Secrets behind hit dance remake of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams by Aussie-based NZ DJ Jolyon Petch

With nightclubs shut, DJs are remaking classic hits as dance tracks like Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams which has skyrocketed up our music charts.

Melbourne DJ Jolyon Petch has made Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams a club hit. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

That dance remix of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams you’re suddenly hearing all over commercial radio isn’t actually a remix and it also isn’t Fleetwood Mac.

Melbourne based Kiwi DJ Jolyon Petch spent hours recreating the 1977 rock classic for the dancefloors, with singer Reigan Derry painstakingly recreating Stevie Nicks’ vocals.

The work has paid off – Petch’s cover version of Dreams is his first song to be added across the board to most commercial radio networks in Australia.
It already has 1.5 million streams on Spotify, is only behind Ed Sheeran as the most Shazam’d song in Australia right now and is his ninth No. 1 on the ARIA Club Chart.

Melbourne DJ Jolyon Petch has remade Fleetwood Mac's Dreams. Picture Rebecca Michael.

Petch started creating his remake in lockdown last year – airing it on a livestream for UK dance label Hedkandi last October; the same month Dreams was featured in a Tik Tok video that was viewed 50 million times and sent the song back into the charts.

“People on the live stream thought it was a Fleetwood Mac remix,” Petch said. “When I was told Dreams had blown up on Tik Tok I knew about Tik Tok but hadn’t really investigated it. But it’s been perfect timing, Tik Tok meant a younger audience discovered this classic song which I’ve modernised with my beats.”

While he also makes original music, Petch has created a career out of making dance covers of popular hits, from Rihanna’s Umbrella to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and even the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Otherside – the latter has over five million Spotify streams.

“Some DJs shy away from cover versions, but I get the vocalists to sound almost exactly like the original,” Petch said. “If you’re on the dancefloor having a few drinks and a dance, you won’t know it’s not Michael Jackson or Stevie Nicks. Plus it’s got that familiarity.”

Melbourne DJ Sgt Slick is about to score his first ever ARIA gold single for his rework of ABBA’s 1979 disco hit Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight).

Slick originally created his own remix, or edit, of the original to play in clubs and share with DJs. However ABBA have only ever given permission for two samples of their songs (including Madonna using Gimme Gimme’s riff for her hit Hung Up) so Slick had to cover the track.

He approached an international sample replay company, who used vintage gear to recreate every part of the original, from drums to bass as well as soundalike vocals, then added his own modern touches to update it.

Petch went down a similar route to get Dreams’ guitar riff replayed for his remake. Slick’s new single, The Night, features replayed vocals and synthesisers from Cyndi Lauper’s 1984 hit All Through the Night.

Australian artist Reigan Derry, the voice of Dreams. Picture: Supplied

Melbourne DJ Sgt Slick has updated ABBA. Picture: Supplied

“It’s expensive, but it’s cheaper than getting sued,” Slick said. “In the past a lot of people haven’t bothered getting permission to cover a song from the song’s publishers and got themselves in trouble, myself included. It can be a long process, but it’s worth it in the end so you’re not thinking ‘This song could end up pulled at any minute and I could end up in court’.”

It doesn’t always work out – The Killers said no to Petch releasing his remake of their hit Mr Brightside: “I still play that version in my DJ sets and it goes crazy.”

While they obviously lose any songwriting royalties, the DJ owns the master recording by recreating the track, which can become lucrative if a song takes off on radio or streaming sites and becomes a hit again.

“Once you get into the multi-millions of streams on Spotify the money’s not actually that bad,” Petch said. “You can live off that. I don’t make music for the money, but it’s been a horrific year for our industry, DJs have lost so much work so this is a nice bonus.”

For Sgt Slick, cruelly just as his take on Gimme Gimme Gimme hit it big last March most of Australia went into lockdown and club work dried up.

Fleetwood Mac pictured in 1977, the year they released Dreams. Picture: Sam Emerson

“Gigs are where the real money comes from when you have a hit record people are playing on the radio — all of a sudden a lot of promoters want you in their club or festival,” Slick said. “We had seven or so months off from being in the clubs, then we got to DJ again and Gimme Gimme was still the biggest track — I thought people might have been over it but it’s not going anywhere in a hurry.”

Petch hopes to use UK DJ Jonas Blue’s career as a blueprint – his dance version of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car in 2015 was a global hit (up to almost 900 million streams) and allowed him to release a string of original songs.

Slick said ongoing restrictions on clubbing could create more dance covers.

“During lockdowns a lot of DJs were making covers because we didn’t have the ability to build an original track from the clubs up because there were no clubs. If you do a cover that’s a track that people already know, it’s a bit easier to get a foothold. But that cover scene has really exploded now, so it’s harder to find songs that haven’t been done. There’s not many songs that haven’t been attempted already but my ears are always open.”

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