Podcast: Pnau Talks Remixing Elton John

The collaboration between Australian dance duo PNAU and Sir Elton John is a bit of a homage to that old fairy tale line: ‘he’s a knight in shining armour’…

Peter Mayes and Nick Littlemore – the pair behind PNAU (amongst a zillion other projects – i.e. Empire of the Sun with their mate Luke Steele) have just finished an epic project where the royally knighted Sir gave the boys unrivalled access to his entire music archive.

Getting intimately acquainted with Elton’s old masters collection, mainly from 1970-1976, resulted in PNAU creating a unique remix project. Using bits and pieces taken from hundreds of tracks, the album Good Morning to the Night – Elton John vs. PNAU gives birth to 8 original, wholly new pieces of music.

On a visit to Sydney some years back, Elton picked up a PNAU album at a local record store and was excited by their sound. Soon after he gallantly flashed his magic sword (aka cheque book) and got the boys signed up to his management company. He’s been championing them ever since.

Just as the story should go with a ‘happily ever after’ ending – Sir Elton is smitten with the boys efforts, labelling it as a work of art in itself comparable to Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. That’s no mean feat, pretty much setting the Aussie lads up for what (upon listening to the album) sounds like more massive international success.

Music Feeds Senior Journalist, Patrick Abboud spoke to Peter at his LA studio today in the lead-up to the album’s Australian release on July 27th.

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