Oh this track...the story behind this old...old...track.
So...back in 2017 as most of you will likely know, the MLP movie came out.
There was a lot of hype around it, and while I wasn't a huge fan of it personally, (I'm more of a Rainbow Roadtrip kind of guy) a fellow musician and friend of mine "@pplebukker" was VERY keen on challenging me to do a remix of the Tempest Shadow solo track "Open Up Your Eyes." A couple months went by, and I finally conceded to do it...but there was a problem, I couldn't find a decent acapella, and I was having trouble working around the extra instrumentation and pacing. So, what did I do? I decided to write the instrumental, and find someone to record new vocals for the track. I figured however, why stop there? Why not extend the song, and write new lyrics with a deeper and more emotional edge to them? So one night, I sat down and penned the new verses and choruses, and without too much editing from my original draft, the new lyrics were done!

So...I got to work on the instrumental...hours, days, and months went by, of tireless working and project tweaking. I found a great vocalist for the track but was having trouble with the vocal mixdown, and by that point, I'd pretty much declared the track "forever unreleased."

So there it sat, and soon, months became years. Every once in a great while, I'd open up the project file, and try to make sense of something, but nothing really stuck. I even re-wrote the entire first drop at one point, but still wasn't satisfied with the way it sounded.

Fast forward to 2020...I'd been given the opportunity to perform at "TrotCon : Online" and I was digging through old projects, as well as working on new content for the show. I had a weird inkling to re-visit the old project file for "Open Up Your Eyes," and considered making a playable live-edit. I mixed down the vocals to where they were passable, did some new tweaking to the instrumental and replaced some of the more "outdated" sounds, and overall, the track ended up getting pretty great response by the set's attendants! So I was like, "okay, this may finally be workable." I reached out to the vocalist who'd recorded the original vocals back in 2017 to see if there was a chance at getting an updated recording, but soon discovered she'd moved on to do new projects, and had respectfully left that part of her career behind her. (which is totally reasonable.)

So, what could I do? Halloween was on the horizon, and I needed to figure out an alternative quickly. I'd been working on a new track with the amazingly talented "Koa" for my upcoming EP "Elements" and I reached out to her last minute to see if by any chance she could take over the role of vocalist for the remix/cover...and I can't thank her ENOUGH for saying yes! Not only did she help me out on such short notice, but she knocked it out of the park! Seriously, she kind of saved my skin on this one, so if there's ANYONE to thank for this track finally seeing the light of day, it's her!

So...after 3 years, countless revisions, a vocalist change, and many stumbling blocks along the way, my remix/cover of "Open Up Your Eyes" is finally here! I Anyway, be safe, be well, and go follow @KoaPony on twitter, and check out her music catalog as well, (especially her latest album "To The Nines") you WON'T be disappointed!

My eternal love to all of you,
and more new music on the way soon!

With All Due Love & Respect,

=^Brilliant Venture^=

Follow Koa : @koapony
Check her awesome stuff out! : www.youtube.com/c/MumbleEtc

PMV Here! : youtu.be/c7D9NRG1EgQ

Cat. Release : SHR02