It’s Darwin Deez week on Cover Me! A few days ago, we heard him cover the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Scar Tissue.” Now he’s back, but the group’s moved from Australia to Lincolnshire, England for the BBC’s Live Lounge college tour at Lincoln University. Deez also played a solo two song set that included a “secret cover.”
The DJs asked why Deez chose Katy Perry‘s “Teenage Dream” as the cover (whoops, secret’s out). He told them he admired the songwriters, Dr. Luke and Max Martin—hit-writers for *NSYNC, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears, Pink and others. Interestingly, it wasn’t their songs he admired, but their methods. Dr. Luke and Max Martin write songs in groups of four or five, whereas Deez writes his material without collaborators. One of the DJs commented that Deez wrote songs with heart while Dr. Luke and Max Martin wrote songs with computers. It was a nice compliment. Or a subtle dig. Hard to tell.
The DJ requested that Deez inject some of said heart into his cover and it works well stripped down to guitar, bass, drums, and Deez’s…interesting vocals. He also modified the lyrics, with excellent results. He changed “no regrets, just love” to “just sex,” “don’t ever look back” to “don’t ever look whack” and, my personal favorite, “you make me very happy and I’ll soon be Mrs. Russell Brand.” The strength of the pop hit shines during the conversion from computers to organic composition. Check it out below.
MP3: Darwin Deez – Teenage Dream (Katy Perry cover)
[audio: News1010/22TeenageDream.mp3]
Check out more Darwin Deez at his website or MySpace.
