Memory Tapes Talks New Albums, Fear Of Flying And Prince

The last time we spoke to Dayve Hawk, the man behind the Memory Tapes moniker, his acclaimed debut Seek Magic had not yet been released. Now nine months later Dayve Hawk – internet phenomenon, one man band, self-confessed introvert, and genuine aerophobic – is putting his fear of flying aside to make the extensive journey from his home in rural Southern New Jersey to Australia for the 2010 Parklife tour. Pedestrian recently spoke to the Memory Tapes mastermind about how he plans to cope with the long flight (Xanax), the culture in South Jersey (none), and his gripping fear of performing live…

Dayve, I’ll just start by saying, Seek Magic was such a beautiful album… Oh thank you.

My pleasure. And you’ve got so many fans in Australia as well. To have your music kind of reaching the masses how do you feel about having so many people hearing what you do now? It must be incredible knowing your songs are reaching so far. Yeah it is cool. We just went and played some European dates and I was really confident that there wasn’t gonna be anybody at any of the shows and there were people there and everybody knew the music and stuff so it was pretty mind blowing. I feel like I’m pretty out of touch with how far it goes.

It must be a pretty amazing feeling to get that kind of response and to have absolutely no idea and not have anticipated any of it. Yeah I think it’s better that I kind of had to go organic and there wasn’t a big company behind it so I don’t feel like anyone was spending money on it or anything.

Dayve, what’s it like growing up and being a musician in New Jersey because it’s not exactly considered one of the world’s musical centres I suppose. So how do you think the culture of New Jersey shaped your music? (Laughs). There certainly isn’t any culture… I think for me what it led to was just… being pretty independent because the town that I grew up in I was the only musician. I didn’t know any other kids who played music or really did any of the things that I did. So instead of when a lot of people I guess join bands when they were teenagers and stuff like that, I ended up kind of building a home studio and learning how to record and learning how to play a bunch of different instruments because that was the only way to do it. That has more to do with South Jersey which is more rural whereas the New Jersey that most people know is the suburb of New York – The Sopranos, stuff like that.

You said that a lot of other people who came from where you’re from would join bands while you were in your home studio, but you came from a band background with Hail Social. What’s the best thing about working as a solo artist compared to being in a band where you’ve got so many voices that kind of have a say in the direction of the music?
Well the thing was that I actually started out doing this – it was what I was doing before Hail Social and then I kind of got drawn into that only a few years ago. There wasn’t your normal kind of band because it kind of actually didn’t have any other voices, nobody else really wrote it was just me kind of providing the music for the rest of the band, but it didn’t end up really being my own. I don’t know why… I didn’t feel like I could put my own personality into it or something, because I didn’t feel like I could enforce my personality onto other people. Yeah it works much better for me being alone, it’s kind of what I’m used to. I just think things come out more the way they’re supposed to be and I work in that way – I don’t know why. I’m not socially a good person!

(Laughs) You’re playing with a live band at the moment aren’t you? I’m playing with one other person who plays a hybrid of the non-electronics live sort of thing – play drums, play guitar and then we have computers kind of doing the whole electronic aspect. He was in Hail Social and is actually a good friend of mine. He’s just an excellent drummer, so that’s pretty much the band at this point.

So will we be seeing your new album released later this year – in October I heard? Yeah, I’d like it to. Everyone keeps telling me that’s too soon. So it may not come out until December or January, or something.

Is the sound of your new stuff very different to what you were producing on Seek Magic? It’s a bit different, I think it will be recognisable as me. The songs are maybe not as epic, not like eight minutes long, they’re more pop songs-ish, and the sound’s a little bit less electronic, it’s a little bit more organic, like organs and flutes – but I still think it sounds like a Memory Tapes record.

Have you got a name for the album yet? I haven’t decided yet. I’m real last minute with that…

Have you narrowed it down to a couple of options? Ummmm no, I haven’t. Honestly, until I get the whole thing absolutely done I really, I never know. I have to kind of listen to it as a whole to have a clear idea of what I think it should be.

Your regularly remix other artists. Is it something that you seek out or are you usually the person who’s approached by the bands to kind of rework their songs? They approach me. It’s something I’m kind of trying to avoid now (laughs) because I’ve done so much of it. It’s just something that I get asked of by the band or the label to do it and I try to do it as much as I can because I just like any opportunity to work on music. Sometimes it can kind of be a nice break from doing my own stuff. It’s just kind of like another job, just something to do, but sometimes it can take up too much time so I have to just step back.

Dayve you’re coming out to Australia for the Parklife festival tour, how are you feeling about the trip because it’s a damn long journey and I’ve heard you’re not a fan of flying No I’m not. (Laughs nervously)

Are you like ‘thanks for mentioning that?’ Hah. Yeaaah. Everyone who knows me is kind of like ‘I can’t believe he’s flying to Australia’ because I’m terrified of flying. I’m just gonna have to be knocked out or something … on Xanax.

Yeah I might get carried on in a straight jacket.

Is live performing something you’re getting comfortable with? I’m more comfortable with it than I was six months ago when I started. It’s still hard, because every time I kind of get used to it the shows get bigger. So the scale is… I’m not catching up with the scale of things. Some of the festival dates and stuff, [I’m] playing to kind of pretty big audiences. It’s an interesting thing to do, remixes just give me another thing to focus on and to work on but the tension of it and the crowd of people staring, I’m not totally used to that yet.

But it must make it easier to know that so many people like your music and they get something out of it. Is there that sort of satisfaction that you get out of seeing the response from fans? That’s really cool. I honestly feel guilty sometimes (laughs) because I’m so nervous I probably seem like I don’t even appreciate it, but I do, it means a lot to me so, it’s just a nerve-racking experience all at the one time.

When I was doing some research for our chat today I saw an interview you did around this time last year and you said Air France had sent you a kind of fan letter saying that they liked your stuff… How validating is it to get that kind of appreciation from other musicians? Is there a difference between getting the recognition from bands or artists that you like and respect versus your fans? It’s definitely cool because say, I don’t know a lot of other musicians. It always blows my mind when I go out on tour and I feel like all the other bands know each other – and I barely know anybody. In terms of where I’m from and what I do, I rarely meet someone who cares about it in the way that I care about it. It’s always cool to meet other musicians and other people – this is their focus, the thing that they care about so it’s a little different and it’s cool.

You’re a big Prince fan aren’t you? Yes I am…

Who isn’t? The reason I bring up Prince is that he made the interesting comment that he thinks the internet is “over”; as in the internet was a fad, but it’s funny because the internet has played such an important role in getting Memory Tapes to reach so many people. How vital do you think the role of the internet is in sharing music? I think it’s very vital now, for sure. Especially, I can’t speak for other places in the world but certainly in America, I mean there virtually aren’t any record stores anymore. There’s really no where you would go to have any sort exposure to music – there’s hardly any print magazines here about music, then the big ones I can think of are more like lifestyle magazines or something like that, they’re not really about music so the internet is the only place. I mean I have my issues with the internet just like anybody else, but you can’t deny the amount of traffic of music that it allows for. I think it’s cool, I think it’s brought about kind of a new level of… kids from anywhere can get their tracks recorded and get them heard by a lot of people.

Dummy Magazine recently asked you if you would be interested in writing a film score or making a movie soundtrack and you said ‘I may just have to make the movie myself.’ When will be seeing your cinematic debut? Are there any concrete plans in the works? I have some friends who think up some things and we’ve always talked about – not necessarily making a proper movie but doing one of those records like a Magical Mystery Tour kind of a thing – but hopefully better than that.

Like a concept album with visuals that a kind of built around the sound? Yeah, like a visual kind of a record. I think something like that would be fun to do.

Are there any particular filmmakers that whose work you particularly admire that you’d wanna hook up with? That’s working right now, or you mean just ever?

Maybe ever? Like anybody else I like Stanley Kubrick a lot and the earlier Terry Gilliam movies. I don’t really know of anyone current. I think maybe I like Darren Aronofsky. I like his stuff. I don’t really know who’s doing what now, I don’t watch a lot of movies.

Too busy making music. Yeah I’m pretty much one dimensional.

So few people talk about your vocals and I think it’s one of the really appealing parts of your music. I guess singing’s such a personal, strange thing that people get so shy about. How comfortable are you with singing live? I would say that’s by far the most nerve-racking. I try to put a little extra guitar into the live shows (laughs) so I can stop singing. It’s definitely hard … I have a lot of issues with my voice which is why I treat it so much effects and things like that but at the same time I like kind of bad voices so that’s why I use it. (laughs) A lot of people are like ‘You should have a girl with a beautiful singing voice on the music.’

Oh no – that would change your music entirely. Yeah, that’d just be too…

Too polished? Right. So with the live performances it’s definitely hard.

Well Dayve we’re so looking forward to when you come out here and – nervous or not – I think a lot of people are going to appreciate the performance and the opportunity to see you and hear your music live so we can’t wait for it.

Memory Tapes is playing all the Parklife dates:
Gold Coast – Saturday 25 September
Perth – Sunday 26 September
Melbourne – Saturday 2 October
Sydney – Sunday 3 October
Adelaide – Monday 4 October

Tix and info to Parklife can be found at www.parklife.com.au.

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