How we remixed The Cure: Tips from Orbital, Trentmøller and moreIt might be hard to believe at this point, but The Cure has been around for almost 50 years. Robert Smith’s dusky alt-rock outfit has grown from the streets of Crawley, UK, to goth icons, putting out 14 albums that include bona fide classic songs such as Boys Don’t Cry and Friday, I’m In Love. Today, they still headline triple-headers at famous venues such as Madison Square Garden and The Hollywood Bowl.

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The music of The Cure is so universal that when Robert Smith was personally selecting artists for the remix album, Mixes Of A Lost World, the compilation based on their 2024 record, Songs Of A Lost World, many artists to whom he reached out had pre-existing relationships with The Cure — either extreme fandom or previous collaborations.
“I have been a huge fan of The Cure for over 35 years,” Gregor Tresher told MusicTech.
“Robert Smith personally writing to me was surreal. I’ve been a massive fan of The Cure for years, and their music has meant an enormous amount to me throughout my life,” said Trentmøller.
“[I’m] honoured and happy to be working with a band I’ve loved since I was 14 years of age.
I did a remix for Robert and The Cure in 1997, and I remember Robert saying, ‘You made it sound more like us. We wanted it to sound like you.’ To me, that was a compliment and what I wanted to hear,” said Omid 16B.
Orbital. Image: Press
“I worked with Robert on a song called Please for my first solo album,” said Paul Hartnoll of Orbital. “We got on immediately when we first met after we’d both played a summer festival in Sweden. The Cure are one of the seminal bands in our record collection. It’s always a nice warm glowing feeling to be asked to help out in continuing the creative process.”
Needless to say, remixing The Cure carried a lot of weight with these artists. The pressure was on, especially as many of them were reforming alternative rock songs into dancefloor versions. Each artist had their own process, but Sally C commented on the general ethos of remixing as well:
“A good remix will emulate the essence of the original, complementing it but without repetition. You can really go wherever you want to go with a remix, which can be both challenging and freeing at the same time. A good remix will delve into this unknown and come out the other side with something relatable and unique.”
Read on to learn how Orbital, Gregor Tresher, Sally C, Trentmøller, and Omid 16B made their remixes for Mixes Of A Lost World by The Cure:
Orbital – Endsong (Orbital Remix)

(Answers by Paul Hartnoll)
What are the main technical processes and pieces of gear you used on your remix?
We used an old favourite synth of mine, the Oberheim Xpander. My workhorse of a mono synth is the MacBeth M5n. For the drums, we used 808 drum sounds and elements of the original drums. We thinned out the guitars and picked specific bits, then reversées them into each other to get a palindromic effect. We also used a fancy new chorus unit called the Retrogradus Chorus-1, which was our secret weapon on Robert’s ethereal vocals in the intro.
Similar to the original song, your remix has extended sections without vocals. How did the 6-7 minutes of instrumental music in the original inspire the instrumental sections in your remix?
Well, as we are largely an instrumental band, this was easy for us! We just leaned into it in an Orbital-y way, doing a similar idea but with stretched vocal sounds and fast flickering synths, which would definitely tip the hat to firm favourites of ours, Tangerine Dream.
Gregor Tresher – Endsong (Gregor Tresher Remix)

What are the main technical processes and pieces of gear you used to make your remix?
My remix was produced mainly in the box, and a lot of the original parts were heavily processed. I used a lot of glitch effects on the beat and on some of the strings, which I automated pretty extensively. The beats were mainly done in Triaz. For the strings and synth lines, I mainly used a KORG Mono/Poly and a Roland JUNO 60. The final mixdown was done with the help of my buddy Petar Dundov in Zagreb on his SSL desk.
The original version of Endsong is over 10 minutes long, and most of it is a busy instrumental jam. How did you decide which moments to channel into your minimal techno version?
I’m not a fan of remixes that could basically be a track on their own and have nothing to do with the original. I wanted to keep Robert’s vocal recording pretty much untouched, apart from the obvious tempo change, as the original is 80 BPM. So, I had to speed things up to make it work on the dancefloor. I tried to give the remix a rough edge, sound-wise, so I used a lot of glitch effects and distortion on some of the original parts. Also, I wanted to incorporate the amazing guitar lines by Reeves Gabrels, even though the electric guitar isn’t your most typical instrument for a dance track. But in the end, it became a crucial element in the arrangement of my remix and really adds up in the last breakdown. I layered some additional synth and string lines at the end to create a busy-sounding harmonic climax.
Sally C – A Fragile Thing (Sally C Remix)

What are some of the main technical processes and pieces of gear you used to make your remix?
I used the main vocal and guitar stems as the emotional and melodic anchor of the track. To build the harmonic structure, I used the Roland JV-1080 for the bassline and chord layers. It has this nostalgic quality that fits the mood I was aiming for. I used a simple arpeggio with a plugin, which helped to complement the chords and add emotion, in addition to the guitar, which I find super emotional. For drums and percussion, I used the Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 MK1. It always delivers the crisp and simple drum sounds I love.
Sally C. Image: Press
How did you take the more drone-y emo sound of Robert Smith’s voice and the lead guitar solos and gloss it up to sound so funky?
This was the most challenging but exciting part. Robert Smith’s voice has such an emotional depth, and I didn’t want to lose that. I chopped the vocals up ever so slightly to tease them in, then isolated my favourite emotionally hitting parts and worked around the vocals. I was instantly obsessed with the lead guitar. I knew I wanted to have these two elements front and centre, but also to respect the original. Instead of taking too much away from them or the moodiness, I let it sit in tension with the funk. That contrast created an emotional groove that I really liked. Percussion and breaks helped with the funkiness, too.
Trentmøller – And Nothing Is Forever (Trentmøller Remix)

What are the main technical processes and pieces of gear you used to make your remix?
For the Cure remix, I only used the vocals, nothing else from the original. I wrote completely new chord progressions, played new drums, new bass, new guitar, and synth textures. So, the whole instrumentation was done from scratch. I work mainly in the box, using Ableton Live, but also use a mix of analog outboard gear and lots of guitar pedals! But the heart of it is always the melody, arrangement, and emotional arc, not the gear.
Trentmøller. Image: Sofie Nørregaard
Your remix moves through a lot of different sonic moods, whereas the original is more uniform in relying on the strings. Why did you choose to spread it out as you did, and how did you accomplish that in terms of production?
The original has a beautiful, melancholic-driven atmosphere, but I wanted to take the vocals on a new journey. I treated it almost like I was scoring a short film, building new scenes around it with shifting moods and dynamics, so the emotional tone could evolve over time rather than stay fixed. But basically, I was just inspired by Robert’s amazing, good-sounding voice and the beautiful vocal melody. That shaped the new chords and instrumentation.
Omid 16B – Warsong (Omid 16B Remix)

What are the main technical processes and pieces of gear you used to make your remix?
My bass guitar, guitars, my voice, pads from my Jupiter 6, and a sequencer to put it together.
I like to record a lot of stuff live and then cut it up and use it.
Omid 16B. Image: Press
The original track, Warsong, is a very heavy rock song without any real steady beat. What about this inspired you to make a light and groovy breakbeat remix?
I had to play around with it a lot to realise it needed my own musical input to turn it into something that sounds like The Cure, yet also sounds like me. I decided to replay the melody and get the vocals in key. It wasn’t easy. I did go back and forth but found the structure for the remix and then worked on it until I felt happy enough for Robert to hear it, luckily Robert approved and we only had to turn the vocals up a few dB’s to get it right!
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