“I never thought of them as remixers,” he continues. (Seeb produced “Over Myself,” the second-to-last track on Kiesza’s Sound Of A Woman album.) “I find their productions to be very thought out.” “I connected with Seeb through a close friend, Rami Samir Afuni, who developed Kiesza,” D’Arduini remembers. Matt D’Arduini, VP of A&R at Island Records, thought Berg and Eriksrud would be good candidates to rework Posner’s single. “In a way it’s sad,” Eriksrud tells Billboard over the phone. Though Posner sings, “all I know are sad songs,” the jaunty forward progression belies his glum statement. A synth backdrop gives the remix a Kygo-like bounce, pleasant and slight. Seeb condenses Posner’s track into something more aerodynamic and significantly shorter, shaving more than a minute off the ballad. Watch Mike Posner Perform ‘I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb Remix)’ Live: Exclusive A drum enters near the one minute mark, but the rhythm is a secondary consideration – guitar chords hang in the air as the singer unfurls a lengthy narrative about grappling with the soul-crushing machinery of pop stardom: “You don’t wanna be high like me/ Never really knowing why like me.” Posner’s original song is a predominately acoustic ballad, with a voice high in the mix. Mike Posner on His Avicii-Inspired Hit ‘I Took a Pill in Ibiza’ and Hitting a ‘Dark Spot’ in His Career It’s important that the song doesn’t become too pushy – at the moment, slower tempos are more fashionable, consequently Seeb’s “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” hovers near 100 bpm. The other key to a popular remix in recent years is of course the beat, pushing forward the original with a steady but unsurprising rhythm. Probz has textured scrape, and Omi is feather-light, the embodiment of sonic weightlessness. A distinct vocal helps a remix: Del Rey’s calling card is her somnolent swoon, while Mr. First there’s Posner’s voice, which has a grating edge that commands attention.
Looking back at the success of the new version of “I Took A Pill In Ibiza,” Eriksrud describes the smash as “art by accident.” He didn’t expect it to explode: “Nobody knew it would become that big.”īut Seeb’s track does share a few qualities with other recent remixes that performed well on the pop charts. Seeb is a Norwegian duo consisting of Espen Berg and Simen Eriksrud.