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In 2014 I had kind of given up on getting the original set of masters so I brought the last remaining set I had, which was incomplete, to be transferred to Pro Tools. We took a stab at it but it didn’t really come out the right way. We were on and off the road so much during that time so it was really difficult to record. People from the Rock Band network reached out in 2008 because they wanted a version of “Teenage Dirtbag”. When did you first think about creating a new version of “Teenage Dirtbag”? So it was a combination of it being a transitional time for recording technology and us not being in control of where the tapes went. I think the tapes are probably lost and if they haven’t been transferred by now, they’re definitely wasted.
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We ended our deal with Sony in 2004 and since then I’ve struggled to find someone to communicate with there, so we never got an answer. So that was the last time I saw those master tapes and we never found out where they went. They weren’t concerned with my digital multitrack of 10 songs, which is fair enough. They were worried about Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan box-sets. You have to keep in mind that we were a very small fish in a very big pond at Sony. I knew this and I remember saying to our A&R guy, who was great but not very technical, “how are you storing it?”. Then Pro Tools and Logic really came on as viable multi-tracking systems and killed every piece of hardware, making our files instantly obsolete. The format was kind of shitty because we didn’t have any money when we made the record and it was all recorded on ADAT using DA-78HR machines.
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I had sent the last full set of the master tapes to Sony Music, our record label at the time. To learn more we chatted to Brown about this daunting endeavour and his plans for the future of the pop rock anthem.įirst of all, how did the masters go missing? This has led Brendan Brown and his band to embark on an ambitious re-recording project to recreate not just “Teenage Dirtbag”, but their entire debut album with the goal of releasing a 20th anniversary edition later this year. During those last two decades the song’s popularity has shown no signs of waning as it continues to reach new audiences in the digital era.īut while “Teenage Dirtbag” still generates a decent amount of yearly income (lead singer and songwriter Brendan Brown compared it to “owning a deli” in a recent Rolling Stone interview), there is one issue that has plagued the band for years and prevented them from monetising the song to its full potential: they do not own or even have access to the master recording. In August of this year Wheatus’ enduring cult classic “Teenage Dirtbag” turns 20.