Howard Feibusch didn’t realize he was in the beginning stages of making a new EP when he sat down to separate the songs from “Religion” into stems. He was doing this so that a friend could remix them—but he and synth/guitar player Alex Chakour ended up remixing it themselves. “I found it exciting to mix and match sounds and stems from different songs and just show what they created,” explains Feibusch.

The result is Please Recycle, a conceptual EP that uses just the pre-recorded stems to make five mostly lyric-less lush, mellow electronic soundscapes. We spoke with Feibusch about what drew him to electronic music, putting the remixes together and who he’d like to remix a future Howard record.

Hometown / homebase: Brooklyn, NY

How did Howard come together?

I was playing in a band called Orange Television for five or six years in Massachusetts, and that sort of dissolved. And I moved to New York looking to start something. I moved with my bass player from that band [Myles Heff]. We met Chris [Holdridge] in New York and Alex had always been mixing and producing Orange Television albums and he was in New York, so it all sort of naturally came together in 2014.

How did you become interested in electronic music?

I started listening to rock that had electronic influences and then about two years ago, my friend introduced me to Four Tet, The Album Rounds. I was really captivated by the way he sampled just folk and rock instruments into electronic music.

What was the process of putting the remixes together?

It started as me stitching different things together to make them work in tandem. They were from different songs, and I would put all these sketches together and send them to Alex. He would work on them a little bit, I would work on them a little bit. And slowly, the EP morphed out of that. 

Is there one song that you’re particularly proud of?

I really like “Glass.” I felt as if it really bloomed into its own world. I was really proud of the drum programming on that, and the use of the vocal and the melodies and the journey of the song.

What have you learned about Religion by making this remix EP?

I’ve learned that the textures that weren’t quite as heard were really beautiful on their own merit. I felt that I wanted to showcase them more. It allowed me to learn another layer of complexity and depth into each of the songs that I had recorded.

You guys have called the remix EP a “critique on modern technology’s ability to repurpose and reuse existing material.” Can you expand on that?

The ability to take what I did and turn it into what happened would’ve never been possible without the technology that we have… and there’s just so much stuff in the world—so much clothes and food, material and buildup. Even if this isn’t how someone would go about making music or creating their art, just to know that the ability of it exists could shine a light on what’s truly necessary to create something new.

If you had the opportunity for someone else to remix a Howard record, who would you want it to be?

Boots. I think his production is phenomenal and I really love his work with FKA Twigs and Beyonce and Autoluxe…I respect him a lot. I would love to meet him and work with him in some capacity.