Firefox - Rastaman (One Love) [Encore500 V2]

Scene Albums: Encore500 Volume 2

Hi everyone, Firefox here!

So here we are after a very hard year for the Encore team. We all knew Pete was with us on borrowed time, and maybe he knew that more than anyone else.

He is deeply missed. I didn’t know him very closely, but whenever I came across him he always seemed to be in good spirits. I just wish I had come out of my cave a bit earlier, so I could have known him better.

Ok, here we go. About Rastaman then, and how it came to be.

To be honest, it wasn’t the first track that came to mind. I had other songs in the pipeline, like Monkey Island in a reggae/ska version with a funny twist and lyrics, and also a reggae/pop/dance version of Crystal Hammer.

We’ll see if those ever come to light. Most likely Crystal Hammer. But anyway, back to Rastaman.

I watched the movie about Bob Marley on Netflix after I had been thinking about those other tracks, and it just hit me that maybe I could do something with Rastaman.

Not because of ego, but because I really love the original track and wanted to lift it into something more. I actually think I’m one of the few people who could pull that off, since I wrote the original and could hopefully get away with taking it in a new direction.

This was never about doing a 1:1 remake or remix using all the same elements and melodies.

Remixing a module is very hard, because the sound is so locked in and imprinted in our minds and ears. It’s super hard to make a remix of an Amiga track that captures the essence of it, and at the same time adds something new and maybe even makes it better.

What I wanted to do was expand on it, and only use the parts and melodies that could fit a vocal track.

I was 20 years old when I made it on the Amiga. This summer I turn 55. So in a way, this version carries a lot of time with it.

Rastaman had so many iterations and revisions, it just kept growing and growing. During this past year the inspiration came and went. Some periods it flowed, other times it just didn’t. But little by little it started to become what it is now.

As I said on the release show, I used ChatGPT and Suno as tools in the process. ChatGPT helped me get started with the lyrics, because the first line is often the hardest part. From there, the lyrics were mine.

Suno was used for a few specific ideas, like the saxophone line at the beginning and the end. The small sax ad-libs came from melodies I fed into it, then I separated the sax and placed it where I wanted it. That is the only thing AI is actually playing in the track.

I was going to get a real sax player on it, and Bass Cadet even sent me a small snippet playing, but I just couldn’t bother her since she was struggling with health issues. I also didn’t want to spend more money since I had already paid a vocalist and a bass player.

I’m also really grateful to Eike Romeo Knight for playing guitar on it.

I actually had a drummer play live drums too, but it didn’t end up as good as I wanted, so in the end it got some slightly janky Firefox reggae drums instead. I watched so many YouTube videos about producing reggae that I lost count, just because I really wanted to understand the feel of it, the process, and what everything is called. Really interesting stuff.

There are also so many hidden things in the track. Small little details that you probably don’t hear directly, but they add a lot to the overall feel.

I didn’t quantize everything fully, because I wanted the track to breathe a bit and feel alive. Things are a little bit off here and there on purpose, just to make it feel more human.

The vocalist was amazing, and he felt the track right away. He was really eager to record it, and he totally delivered on the vocal stems. I just told him what I was looking for and he gave me way more than I expected.

Same with the bass player. He did two takes: one following my bass as a guide, which is used in the hook after the chorus, and one in his own style, and that is what I use most of the time in the track.

Since it was 1996 that I last worked with vocals in a song, it was actually a refreshing feeling doing it again. It gave the song a depth I couldn’t really have imagined.

But that’s just my feeling, of course. It may not be the same for everyone listening. In fact I was a bit afraid this version wouldn’t resonate with some people because it is so different.

But I hope it will be seen the way I see it — as a tribute to the Amiga and to the original song.

As you can imagine, the track count became pretty extensive, with lots of layered instruments and things going on. The mixing was really hard.

I also had very high expectations of myself, because I really wanted this track to be the top of my game. Since this album is a celebration to Pete, for me it had to be nothing less than the best I could do.

And also something that would make me grow as a composer and producer, just like the rest of the Encore team keeps pushing themselves and growing each time.

The final mix was, to my horror, really done in the last days before release. Shame on me.

There were still saxophone melodies, drum things, and vocal details I kept finding, like really harsh S-words that had to be lowered by hand, plus some pitch adjustments here and there.

Danko was a huge help in the final stage, since I sent him different versions with different volumes on different elements. That really helped a lot. Same with the other team members giving feedback.

I always value truth over trying not to bruise my ego. That kind of honesty is what helps me grow.

But now it’s here for you to enjoy, or not enjoy. That part is not up to me anymore.

I made this with passion, and yes, some pain too haha. But in the end it’s the result that matters.

As I said to Jogeir: I want to get this track to 98%.

At least within my own abilities, I feel I got it there. And I stand by it 100% as a tribute to Peter Clarke.

2 Amiga charts March 2026