A Quick Chat With Minus32Heartbeat and slagoona About “let down, rethink”
Q: Hi! “Let down, rethink” is a fresh take on a beloved Radiohead track. What drew you and slagoona to this particular song for your first remix collaboration?
slagoona: Aw man, I just love, to quote a recent meme from DJ Eli Escobar’s Instagram, the “sad but somehow life-affirming” vibe of this song. It’s a psychoanalysis of consumerism. When you’re promised everything, you can find yourself becoming an endless black hole. It’s an interrogation of addiction, substance use, superficiality, lack of humanity. Yet at the same time we keep trying to find that humanity, that connection and intimacy, because we all on some level know that’s all we ever want. “You know, you know where we are,” and with something that is never named. But we know it. The floor is collapsing, but there will be––there has to be––a metamorphosis. It’s all as absurd yet as powerful as brain matter, just another chemical reaction. This song is just perfect, and I wanted to celebrate it.
minus32heartbeat: When I heard OK Computer for the first time, that was a real Eureka moment for me. I didn’t know what I was hearing, but I know that it changed my entire perception of what a rock band could do in a studio. “Let Down” was always my favorite song off that album, possibly my favorite Radiohead song of all time. And I have always, unfairly or not, looked down my nose at most Radiohead covers. When I heard slagoona’s original cover though, I felt like she really found a way to make it her own. There was this stripped down instrumentation, the unmistakable timbre in her voice, and a reimagining of what that song could deliver. I fell in love with it immediately and knew I wanted to get my hands on it somehow. And in the end, a remix seemed like the best option.
Q: Flat whites, analog synths, and the show GIRLS inspired the vibe of this track. Can you unpack how those influences shaped the final sound?
minus32heartbeat: I tend to try to pull ideas and sounds from places that aren’t necessarily 100% musical. For me, it’s more exciting to try to create an atmosphere or a feeling when I’m making music. What story am I trying to tell here? What sort of context am I aiming to develop? How do I want to feel when I listen to this song? slagoona is, to me, a very modern version of a Brooklyn woman. There’s something in the way she carries herself, her poise and her demeanor, that really resonated with me. I wanted to find another path in the song she handed over to me that would be slightly outside her typical delivery, but that she could still crush if she performs it live.
Q: What was it like working with slagoona, especially since this is only your second ever collaboration? How did your creative chemistry evolve?
minus32heartbeat: She’s an absolute joy. She gets excited about moments and sounds the way I do. What started as her coming in to sing on my upcoming album turned into a conversation, and she had to expend a lot of trust from the beginning with letting me explore the sonic potential of what we had in front of us. I came in guns blazing with a slew of ideas, she gave me notes of her own…it seemed really organic. It was one of the easier times I’ve had collaborating with someone.
slagoona: I really enjoyed working with Matt, given his thoughtful combination of enthusiasm and precision. It was so easy, respectful, and inspired. I had nerves going into it, but felt really celebrated and collaborated with. He brought the song to places I’d never imagined.
Q: This remix includes both manipulated versions of slagoona’s original recordings and your own added instrumentation. What was your guiding philosophy when balancing old and new?
minus32heartbeat: I had good stuff to work with in her original recording, which is always helpful. Her original cover was this beautiful lofi-indie-folk-esque rendition of the song with her acoustic guitar and these synth pads and eccentric noise and vocal elements. I basically approached it as a really great scratch track and tried to bring in a bigger, lusher sound that was a little more hi-fi while still maintaining the cool indie characteristics that she brought.
Q: How did the energy and atmosphere of Big Leather Jacket Music studio in Union Square influence the recording process?
minus32heartbeat: My studio is not a glamorous place. There’s the desk, a wall of synths, a vocal booth, a bunch of guitars, and a couch. I think it used to be a storage space, and it was retrofitted and (kind of) acoustically treated to make it a place where I can create music. But it’s intimate. It’s cozy. It’s shut off from the noise and streets of New York City. And there’s always this want to embrace that, to kind of check out of everything that’s happening in life, and just make noise. It curates a lot of creativity just because there’s really not any space in there to do anything except make music.
Q: This remix is described as music for “bars and clubs.” Did you test it in those settings or visualize specific moments while producing it?
slagoona: We talked about the sonic experience as something like a NYC twilight: It’s electric, between something that’s about to end and something that’s about to begin. Again, that “sad but somehow life-affirming” vibe was what we wanted to express––like an electric acceptance of emptiness. We talked about it being cool to listen to when walking around NYC, again just before dark, but also at bars and clubs because we think it’ll function as a pleasant surprise of the beloved Radiohead tune. Sometimes we all go out, dance, and drink to taste that electricity––and sometimes it’s to nurse an emptiness. Both can be acts of acceptance; we all writhe sometimes, in joy or in sorrow (or both), under the velvet blanket of neon twilight.
Q: With this being your first remix project, what challenges or surprises came up during production that taught you something new?
minus32heartbeat: There’s always a temptation when you’re in a studio with a bunch of instruments at your fingers to kitchen sink a project. I think you need to know when to stop laying things down, squeezing instruments in. At a certain point, you run the risk of losing the heart of the song. So just knowing when to say when – that’s always difficult for me. I didn’t know where we were truly going until I found that kick drum sound. Once that was laid down, the entire song veered in a new direction and it felt like “Oh, okay – we’re going to try to get people to dance.” And that was surprising to me because, frankly, I’ve never made music along those genre lines before.
Q: “let down, rethink” feels like a sonic departure while still being emotionally grounded. How do you see it fitting into your broader artistic evolution?
slagoona: A sonic departure while still emotionally grounded! What a compliment, I’m glad you feel it too. I totally agree and love that about the track.
minus32heartbeat: All I’ve ever made is guitar-driven music. I’ve never put anything down that’s synthesizer-focused, or relies on drum machines, or steps anywhere outside of traditional rock and roll. So it was very exciting to open that door and see something that still felt right. I’m looking forward to keeping that door open for a little longer.
Q: You’ve hinted at more releases coming later in 2025. Can you give us any teasers—will they continue this collaborative or remix direction?
minus32heartbeat: I have an EP coming out near the end of the summer that features a guest vocalist. It’s definitely a continuation along the lines of this genre of music, but much more reserved and darker. There’s this real cinematic quality to the songs we chose to record that I wanted to explore by slowing things down and making the music very moody. And the singer’s voice really complements that feel. And then, there’s the next minus32heartbeat album (which slagoona sang on) that will be out before the end of the year. It sounds nothing like the music I’ve made up until now, and I am really excited to put it in front of people.
Q: Looking ahead, what’s your biggest creative goal for the rest of the year, and how do you hope your listeners grow with you through it?
minus32heartbeat: There are no genres to adhere to anymore. No lines to color inside of. I’m in a very fortunate position where I just get to make the music I want to make. Again, all of my records before now were a certain style of music. Now, if I want to do a remix, or an EP of cover songs, or score a film, or make a dark ambient jazz record, then I will. I’m just going to keep making the music that I want to make, whatever that is or sounds like. And I hope everyone enjoys listening to it as much as I enjoy creating it.
