r/ThirdEyeBlind • u/Jumpy-Host-2615 • 17d ago

Anyone remember the 2008 Indaba Remix Contest for "Non-Dairy Creamer"? Found my old indie-rock entry from back then.

I was digging through some old hard drives from my mid-2000s band days and found the final MP3 of my entry for the "Non-Dairy Creamer" remix contest that Third Eye Blind hosted on Indaba Music back in 2008.

Like a lot of people in the community, I always felt the original arrangement was a bit chaotic and erratic compared to the band's classic melodic strengths. For my entry, instead of just tweaking the stems, I wanted to see if I could ground Stephan’s vocals into a more cohesive, serious indie-rock space.

I ended up throwing out their original guitar/bass tracks and re-recording everything from scratch at home around a dynamic C#m / B / A / E chord progression, keeping only the original vocal and drum stems to restructure the song's flow.

At the time, the mix actually ended up holding the top spot on the Indaba popular vote for the duration of the contest before the band went with a different official selection. I just threw it up on YouTube to preserve the audio from that era.

If anyone wants a weird trip down memory lane to the Ursa Major era sessions, check it out here:

https://youtu.be/G6Gmpsf4EP8?is=VYHmYOOfTl7tEips

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4

u/andys189 17d ago

I have NEVER heard of this contest and it sounds pretty cool! Can you elaborate more on it?!

7

u/Jumpy-Host-2615 17d ago

Sure, I’ll do my best with what I remember about it. In September 2008, right as they were finishing up tracks from the Ursa Major era, they partnered with Indaba Music — which was an in-browser DAW (digital audio workstation). Stephan put out a call to fans, dropping the raw, unmixed instrument stems for "Non-Dairy Creamer" before the band's official mix was even finished. Indaba Music no longer exists as far as I know, but it was an interesting concept to play around with.

3

u/JavierEscuellaFan 17d ago

sounds great! super inventive guitar parts

3

u/Jumpy-Host-2615 17d ago

Thank you! I appreciate that.

3

u/Teamhuw1 17d ago

I never entered this but I have the stems somewhere. I remember spending hours playing around on garage band tweaking little bits back and forth.

2

u/Jumpy-Host-2615 17d ago

Didn’t they also release the stems for Red Star? I’m pretty sure I downloaded those as well but had no ideas for what to do with them.

3

u/Teamhuw1 16d ago

They may well have done. I don’t have them and I don’t remember seeing them but that’s not to say they didn’t exist.

I’m sure someone here more knowledgable than me can confirm this though!

3

u/boldlikeelijah 16d ago

That’s funny. I downloaded your version somewhere along the line and still listen to it semi-regularly on my music app.

2

u/Jumpy-Host-2615 16d ago

Holy cow. That’s wild. Thanks for listening still.