Calvin Harris has responded to accusations of plagiarism by veteran trance producer Chicane.
In a video posted to Instagram last week with the caption “copyright alert,” Chicane sat at his computer and explained why he believes that Harris’ most recent single, “Blessings,” shares similarities with his 1996 song “Offshore,” playing each track and comparing them.
“I think you’ll find it really hard to decipher when one comes in and one goes, that is because they’re almost identical, which is a bit of a problem,” Chicane says in the video. “I am defending my copyright and my intellectual sort of property here guys, I’d like to know what your comments are.”
The comments section is a mixed bag of opinions, with trance master Tiësto chiming in to note that “Offshore is an iconic master piece.” Harris in fact had many comments of his own, which he shared in an Instagram video posted on May 18 with the caption “Response to the people who have enjoyed calling me a plagiarist over the last couple of days, cheers Nick Chicane all the best to you pal.”
The long clip features video of Harris’ computer monitor with a DAW showing the waveforms of “Blessings” and “Offshore.” He tinkers with the production until he finds what he thinks must be the alleged similarity then states “it’s a different chord.” The video continues with Harris laughing and saying “that’s what happens when you don’t loop up a tiny little section of track you stupid bastard,” among other expletive laden exclamations. He later concludes, “it’s just not the same … and I’m not just saying that, obviously I’m going to say it’s not, but it’s genuinely not the same.”
Harris then also plays Tangerine Dream‘s 1983 “Love On a Real Train” and points out what he believes are the similarities between that song and “Offshore.”
“You’re coming at me like I don’t know anything about music mate,” Harris continues. “You’re f—ing joking. I live and breathe this s–t mate”
A representative for Chicane did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
