Echoes of the Past: The Folk Tradition of Cover Songs and The Moon & The Mind’s Rendition of “Creep”
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Part Two: Oppositional Forces in Creativity
The history of Creep, Radiohead’s breakout single, is as layered as the song itself. Interestingly, the track wasn’t even slated for release initially. It was producer Sean Slade who saw potential in the song during studio sessions, urging the band to give it a chance. Drawing inspiration from The Air That I Breathe by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, the track’s journey was further complicated by legal disputes, resulting in Hammond and Hazlewood being credited as co-writers. Despite its rocky start, Creep became a cultural touchstone, likened to other alt-rock anthems of the '90s like Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Beck’s Loser (Wikipedia, n.d.).
The Moon & The Mind’s Interpretation: A Delicate Balance
For The Moon & The Mind, covering Creep became a masterclass in navigating oppositional forces. At first, the cover seemed to fall into place too easily during the early stages of conceptualization—almost unnaturally so. However, as production unfolded, the song revealed itself to be far more complex than anticipated.
Joshua Ramon reflects, “It was a process of discovery, learning how to translate the raw emotion of the original while crafting something uniquely ours.” The initial guitar part was born from an older track, Someone Wanted More, by Ramon’s band Keeps. While this foundation brought familiarity, the effort to incorporate it into Creep evolved into an obsession. Experiments ranged from integrating drum loops from the old track to stripping the arrangement down entirely. Ultimately, the final recording settled on layered acoustic guitars—recorded live through dual amps—and a delicate blend of synths.
The track’s turning point came with the addition of Gabe Bruner on piano. The piano enters during the chorus and continues through the rest of the song, creating a profound impact, especially on the bridge. This section, which needed a foundational element for Ayla Winegar's soaring vocals, finds its balance in Bruner's dynamic performance. His playing not only builds a supportive bed for the vocals but also crescendos alongside them, adding depth and texture to the track.
Challenges in Production: The Noise That Stays
Producing Creep became an exercise in embracing imperfection. Winegar’s vocals, recorded in an untreated room, captured not just her voice but also the incidental sounds of her surroundings—her dog Rosie’s collar, faint sighs, and other ambient noises. Ramon initially fought these artifacts, attempting to clean the tracks, but found himself drawn to their authenticity.
In a stroke of ingenuity, Ramon introduced the sound of a needle drop and a looping vinyl crackle to unify the track. “It felt like the right move,” he recalls. “It tied everything together and gave the song an intimate, lived-in quality.” This creative decision underscores a key takeaway for Ramon as a producer: sometimes, adding noise can bring a track to life in ways that removing it cannot.
An Homage to the Original, and What Was Left Behind
The Moon & The Mind’s Creep intentionally diverges from some of the original’s most iconic features. The jagged, slashing guitar stabs that famously precede Radiohead’s choruses are notably absent. Ramon cites a story about Creep’sproduction, where Jonny Greenwood’s guitar slashes were rumored to be an act of sabotage, born of his frustration with the formulaic track (Daly, 2015). Interestingly, producer Sean Slade noted in an interview that the band was so focused on these guitar slashes that they kept turning them up in the mix—resulting in what Slade called a “comically loud” sound. While Radiohead embraced the slashes as a defining feature, The Moon & The Mind opted to leave them out entirely, focusing instead on the song’s fragility and emotional core.
Honorable Mentions: Other Takes on “Creep”
The curated playlist for this article highlights a range of covers that showcase Creep’s versatility:
Kina Grannis: A stripped-down acoustic indie-folk rendition that highlights the song’s emotional rawness.
Ember Island: Similar in style to Grannis, but with more instrumentation and a slightly more flamboyant vocal delivery.
Arlo Parks: A soulful and introspective take that brings fresh vulnerability to the track.
Daniela Andrade: A delicate and haunting version that underscores the song’s melancholic beauty.
It’s clear that Creep resonates powerfully in the hands of female vocalists, offering a fresh perspective on its timeless themes.
Mastering the Mood: Mike Bridavsky’s Final Touch
Mastering engineer Mike Bridavsky played a pivotal role in bringing Creep to its full potential. “I send everything to Mike because I trust his ear and his intuition,” Ramon explains. “Before I even knew who he was, I used to listen to records he recorded just because I liked the sound of them.”
For Creep, Bridavsky took an experimental approach, adding low-end depth by pitch-shifting the entire song, low-passing it, and automating the effect to weave in and out between vocals. “When he sent back the first pass of the masters, he mentioned how he’d done this because he thought it sounded cool,” Ramon recalls. “He also included another pass without it in case I wasn’t into it. But I was like—fuck, yes, I’m into it. That’s exactly what I wanted: for him to do what he thought sounded cool.”
Bridavsky’s contribution not only elevated the track sonically but also affirmed the creative choices made during production. “It was affirming to know he thought something we were doing was cool, too,” Ramon adds, underscoring the collaborative spirit of the project.
The Playlist Experience
As with the previous installment, listeners will find slight variations in the playlist depending on their streaming platform of choice. While The Moon & The Mind’s album is available everywhere, certain covers are exclusive to either Apple Music or Spotify. Despite these limitations, the playlist showcases the song’s capacity for reinvention.
A Bridge Across Time
The Moon & The Mind’s rendition of Creep exemplifies how cover songs can be both a tribute and a reinvention. It’s a dialogue between past and present, a testament to the enduring power of a great song to evolve and connect across generations.
Explore P.AV.lov’s Playlists for a curated journey through Creep’s many lives:
References
Daly, R. (2015, April 8). Radiohead: 10 geeky facts about “Creep”. NME. Retrieved from https://www.nme.com/lists/radiohead-10-geeky-facts-about-creep-757425
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Creep (Radiohead song). Retrieved January 5, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_(Radiohead_song)