It’s no secret by now that Porter Robinson and Madeon released their long-awaited collaboration “Shelter” recently alongside a tandem tour. While fans have been clamoring for more news about the collaboration, the show, and everything else, Porter took the time to set up a live stream with his brother to ask some fan questions.
What to do in the meantime? Play “Shelter” on Step Mania!
Here are some of the things we learned from the live stream.
- Porter and Madeon will be doing live edits of their songs together on tour but “it’s going to be kind of ambiguous.”
- Porter and Hugo have been friends for a long time. They met through a shared interest in music production; Hugo was 12, Porter was around 14 or 15. They’ve been sending music back and forth for a long time, and Porter says their styles “coalesced” on respective albums. They’ve “really wanted to go on tour together” for a while now.
- As for the rumored Porter Robinson Zhu remix… “I didn’t make a Zhu remix, I didn’t play a Zhu remix, I have nothing to do with any of that. I didn’t play it live, I don’t know what that is at all.”
- Porter doesn’t know what nightcore is.
- The original “Shelter” was 90 bpm (as opposed to 100 bpm now) and one semi-tone higher than the final product.
- Many people asked how Hugo could sing so high in “Shelter.” Well…
- “The hook isn’t Hugo, the lyrics are, but the vocal chop is Amy Milan who sang on Divinity. We recorded another song around the same time as Worlds, and that’s something that I could see us putting out at some point.”
- The most Worlds-y place he’s visited? The Salt Flats in Salt Lake City.
Is there a new album?
- He says he’s working on a lot of new music right now and he pretty much has the vision for the album nailed. He really enjoys listening to what he’s got so far, but it could be a ways off.
Favorite thing about Hugo?
- His musical talent. “He’s a genius and a really great person.” Musically, they approach things very differently; working in the studio was a fascinating experience as far as solving problems.
Is Porter singing in the background of “Shelter”? Secret!
One viewer asked what his specific contributions were to “Shelter.”
- Porter apparently contributed to chord progression. It was Hugo’s suggestion to use four-on-the-floor drum kit, but they ended up using a lot of Porter’s drum samples. Hugo was the primary force behind the lyrics, though the vocal melodies were an even split. Porter says the whole song was a straight 50/50, as much as it could be.
- It was produced on Hugo’s computer. They were in person for all of it besides a couple things sent online. Hugo is also apparently a faster producer than Porter, proficient with FL and its keyboard shortcuts.
Check out the full, entertaining video below!