Dubstar: THE PERFECT SMILE
In the Dubstar Archive I’ve been focussing on releasing new songs and have shied away from sharing the many different versions of songs you’ve already heard. We had enough remixes in the 1990s after all, so… we’ll get to the alternative versions another time, maybe 2026? Right now I’m concentrating on previously unheard songs that I think will be interesting to listeners. Sometimes I’ll put up a song to highlight something that might not already be known about Dubstar, such as there were two cover versions we put forward for Amnesty International. This is why we’ve had a dozen songs from United States of Being recently, but The Perfect Smile is different. It's a song that spans two unreleased recording eras: The Dubstar Ep from 2000 and the United States of Being sessions. So what's the story?
One of the keyboard racks in my music room in Hove, September 2000
THE PERFECT SMILE
I wrote The Perfect Smile as a song that might help Dubstar to remain signed to EMI in 2000. I've discussed this situation before, it was so strange. Much like today, although I’d already stopped working with Chris and Sarah, effectively bringing Dubstar to an end, I was still getting calls from the music industry for updates on the act and more material. So… I wrote and recorded a handful of new songs and threw in a cover, much like on Disgraceful, Goodbye and Make It Better. The typical Dubstar situation.
Despite this and after the meagre sales of Make It Better, Dubstar was dropped in November 2000. We would never have a record deal again and the six Dubstar EP songs were forgotten. Until…
Ten years later. Dubstar had reformed in 2006 and fallen apart in 2008 when it emerged that Sarah hadn’t told her musical partners in Client that she was working with Chris and me. That seemed like it was the definitive end to the act, but a year later there was a change of heart. We resumed work as Dubstar at Sarah’s behest (I’ll expand on what Chris and I got up to in the downtime another time). By late 2009 I’d already moved on musically from the songs I’d written and recorded for our first comeback; a change of pace was afoot, let’s go faster! You can already hear this mood change on Don’t Ask. My approach had become much more upbeat, even dance-floor-orientated for once. it could put Dubstar back on the map.
I learned Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator during the many days waiting around during the recording of Goodbye. Here’s an idea I had for a new Dubstar logo to accompany the proposed release of the Dubstar EP.
This also led to the recording of one of my faves from this era. Sister was a departure from the sound we’d had two years earlier, much faster, even rockier…it sounded a lot like electro New Wave, somehow a hybrid of Ultravox, The Cardigans and Dubstar. It worked, brilliantly.
Following its sonic success I decided to revisit some older unreleased songs to see if any other gems could be rekindled in the same way. The answer was yes…The Perfect Smile had a half-time RnB feel (and was called In Your Smile), very millennial in style. I’d always liked the song but the recording and arrangement were wrong. My contributions were pretty weak, but Chris played some excellent Wilkie-style arpeggios and Sarah sang the song with more passion than it deserved. It was submitted to EMI and then…forgotten.
But you can’t keep a good tune down. In the throws of completing the USOB songs at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011, I reworked The Perfect Smile in the style of Sister. This is the result. But this new musical avenue would not be explored any further. It emerged soon after Sister was mixed in Malta that Chris had significant problems with the song: we’d have to ditch it. And then, as you know, we ended up ditching dozens more songs as the act fell apart for the final time in early 2014. Damn.
My beloved Yamaha DX7 in September 2000. Note two (!) minidisk players on top of the filing cabinet.
THINKING BACK NOW
We’ll never know if going upbeat would revive Dubstar’s fortunes. I still contend it was worth a try. Speeding things up, grooving in straight-8s rather than funky way? Yeah, a terrific fit. Oh well…
I remained excited by this sonic approach though, and returned to it in 2015 when I put together this remix for Brighton-heroes The Propolis. The Ultravox is strong in this one. And one day I’ll put up the original In Your Smile as a 'compare and contrast' for the curious.
There are only two unreleased songs left from the Dubstar EP. They're so weak I’m tempted to leave them exactly where they are on my hard drive. But you never know, maybe I’m misreading them (and of course, there are alternative versions of both which I’ve yet to find, maybe they’re not so bad after all?).
This article includes excerpts from DUBSTAR.COM. Want more? You can find the story behind every Dubstar song ever recorded including dozens of unreleased songs right here at Dubstar.com
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