TLOBF Interview :: Memory Tapes

10 November 2009, 09:00

Memory Tapes is the latest project from Dayve Hawk, combining his work on previous projects on Memory Cassettes and Weird Tapes. A full length Memory Tapes LP called Seek Magic is out via Something In Construction this week. We asked Dayve a little bit about Memory Tapes and if we can expect a visit from him and his own brand of intelligent, super-smooth dance any time soon.

So Memory Tapes is a combination of previous projects to make one new, shiny one. When did you decide that marrying the two together would work for a whole new project?
Well I was bored of using samples (Weird Tapes) and pitch-shifting my voice (Memory Cassette) so was ready to change what I was doing anyhow, especially when I started getting approached by labels. Dealing with peoples’ confusion about the different projects was getting a bit much so I just dropped both and combined the names. I thought that would make it simple but now people just say I have 3 projects. It never ends!

How much of the music on Seek Magic is about your own expression as opposed to putting together really cool tracks?
Ummm… all of it? I don’t ever set out just to make production exercises, it’s all self-expression of some sort.

After Hail Social how does it feel to be going it alone? Could you ever see yourself doing what you’re doing now but in a band with a load of other guys?
No. That is why Hail Social never worked. I can’t work that way… things are much better now.

I read somewhere that you didn’t have a phone. Have you sorted that?
Not yet…. I may need to soon though. It’s becoming a bit of a hassle.

I like to imagine that you have a room full of computers and instruments and gear that you toil away in on your own for hours before your emerge, wide eyed and sweat drenched, with these awesome tracks. How far off the mark am I? How do you normally work?
That’s pretty much it: I have a room with computers, instruments and other gear… but it’s also my daughters bedroom and the laundry room!

Do you have any contemporary musical influences at all?
Not really, I tend to listen to mixtapes more than anything else current. There was recently one by Kingdom that I loved and i’ve grabbed a few from Allez Allez.

Can you pinpoint any artist or influence that helped you to take your music in this direction? Did anything in particular have a hold on your imagination while you were making some of these tracks?
Mostly I was thinking of summers here in South Jersey from when I was a teenager. There was a strech of a couple years where it rained all the time but was still hot and we ended up with this real hazy atmosphere. At the time I was into bands like Cocteau Twins and Rollerskate Skinny. So there’s some nostalgia for then I guess.

Do you have a second creative love behind music?
Well my daughter… so creating humans?

So what are your plans for us over here in the UK now that Seek Magic is out?
I’m working on alot of new music for different projects so it could be another release before too long. I’m alos considering doing some shows.

mp3:> Memory Tapes: ‘Plain Material’