I have already written about the passing of the great sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, but his influence extended well beyond literature and film. But he has also had a profound impact on the world of music, as noted in this LA Times article which cites Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ as the first major song written around the work of Bradbury.
But it is another of the tracks mentioned on the list that brought back memories. Back in March I remember my younger son being diligent at getting loads of stuff done, with a specific purpose in mind: Deadmau5 was live-streaming a session in which he planned to write a new song based on the Ray Bradbury short story ‘The Veldt’.
My son was up late at night and then up again early the next day, and during this time the creation process proceeded along … and suddenly there was a vocal track that had been created by someone named Chris James, who had created the track and shared it on SoundCloud. To me it was an amazing demonstration of the collaborative power of technology at its best.
Here is a description from Mix Magazine:
Sunday night nearly 5,000 fans joined deadmau5 at XS Nightclub in Las Vegas as he celebrated the release of his latest single, ‘The Veldt’, which is available on iTunes.
The title track, ‘The Veldt,’ was created over the weekend of March 17- 18 during a 22 hour live streaming session, and was inspired by a short Sci-Fi story written by Ray Bradbury.
The next day deadmau5 found that his fans were tweeting him about a vocal version on Soundcloud. When deadmau5 heard the fan’s version he was totally blown away, and messaged the vocalist, Chris James, that he was going to officially release it with his vocals (again all on his live stream).
A short while later he got his manager and Chris on the phone to work out the details and asked him to add another verse. This entire creative journey was captured on the live stream for his fans to see as it unfolded.
The Veldt was, with the full EP due in late June.
Here is the YouTube clip for the ‘radio edit’ of The Veldt: