This is my acoustic pop cover of the New Order song “Regret” from their Republic album — a song I played repeatedly on my cassette walkman back in 1993, the year I taught English in the boondocks of the Philippines (Mangagoy, Bislig, Surigao Del Sur, to be exact).

To give some contrast to the musical interlude, I also used the plastic recorder I had from way back in third grade when I used to live in Hong Kong — that was circa 1980? So… that’s a 40-year old recorder! Yes, by recorder I mean the flute-sounding wind instrument. Yeesh. It matches my graying hair then.

And like I said in the video description, I really have no idea what to do with my hands while singing. Some friends suggested holding a pizza slice or a can. Maybe I should just hold another instrument.

About the Video Process

All of the music you hear on the video was recorded live while filming — except for the drum machine pattern. And the screenshots of my recording software (Propellerheads Reason 10) show what the actual file looks like when I record.

I’m trying to capture both live audio and live video simultaneously, then putting them together first on audio then in a video editor (Vegas Pro 15). As much as possible I want to avoid the typical “music video lip sync” thing. But we’ll see if that’s feasible down the road.

New Order’s Version

Here’s what the original “Regret” sounded like.

Why do I like the song? I’m drawn to rhythm. My first instrument was piano, which has a percussive element to it, but when I got to high school, I was a drummer in our garage band. And this song is driven by rhythm. Not to mention, it’s got a truly uplifting melody coupled with really bitter lyrics. The combination of all three turns it into more than a dance tune, more than a bitter rant, and more than a hopeful melody.