Almost a month ago, G Force released his new collaboration, titled “A Different Animal”. This project is unique in that G Force, (aka Calvin Valentine), took one Portland group’s entire album, remixed each track and recorded features, creating a whole new sound for each song. The original album, “Animals In the Median” was written and recorded by the Portland band, Radiation City. G Force, appropriately named his project “A Different Animal”. This project features, (brace yourself… this list is long): TxE, Sam Trump, OnlyOne, Illmaculate, LuckOne, Juicy J, Blimp, Calvin Valentine, RIO, Sapient, Strong Arm Steady, N.VS, Epp, Theory Hazit, Lady Remedy, Mark Noxx, Kung Foo Grip, and Ragen Fykes. With this impressive line up and G Force on the beats, you really can’t go wrong. The project was released by Tender Loving Empire and grabbed the attention of Jay-z’s blog as well as Vibe Magazine.
This week, I had the opportunity to ask G Force about this project, which he produced entirely by himself.
RMR: How did you know you wanted to remix the Radiation City album?
G: I was really intrigued by the dynamic of the group as far as all the different elements of sound they are able to utilize throughout their songs. I loved how everyone is involved in the process of the songs from writing to recording and such. They have a great group with dynamic and killer melodies. Really, when I saw them perform at PDX Pop Now, and they did a cover of Etta James “At Last” at the end of their set, I knew I wanted to work with the group.
Here’s the full performance from that night. I was in the crowd smoking joints Green Team style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiJeV1W2W94
*Jump to 34:22 to hear Radiation City’s cover of “At Last”.
RMR: What came easily, what were some bumps in the road? How long did this project take to complete?
G: The beats came together without a hitch. Rad City had given me a link to the album before they gave me the track outs, so I listened to it over and over for about two weeks before I started working on the beats. I really had a solid idea of what I wanted to do with all the beats by the time I had the track outs.
I started the beats the first week of February 2013 and had them done by Feb 13th.
The bumps in the road came with getting all the featured artists on the project. It was a daunting task having to first figure out which artists I wanted on the project and then having to contact all of them and get the songs back in a timely fashion. But truthfully, 
everyone was very professional and came through and killed it! I wouldn’t have the project any other way, I think all the artists did some incredible work. I’m happy with all the songs.
The album took about 4 months to complete from February to May. I did all the mixing/mastering the weekend before I had to turn the record into the label, which I think was like May 18 or something. But I still wouldn’t say anything was rushed. I usually work quickly any way.
RMR: How did you go about selecting who to feature on this project?
G: The first song I made for the project was “Skys Fall”. RIO was staying at my house for the month of January working on his yet to be released debut album, “Trying To Be Human”, which I fully produced. He happened to be in the studio when Radiation City had come over and asked to remix the album. When they played “Foreign Bodies” for us, RIO turned to me and said, “this is the track I want on the album.” So, the next day I made the beat for him and he killed it on the raps.
The next two songs I made were actually unreleased songs that I had, “FOOD” and “LA BEACH”. I knew I wanted Juicy J and Strong Arm Steady on the project and I happened to be lucky enough to have some great friends, (Blimp and N.VS), who trusted me enough with their songs to do “remixes”. So the those two songs are technically “remixes” but I don’t think any ones ever going to hear the other versions of them.
Then I came up with the idea to have TxE open and close the album, I thought it would be a nice touch to have the group I’m in be well represented on the record.After that I would just listen to beats and think, “who do I know that would sound best on this record?” I made sure not just to focus on featuring Portland artists. I wanted the album to have a diverse range of sounds from various regions. I’m really happy with how everyone killed it, I feel like its some of the best work I’ve done as well as the people featured.
RMR: Personal favorite track, (or a few)? And, why that track?
G: I really like “L.A. Beach”. Strong Arm Steady have been one of my top groups for a long time so it’s always an honor to work with them and N.VS killed his verse.
But still, I think Sam Trumps song “SO LONG” might be my favorite. THATS MY DAWG! lol
RMR: Any stories from the experience? What are you most happy with as far as how the project wrapped up? How do you feel like your audience has received this project?
G: I think overall this was just a great experience to try something new. I’ve never done a full on “compilation” record and I didn’t realize how much work it was going to take. But it turned out just how I wanted to and I couldn’t be happier. It was great seeing the singles pushed by major blogs. Jay-Z premiered the “Zombies” single and Vibe premiered “Food”. It’s always sweet to see some national publications recognize the release. I still don’t think the fans have truly wrapped their heads around this album because it’s so different as far as how we marketed it. But, it’s been nothing but positive responses so far, I really think this record has legs and we’ll pick up a little bit farther down the line as all the artists on it grow bigger and bigger fan bases.
RMR: Thank you, G Force! We are excited to see what happens with this release. Definitely a talented group of individuals and some absolutely awesome tracks here.
Be sure to follow @CalvinValentine on Twitter!
