The Discussion of MJ's Unreleased Tracks

Yeah, Damien was referring to that. He said the “high-profile producer” was someone who worked with/for MJ in the past. I’m hunting for the tweet now.
I remember it more clearly now. He could still be the high profile producer the article was talking about since everything Brody said applies there. Clearly there's more that the Estate was hiding up the sleeve.
 
I only watched the first few seconds and don't know at what point in the video they talk about his work on an unreleased MJ song. Maybe someone of you has time to find the information :)
Interesting stuff. I’ve said before that Silk Sonic should produce unreleased tracks. This guy could be a good choice.
 
It would have pleased the fans maybe.
Maybe it would have pleased MJ depending on what era the songs are from. I'm thinking that a considerable number of the songs come from the 80's anyways since that's when a lot of the releasable outtakes comes from. It'd also be weird to pick a song from the 2000's and turn it into an 80's style song lol.
 
I only watched the first few seconds and don't know at what point in the video they talk about his work on an unreleased MJ song. Maybe someone of you has time to find the information :)
Not a name I would have picked, but it's such a good choice. Silk Sonic and his work with Bruno Mars is fantastic. I'd love to know what songs he was asked to rework.
 
Maybe it would have pleased MJ depending on what era the songs are from. I'm thinking that a considerable number of the songs come from the 80's anyways since that's when a lot of the releasable outtakes comes from. It'd also be weird to pick a song from the 2000's and turn it into an 80's style song lol.
I'm not gonna say what would have pleased MJ. I know he just enjoyed music, he was a fan of all sounds. The 80s wasn't a "style", it was just the way things were really. It's like saying the Neptune's sound was the 2000s, or Dallas Austin or Nirvana was the 90s. Idk what a song like Billie Jean would sound in the 90s or 2000s but I think it's too powerful to not shine no matter what the genre/influence is. So it could easily be made to shine in the modern fashion. The Teddy Riley remake of Dangerous will always shine through in my mind, a great upgrade. Too bad he never did go back to a straight 70s/80s outtake for Invincible. Guess the closest things are Best of Joy and Cheater.
 
We could've gotten some interesting projects in 2019 but then f***king Leaving Neverland came and ruined any plans the Estate had, always upsets me to remember that.
While I would've wanted to hear way more music by now, and wish it had processed. Part of the hype behind MJ is the wait between albums. 4 years after Xscape would've been pretty soon. Especially since that was 4 years after Michael. Not to mention the Anniversary stuff/duets in between.
 
I'm not gonna say what would have pleased MJ. I know he just enjoyed music, he was a fan of all sounds. The 80s wasn't a "style", it was just the way things were really. It's like saying the Neptune's sound was the 2000s, or Dallas Austin or Nirvana was the 90s. Idk what a song like Billie Jean would sound in the 90s or 2000s but I think it's too powerful to not shine no matter what the genre/influence is. So it could easily be made to shine in the modern fashion. The Teddy Riley remake of Dangerous will always shine through in my mind, a great upgrade. Too bad he never did go back to a straight 70s/80s outtake for Invincible. Guess the closest things are Best of Joy and Cheater.
You know what I mean though, Brody wanted the songs to be as natural as possible and it's really hard to imagine a song of MJ's outside of the 80's to be remixed into a song from that time period. Just check the 80's fan-made recreations on YT, most if not all of them sound out of place, except for the remixes that are from songs from the 80's in fact. Even 80's songs remixed into other eras sound extremely out of place and just not natural at all.
While I would've wanted to hear way more music by now, and wish it had processed. Part of the hype behind MJ is the wait between albums. 4 years after Xscape would've been pretty soon. Especially since that was 4 years after Michael. Not to mention the Anniversary stuff/duets in between.
4-5 years is a long wait already and that's how it was for most MJ albums. Thriller came out 3 years after OTW, Bad came out 5 years after Thriller and Dangerous came out 4 years after Bad and so on. The only exception to that was with BOTDF and Invincible and even then waiting over 8 years for new content is way too long and not right at all.
 
Is the beat it demo that we know of actually a demo? Bill wolfer talked about working on the home demos of wanna be startin somethin, beat it, Billie Jean, and say say say. That meaning the demo would have actual instruments instead of being a vocal demo. I say this because on the this is it album there is an version of Shes out of my life which he didn’t write listed as an demo. Also the WBSS demo is an edit of the original demo. Is it possible the estate passed off random recordings of rehearsals as demos?
 
Is the beat it demo that we know of actually a demo? Bill wolfer talked about working on the home demos of wanna be startin somethin, beat it, Billie Jean, and say say say. That meaning the demo would have actual instruments instead of being a vocal demo. I say this because on the this is it album there is an version of Shes out of my life which he didn’t write listed as an demo. Also the WBSS demo is an edit of the original demo. Is it possible the estate passed off random recordings of rehearsals as demos?
It's a vocal demo of Beat It. Before MJ recorded it in his home studio, he dictated it to tape. That was how he did it with most of not all of his songs. Check The Girl Is Mine Vocal Demo being played in the 1993 Deposition for his songwriting.
 
Brody wanted the songs to be as natural as possible and it's really hard to imagine a song of MJ's outside of the 80's to be remixed into a song from that time period.
I mean, going back to disco or pop/R&B is basically what we're talking about. Throwbacks like that happen all the time. LNFSG wasn't a disco tune but yet, it worked. It was pretty barebones though.
Just check the 80's fan-made recreations on YT, most if not all of them sound out of place, except for the remixes that are from songs from the 80's in fact.
I don't rate many fan mixes that highly anyway tbh, so idk, you kinda lost me. But:


This isn't MJ but it sounds great and very authentic.

Even 80's songs remixed into other eras sound extremely out of place and just not natural at all.

I misread this. But I still disagree. Lots of covers, if you count those, remix 80s tunes and sound pretty classy. Silk Sonics own cover of Love Train for one. There was a cool Thundercat remodel of a Ryuichi Sakamoto song before he just passed. And even John McClain/Neff-U's reworks of MJ's tunes were pretty natural. So idk, it's never beholden to their era. The strength of MJs songwriting is how versatile and flexible it is, and how well his voice goes with any genre.
The only exception to that was with BOTDF and Invincible and even then waiting over 8 years for new content is way too long and not right at all.
It was never this long, but for the Invincible follow up it would've been. My point is, we never got MJ material annually. It did need to slow down at least a little.
 
It's a vocal demo of Beat It. Before MJ recorded it in his home studio, he dictated it to tape. That was how he did it with most of not all of his songs. Check The Girl Is Mine Vocal Demo being played in the 1993 Deposition for his songwriting.
I definitely didn’t think of that he probably multitracked the vocal demo and then created the music around it with Wolfer
 
Is the beat it demo that we know of actually a demo? Bill wolfer talked about working on the home demos of wanna be startin somethin, beat it, Billie Jean, and say say say. That meaning the demo would have actual instruments instead of being a vocal demo. I say this because on the this is it album there is a version of Shes out of my life which he didn’t write listed as a demo. Also the WBSS demo is an edit of the original demo. Is it possible the estate passed off random recordings of rehearsals as demos?
There definitely is a proper demo of “Beat It.” Matt Forger spoke about it in his “6 Songs 6 Stories” video with Brad Sundberg. Apparently some of the synths were also taken directly from the demo by Quincy for the finished track, so you’d have to think it’s decently developed.
 
There definitely is a proper demo of “Beat It.” Matt Forger spoke about it in his “6 Songs 6 Stories” video with Brad Sundberg. Apparently some of the synths were also taken directly from the demo by Quincy for the finished track, so you’d have to think it’s decently developed.
Do you guys think the estate edits the demos they release?
 
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Of course they edit them, although not like that, most of the times the most they do is cut them, or fade them out.
I feel like they might edit the instrumentation so they don’t have to credit the session musicians. (Ex: Who Do You Know has a weird sample from Stranger In Moscow). Also there is an completely different mix of the WBSS demo that exists
 
(Ex: Who Do You Know has a weird sample from Stranger In Moscow).
This is one of the crazier and most unrealistic claims from recent years lol. It isn’t unprecedented for MJ to reuse sounds, drums, or even melodies in his music, especially from songs that were never released. Occam’s razor and all.
Do you guys think the estate edits the demos the demos they release?
To some extent, definitely. Some of the Bad 25 demos were newly mixed, and Damien Shields said that the released version of “The Toy” was 20ish seconds shorter than the one he heard.
 
I mean, going back to disco or pop/R&B is basically what we're talking about. Throwbacks like that happen all the time. LNFSG wasn't a disco tune but yet, it worked. It was pretty barebones though.

I don't rate many fan mixes that highly anyway tbh, so idk, you kinda lost me. But:


This isn't MJ but it sounds great and very authentic.



I misread this. But I still disagree. Lots of covers, if you count those, remix 80s tunes and sound pretty classy. Silk Sonics own cover of Love Train for one. There was a cool Thundercat remodel of a Ryuichi Sakamoto song before he just passed. And even John McClain/Neff-U's reworks of MJ's tunes were pretty natural. So idk, it's never beholden to their era. The strength of MJs songwriting is how versatile and flexible it is, and how well his voice goes with any genre.

It was never this long, but for the Invincible follow up it would've been. My point is, we never got MJ material annually. It did need to slow down at least a little

You know what I mean though, Brody wanted the songs to be as natural as possible and it's really hard to imagine a song of MJ's outside of the 80's to be remixed into a song from that time period. Just check the 80's fan-made recreations on YT, most if not all of them sound out of place, except for the remixes that are from songs from the 80's in fact. Even 80's songs remixed into other eras sound extremely out of place and just not natural at all.

4-5 years is a long wait already and that's how it was for most MJ albums. Thriller came out 3 years after OTW, Bad came out 5 years after Thriller and Dangerous came out 4 years after Bad and so on. The only exception to that was with BOTDF and Invincible and even then waiting over 8 years for new content is way too long and not right at all.
Why didn't they remix the songs in a style according to the era? So 'Behind The Mask' sounds cool (but too late 80s) and LNFSG is also nice with a disco beat (although it's a post-Thriller outtake) but not demo is finished sounding like a song from their era..(?)

Is it so hard to find producers to recreate Quincy Jones' sound (somewhat)? Or Teddy's sound?
 
Why didn't they remix the songs in a style according to the era? So 'Behind The Mask' sounds cool (but too late 80s) and LNFSG is also nice with a disco beat (although it's a post-Thriller outtake) but not demo is finished sounding like a song from their era..(?)

Is it so hard to find producers to recreate Quincy Jones' sound (somewhat)? Or Teddy's sound?
Probably because they didn't want to?

It doesn't help they they probably legally can't. Or are dissuaded to, by the legal issues with Quincy.
But mostly they're just not trying to. John McClain seems like a producer in his own right. And he's been adapting songs in interesting ways, DYKWYCA made to sound like a Dangerous outtake, before that being discarded for the 2014 electro pop sound. BTM made to sound contemporary with other (mostly) 2000s songs. In a collection it basically did not belong on at all. Much as I love it. Near total outlier.

And then finally, ironic you say teddy since he produced 2/5 of Michael. Aside from 3/4 of those tracks being Casio, the other being Hollywood Tonight, Teddy just hated sounding old. He was annoyed About BOTDF sounding the same, 6 years after it was made. No way he'd be making New Jack Swing now. Styles have simply changed.
 
Do you guys think the estate edits the demos they release?
No. When it comes to anniversary releases (e.g. Thriller 40 or Bad 25), I think they rip the demos off a cassette and put them on the CD.

I think the same was done for the original demos on Xscape. No further mixing done.
 
No. When it comes to anniversary releases (e.g. Thriller 40 or Bad 25), I think they rip the demos off a cassette and put them on the CD.

I think the same was done for the original demos on Xscape. No further mixing done.

The demos aren't ripped from cassettes unless that's the only source they have. The reason the demos on xscape sound bad is because they were just thrown on there yeah.

B25 demos were definitely newly mixed, horribly mastered, though.
 
The part where he talks about MJ starts at 6:30. He said that the Estate reached out to Brody Brown in 2018 to remix some tracks, John McClain gave him some sets of unreleased tracks and let Brody choose what songs to remix. He wanted the tracks to sound "80's style" with "60's style snares" but the Estate wanted another type of sound.

I guess that's the secret producer they mentioned that was working on new singles back in 2018 lol.
THANKS. He doesn't say anything more about MJ? FYI, I asked Damien Shields to find out if he had more information!
 
I have a question, where could I find the APOM, Speed Demon, Dirty Diana, etc Multitracks/Stems? I dunno if this is the right place to ask but yea
 
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