Amp Fiddler & Tomás Doncker release ‘Change: The AMPlified Soul Remix’

Amp Fiddler, the iconic keyboard player/singer/songwriter/producer (and P-Funk member for over a decade) teams up with Global Soul pioneer Tomás Doncker for ‘Change: The AMPlified Soul Remix,’ a complete re-imagination/reinvention of the song ‘Change,’ which appears on Doncker’s new post-modern blues album Wherever You Go (out October 2nd on True Groove Records). In addition to being a renown guitarist/singer/songwriter in his own right, Doncker is also a highly regarded producer. But for this project he handed over the reins to Fiddler, and the results are two tracks of pure soul-funk perfection. The first features vocals reworked by Doncker and Fiddler that channels the essence of deep soul essence of Sly & The Family Stone, and an instrumental version with a slow-burn groove that’s almost ambient funk.

 
“Amp is an old, dear friend and colleague,” Doncker relates. “I hadn’t talked to him in a while, so I reached out and said, ‘hey, let’s do something.’ I thought ‘Change’ would be an appropriate song for us to work on together. The song looks at our current reality and how things need to change, how our lives need to change, and how change starts from within. The original, album version has a Wilson Pickett rock-n-soul vibe to it. I thought Amp and I could take this on and come from a funky context, keep it fun and engaging while not diluting the seriousness of the message. I knew Amp could bring something unique and create a sonic backdrop we could sing on together; something to make the medicine go down a little easier. I knew he’d respond to the lyrics and come up with something powerful and great.”

“I knew I wanted to make it funky,” says Fiddler, “and I’ve been purposely promoting the creation of a sound design pack I did for Native Instruments called Amplified Funk, and I thought one of the pieces I made for the drum sound demo would fit Tomás’ vocal. We played around with it. Tomás added guitar, which made it magical, I added organ and some other keyboards. The way I structured it is like my reinterpretation of Al Green. And with the instrumental, I’ve always thought that instrumentals give you more liberty to stretch but, from a production standpoint, they also add room for economy because there’s more places where you can take things out to make more with less. Stripping it back a little bit adds a whole other dimension to the groove.”

These two tracks are a small taste of what’s to come, as Fiddler and Doncker have already begun working on a new EP scheduled for release on True Groove later in 2020.

STREAM THE AUDIO HERE