Radiohead's Philip Selway Reveals Remix Contest Winner -- Free Download

This past October, Radiohead drummer Philip Selway launched an Indaba remix contest that let fans remake his song 'Beyond Reason' from his solo debut 'Familial.' Out of 300-plus entries, Selway chose the mix submitted by Thousand Oak, Calif.'s Alek.Fin. It's a moody electronica twist on what was already one of the darker songs from the album. Where Selway's original presentation honed in on his acoustic guitar amidst faint percussive elements, Alek.Fin's version breaks up Selway's voice into a few different parts, making it more like an instrument.

Alek.Fin is the moniker of waiter/bartender/musician Adam Finkel. In constructing his winning entry, he tells Spinner the final version took eight days, with an average of five to seven hours a day, for a total of just over 50 hours. Clearly, he didn't phone this one in.

"The beauty of remixing is someone else has created dozens of possible triggers for me to draw from," Finkel tells Spinner. "With this remix, Philip's background vocals were the inspiration. They were evocative and haunting and I wanted my remix to reflect that. I started there and then let the ideas flow."

For those wondering how he arrived at his final version, Finkel used Ableton Live 8 for the writing and mixing process and coupled that with Logic Pro 9 for the live instrumentation recording and final mixing.

"I approach music from a less-is-more philosophy," Finkel continues. "It's easy for me to get carried away with effects and processing but I feel it's the dynamics of a song that are most important. I usually start every song with one trigger. Sometimes it starts with a rhythm, others with a bass line. Honestly, I never really know where the inspiration's going to come from."

Earlier this year, Alek.Fin released a full-length titled 'Better When Seen From Above' and he's spent the last six months working with four other musicians in creating a live show around it. He'll present it at Los Angeles' Spaceland on Dec. 16.

Listen to the Top 'Beyond Reason' Remixes