From a Cold DM to American Radio: Remixing "Echo" for Neringa Šiaudikytė

Most of the records in this catalogue came through people I already knew. This one started with a message to someone I didn't.

I'd been listening to "Echo" by Lithuanian singer Neringa Šiaudikytė — a strong vocal on a production that, to my ear, was pointing somewhere the record hadn't gone yet. I wrote to her on social media and proposed a remix. She listened to my catalogue and said yes. That's the whole origin story, and I think it's worth telling because producers' sites tend to make work look like it always arrives by introduction. Sometimes you just hear something and send the message.

Project at a Glance

Artist: Neringa Šiaudikytė (Lithuania / Los Angeles)

Release: "Echo" — Nevelskiy & Phillipo Blake Remix · February 19, 2023

Also released as: Extended Remix (DJ edit)

My role: Production, arrangement, mixing and mastering — the remix rebuilt from the ground up around Neringa's vocal

Additional production: Phillipo Blake

Original version written and produced by: Andrew Furze (with Dale Anthony, Casey Cook and Neringa Šiaudikytė)

Label: Loony House Major

What I kept, and what I rebuilt

The original "Echo" took its writers over two years to finish — a song written and produced by Andrew Furze with Dale Anthony, Casey Cook and Neringa herself. It's a fully realised record, and Neringa had told me from the start that she'd always pictured it with a dance version. So the brief was clear: keep what makes the song hers, and rebuild everything around it.

The one element I kept is the vocal. Everything else in the remix — the chords, the rhythm section, the arrangement, the sound design — is built from scratch.

Building the remix

I produced, arranged, mixed and mastered the remix; Phillipo Blake, an old friend from Milan, came in for additional production. The goal was a proper vocal-house record — something that works on a club system, not just on headphones.

We put out two versions: the main remix and an extended edit. The extended one is the DJ version — longer intro and outro built for mixing in a set.

Where it went

The remix debuted on Dash Radio, the Los Angeles digital radio network, and went into rotation on stations across the US. Neringa and I were invited into the Dash studio to talk about the record on Leila Ciancaglini's Kaliente Girls show — a conversation about how the original became a dance-floor version.

When Lithuania's national broadcaster LRT covered the release, Neringa put it plainly: the song sounds different now, the collaboration came out of nowhere, and in her words the remix arguably went further than the original. By that point the track had passed 100,000 plays on Spotify. It has since passed 190,000, and it's now the most-played track on her profile — ahead of the original "Echo."

Coverage: LRT · TV3 · Dash Radio interview · LA Wire · NY Weekly

What I take from it

A cold message is a legitimate way to start a record — not because it usually works, but because a specific ask can. I wasn't asking for a meeting or a favour. I'd heard one song, I had a specific idea about what it could become, and I could point to work that showed I could execute it. That's a different thing from "let's collaborate sometime," and artists can feel the difference.

Credits

Artist: Neringa Šiaudikytė

Title: "Echo" (Nevelskiy & Phillipo Blake Remix)

Production, arrangement, mixing, mastering: Konstantin Nevelskiy

Additional production: Phillipo Blake

Original written and produced by: Andrew Furze (with Dale Anthony, Casey Cook, Neringa Šiaudikytė)

Label: Loony House Major Released: February 19, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjQpe0WY0qI

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