Outside Is Void’s cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘If You Want’ comes with a fascinating making-of video

Thomas Marcus, the artist behind the darkwave music project Outside Is Void has released a cover of ‘If You Want’ by Depeche Mode. Inspired by both the 1984 studio version and the much revered 1985 Live in Hamburg performance, Outside Is Void didn’t want to reinterpret the track, but instead use the track as a way to chase down the original sounds and create approximations of the synth sounds used in the original. As always, Thomas gives a spirited performance, and the synth sounds convey the original sinister fairground meets mechanical toy at a club sound excellently. It’s a strong variation.

What intrigued me just as much is the half-hour making-of video that was released alongside the single and its music video. In the breakdown, Outside Is Void talks about their personal synth collection (which looks superb in the background) and how he chased down synth replicas to rebuild the track without borrowing samples. If you enjoy synth chat or a deep dive into the anatomy of creating a track, this is a great insight into the creative process. It’s also quite rare that we get this about a cover. As a random sidenote, Thomas’ voice sounds identical to the narrator of the Native Instruments plugin walkthrough videos. I bet there’s an ASMR side hustle for calming, soft-spoken videos in the offing if he wants it…

If you like your synthwave on the darker, indie side, then visit Outside Is Void’s website to discover his original music and other artistic projects.

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