Hey I'm Dave Winnel and I covered
TOTO’s ‘Africa’ for Like A Version.
Alright, here we go.
Like A Version, what am I gonna cover?
What’s my favourite songs?
‘Jurassic Park Theme’
I chose TOTO's 'Africa' because when I was
growing up in high school
I was DJ-ing and I only would listen to
techno music or trance music.
But TOTO's Africa was like
the one song that if I ever heard it
I could get down to
and I'd be singing all the lyrics.
Not that I knew the lyrics
but I'd be like, ‘doo doo doo doo doo’.
♪ I bless the rains down in Africa
No matter who you are
when you hear this song
you can just jump in and you kind of pick
your own harmony to sing
even though you don't know music.
And I think it's like a really special song.
So the process of making the cover
was I ripped the acapella from the Internet.
A really bad version of it.
But it was just something as a guide.
And then I kind of built the track up
following the structure of the original
and I was thinking
how can I turn their sounds into more current
something that you hear at a festival
and just blows the speakers away?
So I wanted to make something
that's kind of like a Justice vs. The Weeknd
vs. Dave Winnel, kind of ‘Africa’ version.
For me, the song's all about the three main chords.
The ‘dun dun dun dun dun dun dun’.
And then the response
the ‘dododododododo’.
So that was like what I wanted to make the track
most prominent in.
So that's why you hear it
in the intro and then the drop
and then finally at the end again.
I’ve been DJ-ing for over fifteen years now
and producing music for like ten.
So I make predominantly house music
but it's always got quirky little sounds
like from my song ‘Jungle Juice’
there’s like a talking drum that sounds like a monkey.
And I always try to use like flutes
and things that don't normally
you don't normally hear
in like house music.
So on vocals, we had ANDRÉ
who was doing the main vocals of ‘Africa’
and then we had Rob
and KLP were doing the harmonies
and then on drums we had Jack.
As soon as we got in the room
the energy was just...
Favourite part about performing was
looking around the room
and just seeing everyone jamming
because I’m normally just DJ-ing on stage
it’s kind of a little bit of a weird feeling
where you’re just in your own head.
But it's nice to be in an environment
where you can look at everyone
and how they’re interacting with each other.
And it's just um
yeah I've got to do way more stuff like this.
I think it’ll be really cool.
For ‘CEO’ and ‘Jungle Juice’
I know I needed someone who had
that big boss, CEO energy
and I knew KLP would come in and smash it.
Not only that
because she's done Like A Version pretty recent
she had so much advice and tips
and she actually put me in contact
with the other band members too.
So without KLP
I wouldn't have been able to do any of this.
Not just for me, but like the whole of Australia
I think triple j Like A Version is
one of the big moments of anyone's career.
So yeah, for me
getting the opportunity was something really special
and definitely like a massive career goal ticked.
I wasn't thinking about what fans would like
or what the crowd would like.
I was like, what are my favourite songs?
So TOTO ‘Africa’ is like one of my all time favourite songs.
And then I actually did
a demo of the Jurassic Park Theme
by John Williams
and I also did a demo of
Interstellar Theme by Hans Zimmer.
They’re still both on my hard drive somewhere
So I might do something with them one day.