Illustration: Iris Gottlieb
In just a few short years, the Scary Pockets collective has managed to whip more than 200 pop classics into funk anthems: Every week brings a new cover to their YouTube channel that infuses familiar songs with razor-sharp syncopation, backbeat, and vocals from a rotating cast of virtuosic lead singers — racking up millions of views in the process. Amazingly, each one is arranged on the fly in about 90 minutes, capturing the talent and spontaneity of a group of musicians at the top of their game.
This week, Switched on Pop got to be a fly on the wall for the Scary Pockets’ creative process. After documenting the behind-the-scenes dialogue that led to a slow-burning interpretation of the Bee Gees’ 1977 classic “Stayin’ Alive,” hosts Nate Sloan and Reanna Cruz spoke with the group’s leaders — guitarist Ryan Lerman and keyboardist Jack Conte — as well as guest vocalist Lizzy McAlpine, who dished on how to take a song that everyone knows and give its sound a fresh tang. Read an excerpt from that conversation below, and then listen to the episode wherever you get podcasts.
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Nate Sloan: The very first thing that happened in this session was that Ryan did a count-off. I thought there would be some conversation where you guys touched base and figured out a plan, but instead Ryan counted to four and everyone just started to groove. Do you start a lot of Scary Pockets sessions like that?
Ryan Lerman: Most sessions start with Jack and I looking at what the moment gives us: We’re trying to capture lightning in a bottle, so most of these sessions are just trying to wait for the spark. The most natural way for that to happen is that someone will just start playing something — so we try to leave room for that to happen by not coming right out the gate with an idea or telling people what to do. A drummer will start playing something, or a bass player will start playing something, and we’ll try to follow that and see where that leads us.
Jack Conte: I’ve found that starting with anything is kind of the trick. Just making sound is step one, so it’s like, All right, let’s make some noise together — and, honestly, most of the time there’s some element that we find inspiring in that first bit of noise that we make together, and then we chase that rabbit until we have an arrangement.
NS: In the case of “Stayin’ Alive,” do you remember how you selected this particular Bee Gees track?
RL: Our song-selection process has been evolving as of late, but traditionally it’s a conversation between me and the singer. I’ll tell them that we try to do songs everybody knows that aren’t already funky.
NS: But “Stayin’ Alive” is a tremendously funky song to begin with.
RL: The whole point of doing a cover is that you’re taking something that everybody knows and changing it. If they don’t already know the song, you lose your context. Then it just might as well be an original.
NS: In this case, you’re replacing the disco groove of the original with this loping, laid-back funk groove.
RL: We have a few guiding principles that we tend to lean on, which are: fun, funky, and simple.
JC: Part of the reason we set these guidelines for ourselves is because it goes against our nature. Both Ryan and I are harmony guys — we love harmony, we love thick texture, complicated chords — and when we were starting Scary Pockets, we said, “What if it was just about the feel of the groove?” Let’s prioritize what the groove feels like.
Reanna Cruz: What is it like joining Scary Pockets as a guest vocalist?
Lizzy McAlpine: It’s always so much fun. I think that Ryan and Jack are so talented, and it’s such a warm environment and such a creative space that it’s always really fun to get to be a part of it.
RC: Was it daunting having the song change on the fly as you recorded?
LM: I feel pretty comfortable changing things up. I always go into a Scary Pockets session knowing that the song is not going to sound anything like the original, so I was a little bit prepared for that, but it was really fun to go through the arrangement and pick out specific things to change.
RC: As somebody that used to do your own cover songs on Instagram, what do you consider a successful cover?
LM: I think just making it your own. I don’t ever want to cover a song and have it sound like the original. I want it to sound like I am covering it, so I want it to sound like me in whatever way that is. I usually don’t know what that means until I have sat down with the song, but I think if it sounds like who I am, then it was a success.
This excerpt has been edited and condensed.
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