this? This is not Beats and Styles! You should make party music!" were the main reactions. The only person who really saw the potential in the track was Michael Monroe and he started to work on the track with us. Especially Alimo felt this song as a very personal thing and he tried to push it to our label a lot, but the reactions weren't too excited. It started to feel that people we're trying to categorize us. Because we really believed into the song, we thought that we should probably go our own ways with this new album and take the next step forward. This was the first single we released from the album and it's been doing really well. In the shows it's also a great twist of style.
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4. See the Signs
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio, C. Salter, A. Nordell, P. Mulholland / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by: Alimo, Anorah & Max’C / guitars, bass & programming by DJ Control / synths programming by Peter Mulholland / produced by Beats and Styles
NOW IS THE TIME, TO START PUSH IT THROUGH / AND THE FACE REALITY, IN ALL THE THINGS WE DO / WE CAN BUILD UP ONE NATION, UNDER A GROOVE / 'CAUSE THE BOOK OF LIFE, IS WRITTEN ON YOU / I WANNA SEE THE SIGNS / I WANNA SEE THE SIGNS / CHORUS: LIFE IS ONE BIG ROAD BUT CAN WE SEE THE SIGNS? / CAN WE SEE THE SIGNS? / LIFE IS ONE BIG ROAD BUT CAN WE SEE THE SIGNS? / I WANNA SEE THE SIGNS? / FREE, FREE LET'S ALL JUST BE / A MAN IS NOT DEFINED BY SOCIETY / TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY / ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, THERE'S NO GUARANTEE / SO EASY TO LOSE YOURSELF, TRYING TO BE SOMEONE ELSE / BUT LIFE'S AN ENDLESS ROAD / WHEN YOU GOTTA CARRY A HEAVY LOAD / A HEAVY LOAD / CHORUS / ALWAYS HIT AND RUN / NO THOUGHT ABOUT TOMORROW / CHANGE IS SOON TO COME / IF WE SEE SIGNS / CHORUS
We were doing a show at the Faroe Islands togehter with a finnish dance producer Heikki Liimatainen. There we thought that we should make a song together. Heikki brought some cool drum samples into the studio and we started working on the track from there. The idea was to make a strong, in your face 80's dance rock pop track. After the cheezy 80's synth riffs and electric guitars were put down, Alimo came out with the concept of the song "The Power of Now", which is a common phrase in the "self-help" literature. It's about seizing the moment and not living in the past or in the future. The present time is the main thing. But of course life is about making decisions and then we decided to use this saying that Bob Marley has once used: Life is a road, you just have to see the signs. It felt good with the context of the song and we put it down. We put down some female vocals and laid down the verses. Max'C came to help out with some of the lines and we did various variations of the verses. After the album started to get a structure we felt that we need to work on the female vocals a bit more, and maybe the euro-dancy sound that it had at the time. We asked Anorah from Sweden to come to work on the female vox. The phrase "Power of now" seemed to turn into "Power of love" in peoples minds, and I didn't feel natural with it. I decided to remove the line "Power of now" and set the focus on "See the Signs", just to clarify it. I also remixed the track to be more rocky with stronger guitar riffs and more breaks and also more dynamics, not so much of the over compressed "dance pump".
The people working with us really felt that this is a strong track and that we should offer it to the Eurovision song contest game that we were invited to. We put the track in and the people at the Finnish Broadcasting company seemed really excited about it. The song went in alongside the track "Sounds of Freedom".
Right until the last minute we decided to change the track to "Take it Back" because it felt more natural and less obvious "eurovision hit". But after we withdrew this song from the competition, the people at the Finnish Broadcasting company urged us to put it back in. And so we did, and the people eventually voted it as our entry song in the competition, so a lucky escape there.
There's still people who really think that the first versions with the line "Power of Now" is the one and only version of the song, so there is plans to make a re-mix of it in that style, too! So stay tuned!
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5. Sweet Love
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen & A. Soivio / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Alimo, Minna Lehtonen, Tapio Backlund / guitars, bass, reggae drums & programming by DJ Control / drums by Erno “Ernie ‘08” Aaltonen / produced by Beats and Styles
CHORUS: SWEET LOVE GOT ME DANCING A DI DISCO / SWEET LOVE GOT ME MOVING A DI DISCO / SWEET LOVE GOT ME JAMMING A DI DISCO / SWEET LOVE TAKING OVER ALL OVER / TIME TO EXPAND LOGICAL PROGRESSION / THIS A BEATS AND STYLES AGAIN INNA DI SESSION / THIS IS NOT MATERIAL COMPETITION / INNA MUSIC AND ART WE FOLLOW INTUITION / BRIDGE: LIFT ME UP AND TAKE ME HIGH / LET ME WALK TO THE OTHER SIDE / CHORUS / IN YOUR HEART YOU FEEL IT TO / THIS RIDDIM AND A BEAT GONNA MAKE YOU MOVE / WE DON'T BLAME YOU IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO / LET THIS MELODY GUIDE YOU THROUGH / BRIDGE / CHORUS / WHEN ME PON THE MIC / ME KNOW ME ROCK IT / DISSA RIDDIM GOES UP LIKE A ROCKET / COFFEE PAPA ALIMO / ME CAN'T STOP IT / ME USED TO BE A B-BOY / AND TOP ROCK IT / INNA DI DANCEHALL ‘TING / ME KNOW ME SHOCK IT / NEGATIVE THINKING ME JUST DROP IT / POSITIVE VIBRATIONS ALL WAYS LOCK IT / RESPECT A ONE ANOTHER / CHORUS
We've always been fans of reggae music. In the recent years of "reggae comeback" there has been quite little emphasis on 80's reggae disco brought up by the likes of 3rd World etc. This song really started to come out through the bassline idea that's kind of reggae-ish, but still very uplifting and groovy. After the beat was put together we went to do a show on a cruise boat sailing in the Baltic Sea and filled with drunken Finnish students. While waiting for the show to start we put up the recordin equipment in the cabin and Alimo put down the lyrics he'd written earlier. It was a fun session and even in the last version there's some good lines from there. We also performed the track on that same cruise for the first time!
"Sweet Love" is one of those "Alimo"-catchlines that he's been offering to a lot of tracks, but in this musical context it felt the most natural. The lyrics are also about the freedom and good vibes you can feel on the dancefloor. The sweet love coming through a big soundsystem in a form of music.
The reggae break for the 3rd verse we came up with in some jam session on a soundcheck.
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6. Sounds of Freedom
[listen to sample]
lwritten by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio & D. Wahlgren / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Papa Dee & Alimo / guitars, bass & organ by DJ Control / drums by Erno “Ernie ‘08” Aaltonen / trumpet & rhodes by Tapio Backlund / saxophone by Linda Fredriksson / produced by Beats and Styles
STRAIGHT FROM THE SOUL, VIBES THAT WE KNOW / PEOPLE RUN COME FOLLOW WE / CROWD GATHER ROUND, CAN'T HOLD WE DOWN / TIME TO EXPRESS OURSELVES / FREE UP YOUR MIND AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW / FREE UP YOUR MIND AND LET GO / UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL / TOGETHER WE'LL BREAK DOWN THAT WALL / BRIDGE: SOUND OPERATOR, IT'S ON YOU / BEAT NAVIGATOR IT'S ON YOU / STYLE INNOVATOR IT'S ON YOU / IT'S ON YOU, IT'S ON YOU / CHORUS: SOUNDS OF FREEDOM / COME ON ROCK AWAY / SOUNDS OF FREEDOM / TODAY'S SOUND TODAY / SOUNDS OF FREEDOM / JUST COME ON ROCK AWAY / SOUNDS OF FREEDOM, SOUNDS OF FREEDOM, SOUNDS OF FREEDOM / COOL DOWN THE PACE, NO MORE RAT RACE / TONIGHT WE'RE JUST ROCKING IT TIGHT / WOMAN AND MAN, ONE MASTERPLAN / FROM DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT / FREE UP YOUR MIND AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW / FREE UP YOUR MIND AND LET GO / UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL / TOGETHER WE'LL BREAK DOWN THAT WALL / BRIDGE / CHORUS / DIS ‘A WAY WE A ROCK NOW ‘PON DI VERSION / SOUNDS OF FREEDOM REACH 'CROSS THE NATION / SO DON'T BE SCARED TO BE PERFECTLY FREE / OPEN YOURSELF TO REALITY / LIKE A CHILD, PERFECTLY FREE / CHORUS
This song was actually supposed to be in our previous album, but with a name "Champion Sound". It's a song about 3rd world countries and places where life is a more difficult in our Scandinavian high standard of living. It's about putting up a party on the streets, bringing your sound system and letting the music bring the quality to life that the poverty and bad social situations might not bring.
We did this toghter with our long-time idol Papa Dee from Sweden, who's also been featuring in our previous albums (on songs like "Girls Anthem" and "Left me and Gone). There was a lot of influence from the dub styles of Studio 1's great sound engineers. When we were building the track Alimo came up with the idea: "Let's call it Sounds of Freedom". Me and Papa Dee weren't really feeling that idea at the time ad the song ended up being called "Champion Sound".
So, the track was never on the last album, because the record company people thought it was "too different" and the song stayed in the drawer. Last year we started to build up a full live reggae-set with our backing band and we called it "Live at Bar". We recorded some of the jam sessions. In one of the sessions we did this song in a retro reggae-rock style – influenced by the track "Crucial" from the great Canadian rapper K-OS. The bad quality demo recording had just incredible energy and feeling and in the live situation Alimo re-introduced the line "Sounds of Freedom" to the chorus and it really felt like it clicked perfectly together. So we decided to make a full live version of the track and the end result did capture the good feeling of the jam session.
On the New Red Hot Chili Peppers album there's a great track with some horn sections, so we had to have our own energetic horns in this one too!
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7. Girls Look Like Boys
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen & A. Soivio / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Alimo / programming by DJ Control / produced by Beats and Styles
SEXY GIRL / SEXY BOY / SEXY BOY / SEXY GIRL / CHORUS: GIRLS WHO LOOK LIKE BOYS / BOYS WHO LOOK LIKE GIRLS / GIRLS WHO LOOK LIKE BOYS / BOYS WHO LOOK LIKE GIRLS / BODY MOVE, BODY ROCK / CHECK THIS OUT / I’M GOING TO KNOCK YOU OUT / JUMP AND SHOUT / WE PLAY LATE AND LOUD / SEXY GIRL / SEXY BOY / SEXY BOY / SEXY GIRL / CHORUS / BODY MOVE, BODY ROCK / TURN IT UP LOUD / GOT TO GET DOWN / BRAND NEW SOUND / WE PLAY LATE AND LOUD / SEXY GIRL / SEXY BOY / SEXY BOY / SEXY GIRL / CHORUS / BODY MOVE, BODY ROCK / SEXY GIRL / SEXY BOY / SEXY BOY / SEXY GIRL / CHORUS
Although this album is more personal and organic than our previous record, we still do have a heart for all kinds of crazy things. While we were doing the finishing touches to the record, Alimo somehow said that line out and it was so stupid and catchy and kinky that we HAD to make a song for it. The idea was to make the beat so minimal and clean that it would have to biggest dynamics and punch. It felt so good that because we got to push this album out by ourselves, we didn't have to explain to anyone why we want to put this crazy song into the record. This song is on the album just to fresh up your ears, just to wake you up and just to make you move! And wait until you see the video for this!
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8. Take it Back
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio & D. Wahlgren / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Papa Dee, Alimo, Pauliina Kokkonen & Max’C / guitars, bass, keyboards by DJ Control / drums by Tuukka Heikkinen / cello by Elisa Wistuba / produced by Beats and Styles
FEELING KINDA' LOW, GOT NOWHERE TO GO / I'M BORED OUT OF MY MIND / I'M STILL ON THE RUN, SHE STILL THINKS SHE'S THE ONE / I FEEL I NEED SOME TIME / BRIDGE: SOMEHOW WE WILL ALWAYS BE CONNECTED / SOMEHOW THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A WAY, COME ON NOW / CHORUS: YOU CAN TAKE IT BACK, ONE DAY / TAKE IT BACK, ONE DAY / YOU CAN TAKE IT BACK, ONE DAY / TAKE IT BACK, ONE DAY / FINALLY I'M FREE, THE FEAR OF BEING ME / IS LONG GONE AND I'M ALRIGHT / YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT I'M A BETTER MAN / WISH YOU COULD HAVE SEEN THAT SIDE / BRIDGE / CHORUS / GOOD THING GOING ON / NOW THAT THING IS GONE / WE GOT TO KEEP ON MOVING / LOOK BACK AND I SMILE / HAPPY FOR A WHILE / BUT TIMES ARE ALWAYS CHANGING / BRIGE / CHORUS / I WANT YOU ALL TO STAND UP AND MAKE YOURSELF HEARD / YOU CAN DO IT IF YOU WANT, COME ON / WE CAN DO IT IF WE WANT, COME ON / YOU CAN DO IT IF YOU WANT, COME ON / WE CAN DO IT IF WE WANT, COME ON / CHORUS
Take it back was done after Alimo had been hanging out with some nice rock pop people from the Dynasty collective (behind bands like Kwan and the Rasmus). He was very impressed by their focus on emotions and beauty in the music. We wanted to bring Black Eyed Peas style live hip hop punch into a RHCP and U2 style melodic pop song. After the music and melodies were put together, it was again one of those "is this Beats and Styles style music?" moments, but by then we had already learned that when you feel like that, it's a way forward and into something new.
We flew Papa Dee over to do a session with him and he was feeling the song. The chorus "Take it Back" sounded so fresh already in the first demo (the actual first demo recording by Alimo is in the final mix). Papa Dee worked on the melodies and styles for the verses and we started to work on the idea for the verse lyrics. A lot of discussion about break up and so on was going on and again Papa Dee impressed us with his way of simplifying things in to lyrics. Often you start to go too complicated when trying to make things sound "poetic". Simple is the key! Then in the end we felt like there needs to be something between the chorus and the verses and the "Somehow we will always be connected" part came about. It was clear that it wasn't for a male voice register and that we should get some nice girl to do that part. We got Pauliina Kokkonen, who I've been working with on my other project Humane, and her voice fit there perfectly. To give a finishing touch we recorded some live cellos and added a c-part with Max'C. A very important role in the final version is also in Tuukka "Pröitsi" Heikkinen's drum tracks.
We feel that this is probably one of the best songs we've done so far!
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9. Snapshot
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio & D. Webster / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Alimo & Jus Red / guitars, drums, bass & programming by DJ Control / produced by DJ Control
CHORUS / SNAPSHOT, IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP / LET’S ROCK / GET DOWN AND SHAPE UP / GET HOT / WE HEAT THE PLACE UP / SNAPSHOT / EVERYBODY WAKE UP / CATCH THE MOMENT AND BELIEVE / ANYTHING YOU CAN CONCIEVE / CAN BE THERE FOR YOU TO SEE / IT’S UP TO YOU SO TAKE THE LEAD / DON’T BE SCARED TO BE NAIVE / LEARN YOUR OWN WAY TO SUCCEED / SING THE CHORUS AND BELIEVE / SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT / JUST ONE MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE / JUST ONE SECOND OF YOUR TIME / CAN BE ALL YOU NEED TO FIND / THAT REAL PERSON DEEP INSIDE / PAINT THOSE PICTURES IN YOUR MIND / REALITY AND TRUE TO LIFE / NO-ONE CAN TELL YOU WHAT’S RIGHT / IT’S ONLY YOU THAT CAN DECIDE / SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT, SNAPSHOT / DO WHAT YOU WANNA DO / SAY WHAT YOU GONNA / TAKE THE LEAD FULL SPEED / YOU DON’T WANNA FOLLOW / DON’T DO IT FOR THE DOUGH / DO IT FOR THE HONOUR / IT’S THE BEATS AND STYLES HERE TO PUT IT ON YA’ / TREAT EVERY DAY LIKE THE FIRST DAY OF SUMMER / RELAX YOUR MIND ONE TIME / LET ME SET IT FOR YA’ / NOW I TELL YOU THE WAY TO GO / ‘CAUSE THESE DAYS I’M A TELL YOU IT PAYS TO KNOW / CHORUS /
We've had a few songs that have been solely based on a catchy word or phrase and we've then built the whole track around it. Snapshot is one of those songs and phrases. We did a very strong and straight forward rock-electro track. I heard some cool 70's electro on Bassoradio before going to the studio and we thought that the kind of haunting clear synth melody should be the hook instead of some sing-along chorus.
The background became very strong and we flew MC Jus Red from the UK to Finland to work on that and some other songs that we had done.
The lyrics are about the same "seize the moment" thing. If you try to think about past things, you don't really see them as a film, but more like flashes of images, snapshots. The idea of the song is that you can make any moment in your life so important that you'll remember that exact snapshot even after many years. It's one of our "motivation rap"-songs alongside songs like "Everything is Everything", which also features MC Jus Red.
When the song was ready and Jus Red had left we played the song at some festivals and it felt really good. But for listening puposes it felt like it was missing something. We had built it in a very typical "pop arrangement" with a verse, bridge and then chorus. But because we didn't really have a proper chorus, just a crazy haunting synth melody, it didn't really work the way it maybe should have.
Right as we were finishing the album I decided to make one more remix of the song... now it was more about forgetting the pop structure and just make a song that you can listen to a lot. Taking influence from people like the Chemical Brothers I wanted to make the song more progressive and more "groovy". I played some crazy live drum loops to it (in the middle of the night, so that the neighbours came behind the door banging, I just stopped playing and pretended I wasn't there!) and started to turn it around and simplify it. To create a good dynamic punch, you have to have strong parts, but before and after the strong parts you have to have silent parts. I also wanted to create a fusion of very electronic hard sounds and live sounds so that you don't know is it an electronic quitar or is it a synth. Well, it's both!
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10. Tonite feat. Jus Red
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio & D. Webster / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Alimo & Jus Red / guitars, bass, drums & programming by DJ Control / produced by Beats and Styles
CHORUS: YOU KNOW SE’ WE A’ GO DANCE TONITE / YOU KNOW SE’ WE A’ GO MOVE TONITE / YOU KNOW SE’ WE A’ GO ROCK TONITE / YOU KNOW SE’ WE A’ GO SWEAT TONITE / ALL A FRESH / PUT ME BEST SUIT ON / TWO SPLASH A COLOGNE AND THEN ME GONE / WHEN ME REACH THE NIGHTCLUB / DEM A RING DI ALARM / ‘CAUSE THE BEATS AND STYLES WE A CONTROL THE ‘LARM / BIG THINGS DEM A GO RUN TONITE / LET ME SEE THEM HANDS UP INNA DI LASER LIGHT / DRINK ME A DRINK ‘TIL ME FEELIN’ RIGHT / ME CAN’T STOP WHEN I START WITH THE PARTY VIBE, WE GO / CHORUS / TWELVE O’CLOCK THE DANCEFLOOR STARTS FILLING / ONE O’CLOCK WE GET THE CHAMPAGNE CHILLING / WHEN TWO O’CLOCK COMES YOU CAN FIND ME BY THE BAR / DRUNK AS A SKUNK WITH ABOUT TEN WOMEN / IF YOU LIKE WE CAN FIND THE NEXT CLUB / WIND UP TO REGGAE AND SKUNK TO DUB / WHEN THE NIGHT-TIME A COME / AND I DO WHAT I WANT / SO GIMME THAT SWEET RUB-A-DUB / CHORUS / WAKE ME UP, IT’S TIME TO GO / EVERYBODY ON THE FLOOR TELL ME DO YOU WANT MORE / WAKE ME UP, COME ON LET’S GO / TIME TO LET THEM KNOW THAT YOU ARE STAR OF THE SHOW / WIND YOUR BODY THEN / MOVE YOUR BODY THEN / LIFT YOUR FOOT AND SKUNK AND WIGGLE DEM / MOVE YOUR BODY THEN / LIFT YOUR FOOT AND SKUNK AND WIGGLE DEM / CHORUS
This is a fun mixture of blues and reggae. We originally wanted to make a remake of Snow's "Infomer", but ended having nothing to do with that track and creating our own song, that I think is even stronger! The idea to the chorus style came from this Studio 1 documentary that Alimo had bought. There was somebody explaining about how they started to use the delay effect in dub style. They we're advertising a dance somewhere in Jamaica by having speakers on a back of a car and just going to the microphone through the delay like "Tonite, nite, nite, nite, nite...." We've been promoters ourselves and we've been doing the exact same thing, but by making posters that just say "Tonite" and going in the night before to ram the whole city with these posters. They were always great parties and we wanted to bring the idea into a song format.
Jus Red never fails with his melodic party lyrics and we put some good old school style guitars and horns into it to make it sound retro, but still banging in the clubs. A great example of "things falling into the right places".
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11. Boat Trip to Mars feat. Anorah
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio, A. Nordell & V. Kyttälä / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Anorah & Alimo / guitars, bass & programming by DJ Control / drums by Erno “Ernie ‘08” Aaltonen / lead synth by Ville Kyttälä / produced by Beats and Styles
CHORUS: I FLY / CREATED BY STARS / I FLY / A BOAT TRIP TO MARS / GOT SPACE ON MY MIND / STAR WARS IN MY HEAD / ALIEN SPACE SHIPS FLY IN MY BED / COUPLE OF LIGHTYEARS MINUTES AGO / IN MY OWN BEDROOM / WONDERING HOW FAR I COULD GO / CHORUS / I´VE SAID HI! TO A FISH / PLAYED CHESS WITH A GEEK / GOT THE FINGER FROM E.T. / ‘CAUSE I CALLED HIM A FREAK / PASSING A COBRA, ITCHING HIS KNEES / WHILE ELVIS IS SINGING / ASTRONOMICAL MELODIES / CHORUS / HOW LONG WE HAVE TO WAIT / TO HEAR THE MUSIC / STILL YOU’RE STANDING THERE / AND YOU DON’T SEE THE BEAUTY / YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES, TO BE HAPPY / JUST FOLLOW WE AND FEEL FREE / CHORUS
We flew Anorah from Sweden to work on the track "See the Signs". After that track was recorded, we had a couple of hours before her flight back. We had recorded some punk-style drums by Ernie '08 (our gig drummer) in the same session as we recorded "Sounds of Freedom". We'd been jamming some punk riffs and singing the lyrics from the 90's dance classic "Big Fun" on some gigs, so I played the same riff I'd been playing in the gigs and again Alimo had some demo lyrics that never really seemed to fit anywhere. When he was offering that idea about "I fly, created by stars", Anna started to tell that just the other night she had been mumbling something about boat trip to mars in her sleep to her boyfriend. That sounded so crazy that we had to put it together. We quickly laid down the music on the drum track and she wrote the first verse with Alimo and sang the beautiful etheric chorus in. Later on we added some crazy synth sounds and melodies with our gig keyboard player Ville Kyttälä. The 3rd verse with Alimo was actually something Alimo had been jamming on some gigs on the groove and it now seemed to fit there perfectly.
We wanted to keep it raw and minimal and I think that's how it ended up... one of my favourites on the album.
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12. Interlude (Don't take the world with you) feat. Humane
[listen to sample]
I'm also producing this band called Humane and we've always been talking with Kimi, the front man and songwriter of the band, that we should make a Beats and Styles track together. Kimi said that we should make a nice summer-vibe hip hop track. He already had the chorus idea ready and I liked it a lot. I wanted to make a banging hip hop beat with some retro Curtis Mayfield sounding instrument parts... Everyone's really liked the beat, but I haven't really got anyone to do some decent verses to it, yet. So I decided to put it in as an interlude so that if somebody out there would like to pick it up. It's like Madonna's track "Justify my Love" was an instrumental on Public Enemy's "It takes a nation of millions to hold us back".
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13. We don't get it
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio & D. Wahlgren / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Papa Dee & Alimo / backing vocals by Pauliina Kokkonen, Minna Lehtonen & Ville Kyttälä / guitars, bass, keyboards & drums by DJ Control / produced by Beats and Styles
AS LONG AS WE DON'T SEE THINGS SIMPLE AS THEY ARE / THIS TRIBAL THINKING SURE AIN'T GONNA TAKE US FAR / SO MANY REASONS FOR US TO JUST MOVE ON / INSTEAD WE'RE STUCK / THERE'S NOTHING REALLY GOING ON / CHORUS / IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY / IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY / WE DON'T GET IT / WE JUST DON'T GET IT / THE WORLD IS TURNING / IT GETS WEIRDER EVERY DAY / I KEEP MY COOL / AND LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY / AN OPEN MIND MIGHT NOT ALWAYS BE ENOUGH / 'CAUSE THINGS GET DREADY / YES IT'S ROUGHER THAN ROUGH / CHORUS / HOW DID WE GET THIS FAR AND STILL IT'S NOT TOO LATE / WHATEVER HAPPENS / SINCE WE GET A CLEAN SLATE / WELL IF THERE'S HELL BELOW / WE'RE ALL GONNA GO / IT'S PURE AND SIMPLE / I JUST WANNA LET YOU KNOW / CHORUS / WHO'S THE OUTLAW / WHO'S THE TERRORIST / WHO'S THE NEXT ONE PON THE DEAD MAN LIST / THINGS ARE GETTING HEAVY / NO MORE FIST TO FIST / EVERYWHERE I TURN IT'S A DANGER BUSINESS / WELL THE KIND OF SIGNS THAT WE CAN’T DISMISS / CRAZY PEOPLE WITH POWER / DEM N'A SHOOT AND MISS / WELL DEVIL A DO IT / SO BRING IN THE EXORCIST / COME LISTEN PAPA DEE / ME ARE THE CHEMIST INNA DIS! / CHORUS
A lot of the songs on the album have come out so that we've been making it ready together with Alimo... usually having an idea from Alimo and then working it from there and then in the later phase invite some cool taleted person to help us with the track. Sometimes it's also very inspirational to create the song just out of a scratch with someone, like we usually did with our first album, for example. While Papa Dee was over in Finland working on "Take it Back", we thought that we should also create something completely new together. So this came up! We started with the beat and just took it from there. The ragga verse is actually on some previous Papa Dee track, but it just seemed to fit in this one so perfectly.
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14. Round the Clock
[listen to sample]
I met Apache Indian and his crew at the Midem Fair in Cannes in 2005. We've been playing the track "Shock there" a lot when we were playing more dancehall style in our NuSoul clubnights. It was great to make a connection. He was about to release his new album at the time and needed a video for the first single, a cover of "Israelites". I played them a lot of our videos and they were totally stoked. So we decided to set up a date for the video shoot in Finland. After the video shoot he wanted to stay in Finland to stay for the editing. And while we worked on the edit, we also did this old school ragga influenced track together with him. It was supposed to be on our "Everything is Everything" album, but again our label at the time thought it was a bit too much out of line! This track is probably going to be on Apache Indian's Indian edition of his last album.
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15. Cut like a knife
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio, C. Salter & D. Webster / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by: Jus Red, Alimo & Max’C / guitars, bass & programming by DJ Control / produced by Beats and Styles
CHORUS: SOMETIMES / IT CUTS ME LIKE A KNIFE / JUST CUTS ME LIKE A KNIFE / AND YOU KNOW THAT THAT AIN’T RIGHT / WHY YOU WANNA ACT THAT WAY / WHY YOU WANNE PLAY THESE GAMES / WHY YOU WANNA CAUSE ME PAIN / THEN TURN AROUND AND DO IT ALL AGAIN / WHY YOU WANNA ACT LIKE THAT / YEAH, TALKING BEHIND MY BACK / JUST REST YOUR MOUTH AND EASE UP / ‘CAUSE TOO MUCH BAD VIBES CAN STIR TROUBLE UP, SO / CHORUS / I THOUGHT ME AND YOU WAS FRIENDS / I WON’T MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN / WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO IN THE END / IS YOUR ENVIOUS OF THE PLACE THAT I’M IN AND / YOU JUST WANT WHAT I GOT / MY GIRL, MY RIDE AND THESE BEATS THAT I ROCK / IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU FIXED UP / ‘CAUSE ONE OF THESE DAYS / YOU’RE GONNA RUN OUT OF LUCK, SO / CHORUS / THEY EAT AND THEY DRINK WITH YOU / BUT BEHIND THEY ARE READY TO MAKE A MOVE / IT IS HARD TO KNOW WHO TO TRUST / BUT INNA END IT’S ABOUT TO TRUST IN YOURSELF / VERSE 1 / CHORUS
There's a lot of very organic and live sounding tracks on the album, but I think that some good basic breaks and samples are sometimes worth of gold when trying to make a banging tune. I think the kind of early 90's Cypress Hill meets Gnarls Barkley style fits this song about back stabbing perfectly. At the same time it's laid back, but also heavy hitting. You get so much more distinct dynamics with clean sample beats... Alimo put down the original vocals down and Jus Red took care of the verses. In the end we ended up putting Max'C on the choruses and Alimo on the C-part. Again some great vocal work from our trusted MC Jus Red.
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16. Give and Take
[listen to sample]
written by: J. Manninen, A. Soivio, C. Salter & Ville Kyttälä / published by Beats and Styles Songs & Sony/ATV Music Publishing Sweden Ab / vocals by Alimo & Max’C / guitars and programming by DJ Control / keyboards & bass by Ville Kyttälä
CHORUS: IT’S A BOUT THE GIVE AND TAKE / LIFE’S ABOUT THE GIVE AND TAKE / IT’S ABOUT THE GIVE AND TAKE / JUST A GAME OF GIVE AND TAKE / YOU KNOW THE SITUATION / TAKES LOTS OF CONCENTRATION / AND SOME HIGHER MEDITATION / TO REACH OUR DESTINATION / CHORUS / FIRST YOU GIVE THE INSPIRATION / THEN YOU FIND THE MOTIVATION / TO MEET THE EXPECTATIONS / BUT WE’RE LOST IN TRANSLATIONS / CHORUS / NO MORE REGULATIONS / FOR ALL THE POPULATION / ALL ACROSS THE NATION / IT’S TIME FOR A CELEBRATION / CHORUS
Very much inspired by the track "Miss You" by Rolling Stones, we wanted to put the acid jazz together with 70's rock disco sounds. The groove is very hypnotic and the self-help style lyrics keep rolling nicely. I think the main thing about the track is the feeling and the athmosphere. Simple thing are the best, like just the simple guitar riff with the straight beat and groovy bassline. It works really nicely also with the live band. After some harder hands in the air tracks this one really makes you wanna dance... We've been experimenting on the idea of laid back tracks that would still be working on the dancefloor, alongside "Ocean Wave" this is one of the examples. Great vocal work from Max'C again in the choruses and 4th verse. We also took our gig keyboard player Ville to spice it up in the end. A good last track, I think!
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