JOHN HERMAN: I really like this song. Each musician worked on it from a unique perspective, whether in appreciation of another piece of art, personal, or political. what is created is a nice blend full of "serious, dark, romantic" tones.

CHALLENGE #1: Choose a movie you believe people should see. Ignoring the existing soundtrack, record a beat to accompany a scene. The track length must match the scene length.

ALEJANDRO SALOMON: After I received this first challenge, I was watching a movie entitled Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Immediately, I found in this movie the perfect source of inspiration to create an authentic beat. I believe the movie had a nice mixture of irony, romanticism and creative surrealism. These characteristics in the movie inspired me to create an uncommon beat, a beat that could fit well with ironic melodies and harmonies as well as more serious, dark and/or romantic tones. I specifically concentrated in the climax scene of the story due to its intense mixture of romance, suspense and surrealism action occurring within the hero’s subconscious.

In this scene, the “hero” sees how all his memories of his “love” and everything related to her are being erased. Even though he previously agreed to the procedure, he realizes that the result would be permanent and forgetting his love forever would be inevitable. At that point, the hero regrets his decision and the struggle to fight the procedure within his dreams begins. Therefore, I began to play a somewhat energetic and constant beat that would flow well with such struggle.

Also, I wanted to give an ironic and surreal feel to it and at the same time leave space for romanticism. Provided that expressing such sentiments through an electronic beat without melody and harmony is hard, I thought of implementing a Colombian ballenato rhythm with a more modern feel. Ballenatos I think are very upbeat and ironic by nature. However, if you listen to the melodies and harmonies without the rhythm you would probably feel nostalgic or romantic. I felt like experimenting with such beats and in the end I believe the beat flows perfectly with my chosen scene. Personally, it was an excellent experience. It made me feel closer to the movie and what it wanted to express. It’s definitely a dimension of film appreciation that I never experienced before. I am a musician and music is the best language I understand. Therefore, this experiment exposed me to the movie and made me more sensible to the hero’s struggle.

CHALLENGE #2: Add a guitar track to the following energetic and constant beat. You must if possible give an ironic and surreal feel to your submission and at the same time leave space for romanticism.

BRIAN SPIELVOGEL: My old guitar sounded like she was shorted out. I lived by the beach for six years and failed to keep her in shape. She rusted in her case. I had another Mexican strat that had a broken nut. It is the second nut on a fender I have broken. A friend had filed the strings but it was too large, so I had to file it down.

The action was too high.

I also adjusted the truss rod, another no no for know nothings. I am late on my challenge because of a family trip. Here are some pictures of my family near a mirror lake. You can see a giant sleeping.

I am not a real guitar player, though I have played all my life. It is therapy for my hands so I can keep them in shape and do not shake so much. I was encouraged to keep my hands in shape for my slight case of CP. I hope you can use at least one of my sections.

And for playing in the wrong key, what can I say. I am special.

CHALLENGE #3: Record a thirty second part for the following song using a four part vocal harmony without accompaniment. Record the first part. Record the second part listening to your first part. Record your third part listening only to your second part. Record your fourth part listening only to your third part. Finally record a non-lead vocal track for the rest of the song treating your voice as a musical instrument. Your inspiration is romance, suspense and surrealism.

SANDRO AND CO: "Why did you let us down, why, why, Ohio?" Ohio was decisive for Bush in 2004. It's a surreal chorus sung by millions of Americans who wanted a better world and who still can't believe what Mr. George B. did. I was thinking about the mid-term elections, America will awake from the nightmare and dream a new surreal peace romance.

JON BRIGGS: ENGINEER'S NOTE: I put some EQ delay and reverb on the guitar tracks. Also, I took the German vocals from the beginning and cut them up and heavily effected them to make the various sound effects throughout the track. In the end, the classic Man Who Was Thursday trick was performed: take some bit of vocals and turn them backwards. This is the German vocals backwards ending the song.