Working on Remix for German Pop Group - New Concept

Hullo and greetings on this fine (is it summer?) day!

I was recently contacted by New Concept, a German electro pop group about remixing one of their releases, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. They had heard my release Dreamer's Guardian recently and liked the feel of it.

The song is a great pop song, very tight and well produced and here I'll be dissecting it and piecing back little by little something a little less poppy (perhaps). I love pop and I can easily go down that direction, but since the song already exists originally in that manner, I will instead be toning it down somewhat and finding a middle ground between the obscure and the accessible.

I received all the tracks for it the day before yesterday and I am now spending time getting to know them as they exist divorced from the original recording. I decided that I would only listen to the original once or twice and then not listen to it again until I rough out a concept of my own based on what they have given me. I don't want to be to heavily influenced by the original song structure, or overall sound. As it is, I am only currently using some of the vocals and backing guitar lines to arrive at a different feel and then creating new instrumentals separate (or layered with originals) as I move along.

It is such a flattering thing to have someone hear your work and then ask if you would do something with one of their own pieces. Thank you Marcel and New Concept for letting me have that honor.