Robby Takac and Letter To Elise Tackle ‘Mr. Brightside’ with Bills Mafia
The new "Bills anthem" gets a killer punk-pop makeover
It’s Friday night at Robby Takac’s GCR Recording Studios, and the place is buzzing.
Members of Buffalo indie band Letter To Elise are scattered throughout the control room, as Takac lays out the rough plan for the evening’s activities.
Out in the main recording space, the band’s lead singer and founder Elliott Hunt is tracking a harmony vocal, while engineer Marc Hunt, who also happens to be Elliott’s dad, mans the the massive vintage SSL 4040 G board that is the centerpiece of GCR’s Studio A.
Elliott nails his parts quickly, and heads into the control room to give his work a listen. Everyone rather casually offers a nod of assent. “Sounds good,” is the general consensus. Moving on, then…
Man, these guys work fast. And there’s a reason for it tonight.
“We’ve got 17 members of the Bills Mafia arriving in an hour to track backing vocals,” Takac says. “We’ve gotta have the track ready for playback by then.”
The track in question is an interpretation of a tune indie rock heads in general and Buffalo Bills fans in particular know well - “Mr. Brightside,” a dynamic slab of alt-pop that served as the debut single from Las Vegas band the Killers’ first album, 2004’s Hot Fuss.
Starting last season, the song became an unlikely anthem for Bills fans, and by now, sits comfortably next to the long-serving “Shout” as the rally tune most closely associated with both the team and the Bills Mafia. It’s a grandiose, soaring piece boasting one ear-worm after another, and the Takac/Letter To Elise version manages to add a layer of punk rock-informed urgency, while retaining that grandiose, anthemic feel. Their version is, even at this early stage, totally killer, if you’ll forgive the pun.
I sidle over to Takac.
“When are trying to finish this and put it out?”
“Tomorrow, dude,” he answers, and gives me that half-maniacal grin familiar to anyone who has been in Takac’s orbit when he’s chasing down an idea in full flight.
Tomorrow? Damn!
To make matters even more interesting, Takac, Hunt and Letter To Elise are working with producer Lennon Leppert - a friend of drummer Dave Dombrowski, who, after several years touring as a member of Avril Lavigne’s band, moved back home to join Letter To Elise last year, rounding out a lineup that also includes Elliott Hunt, guitarist Jon Gardner, keyboardist/vocalist Chris Willis, and bassist/vocalist Walter Galey.
Leppert - who has worked with Natasha Bedingfield and the Wrecks, among others - was in Buffalo recently, working at GCR with Letter To Elise on the band’s new record. Tonight, however, he’s back in fire-ravaged Los Angeles, communicating with the band via FaceTime, as he and Marc Hunt trade mixes and sub-mixes back and forth via We Transfer.
As the 17 members of the Bills Mafia arrive and begin to assemble in the main room, the necessary sub-mix from Leppert has not yet arrived. Takac heads out into the studio and begins enthusiastically sketching out the basic idea for the assemblage of hardcore Bills fans.
Marc Hunt, meanwhile, is refreshing his email, waiting for Leppert’s new mix to arrive. At last - although, let’s be honest, it’s really only been a few minutes - it does.
Takac arranges the makeshift choir, Marc finds a suitably aggressive level for playback in the main room, and they’re off.
The new “Mr. Brightside” comes blaring through the monitors, and the band plays along, while Takac mans his mic, using exuberant hand gestures to conduct the Bills Mafia choir.
He needn’t have worried - the fans know every word of the song, and by take 2, they’re singing along, totally into it, transforming Studio A into a simulacrum of a Highmark Stadium tailgate party. By take 3, they’ve totally nailed it.
Starting this afternoon (Saturday, January 18), you can listen to the Robby x Letter To Elise x The Bills Mafia version of “Mr. Brightside” via social media, here, here, and here.
I don’t do Instagram. Any other sites?