After months of anticipation, pioneering collective Wavemob have finally dropped their second mix tape, Wave 002. The tape dropped thursday evening around 8pm UK time, and has already had a huge response all over social media! It’s an incredible compilation, with even more character than the first, and I recommend all of you check it out as soon as possible! Just like before you can purchase the digital form or a limited edition cassette- find a link for that here.
Skit’s record label Yusoul are also holding a Wavey night at HUB16 in London on Saturday 6th August, details for that can be found on the official Facebook event, here. Wavemob’s own Kareful, Skit, CVRL and Deadcrow will all be taking to the decks; Wave fans in and around the London area should definitely be heading down to this one as it’s sure to be a big night!
Earlier this week, I caught up with two of the Wavemob boys, Kareful
and Skit, to find out more about the mixtape and what they’ve both been up to
since the last tape dropped. You can find a transcript of that conversation
below, I hope you enjoy reading!
***
First up, tell me a bit about how you think the last mixtape went
down, and the Wavemob journey since then.
K: Well, on the last
tape it felt like, a lot more random. It was a brand new collective and some
people didn’t necessarily know each other and were still perfecting their
sound. It did pretty well and there was great feedback and it helped push the
collective and merged our personal fan bases into one place. Since then, we’ve
launched three rounds of merchandise, which have all been really successful; I
think all of them apart from maybe the third run of t-shirts sold out in a day
or two. There's been a lot more shows internationally since then and a few of
us have had our own nights and stuff, It seems like stuff's happening in London
and the term Wave is becoming a little bit more legitimate. We've also helped
inspire a lot of other producers outside of the mob to start producing Wave and
labelling their music Wave. I feel like with this tape, it is a lot better. In
the past however many months-
S: Six months dude!
K: Yeah in the last
six months or so since the first tape, everyone has improved a lot. I feel the
tape this time is a lot stronger than the first, I’m actually really proud of
it.
Would you say the same Skit?
S: Yeah this one's
cool, I feel like people on this tape are trying out different stuff, whereas
before it was like there were set boundaries of what Wave is, this time people
are experimenting more. Like Rare who is doing more future-sounding Wave, and
other people are going down the grime route or the more traditional song route
and stuff. It's kind of expanded it.
Who's on the tape this time? All the same heads as before?
K: This time
there's a few new names, and we've actually lost a few people too. We've now
got Noah B officially in Wavemob and he's got a sick track on the tape, which I’ve
been playing on my Radar show for the past two months or so. It's nice to have
some of the tracks I’ve been spinning released properly on this tape! Also got
Deadcrow on there as well, he's a good friend of mine. He should be coming to
London actually to play back to back with me at Skit's Yusoul night.
S: I'll give you a
full run down of who's on there. We've got Trash Lord, Madi Larson, Klimeks,
Foxwedding, Nvrmore, me and Kareful, Haven, Rare, Noah B, Nyquill, HNRK, CVRL
and Deadcrow.
I see. And what kind of colabs can we expect?
S: Colab wise we've
got CVRL and Nvrmore, me and Kareful have done one, then Madi Larson and Trash
Lord too.
Sweet. And what's your favourite track on the tape?
K: I actually think
I like mine and Skit's track the most (laughs). I also think Klimeks' track is
sick as well, that's probably my favourite that isn't ours. That one is called
'Eternally Yours'.
S: Trashlord's one
with Madi Larson is probably my favourite, that one's sick. I like Trashlord a lot
actually, he's got a really cool sound.
Nice, I look forward to hearing those! Is it all previously unreleased
stuff on the tape?
S: Yeah man
K: Yeah that's what
makes it so cool, it's all brand new stuff.
I see. And how do you two go about working together on your colabs?
I see. And how do you two go about working together on your colabs?
K: Well, to be
honest I always really like collaborating with Skit. We both have strengths
that work well together - Skit's really fiddly and goes in there and does all
these little effects-
S: 'Really fiddly?'
(laughs)
K: Yeah on the
automation ‘cause I’m so lazy like that, I'm more of a 'make a catchy melody, put
drums on it, it's done' kinda’ guy.
S: Yeah what
happens usually is Kareful comes round and does about an hour and half's work
which is sick and then I just spend the hours automating it, then it's done.
K: I do a lot of
the melodic stuff, but we're both jamming out, you know. Then once we've got
some stuff written, it's just about finding the right sounds. Feels good when
you have something at the end of the session which you can be proud of too,
which we always do. I've worked with some producers and like at the end of the
session come away feeling like we haven't achieved much.
S: Yeah it happens
like that sometimes dude. But with us I feel like when we make tracks the first
couple of hours are just chilling, tryna’ do stuff then it’s like right we need
to get something done, and then we've usually got something decent.
Tell me more about the takeover of BBC Radio Bristol you're doing?
K: Yeah, we're
doing a Wavemob takeover of BBC Bristol radio on Friday after the tape's
released.
S: That's with Thadeous Matthews, who roles with Pear Drops, with Daffy and Glacci.
K: Talking of Pear
Drops actually, Yung and Pear Drops are doing a colab night in Bristol, October
1st, and I’ll be playing.
Sounds good! And Yusoul records has another night on the 6th August,
right?
K: Yeah, that's gunna’
be at HUB16, same place the first Yung London party was held. It's gunna’ be
me, Skit, Deadcrow, CVRL and LTHL who I do my radio show with.
Nice. How was the last Yusoul event at Ace Hotel?
S: Yeah it was
alright man! It was an alright turnout until like 1am, but obviously it was a
Tuesday night so! But yeah, it’s kinda’ opened the door for me to do some more
stuff at places in London and Kareful's gunna’ be getting involved in some of
the stuff too which is cool.
K: The whole night
was pretty Wavey, and actually people seemed to be getting down to that, even
more so than the trap and grime that was on later!
Plastician played as a special guest, didn't he?
K: Yeah, we
announced him on the day, and I think that helped bring in some of his Rinse FM
listeners and stuff. But what I liked about the gig was that, unlike most of
the Wave stuff we put on where there's familiar faces turning up week in, week
out, this one had loads of people I didn't know, and there were a few people
who came up to me and asked me if I was Kareful and stuff. I met some people
who are big fans of Plastician's show - they recognised a lot of people on the
line up from his shows. Hopefully it continues with the shows we put on from
now on, we keep bringing in new people.
S: The cool thing
with Plastician was, I didn't even have to ask. I just let him know that since
he was doing radio that day or whatever, he'd be welcome to come down for a
drink and a chill, and he was like 'yeah can I play?' and I was like, 'yeah
obviously!' So that was really sick.
Nice, I take it he dropped a Wave set then?
S: Yeah!
K: Yeah, I think he
had quite a lot of fun!
That's pretty cool man!
K: Yeah, actually this kind of brings me onto
something I wanted to mention; me and Skit have a night of our own coming soon.
We don't want to say too much about it, we want to keep some of the details
under wraps, but yeah look out for that. It'll be good 'cos it gives us a
chance to put our friends on to play and get people over from elsewhere to play
too. There are so many times people hit me up like 'I want to come to London
and play a show', but it just can't really happen. But this gives us a bit of freedom.
S: Yeah, it's weird
'cos like a year and a half ago I was trying so hard to find a venue to put on
our type of music, I just wanted an event to happen basically. But at the time
people didn't get it and they'd just sort of ignore it. But now I can pretty
much email someone and they'll be like 'sick, Wave', it's almost like a
buzzword. People are paying attention now.
Yeah man, it definitely feels like there's more hype around Wave over
recent months. I look forward to that night you guys are working on! Can we
expect a Wavemob label night to occur at any point?
S: Not in the
immediate future I don't think. I think some elements of the mob still need
some time to practice mixing and stuff.
K: Yeah, if we're going
to do it it's got to be like, big, so we've all got to be properly prepared for
it. I mean how many people in Wavemob are even in the UK realistically?
I suppose it must be harder for those members who live outside the UK,
when so much of what's going on with Wave is happening in London right now?
S: Yeah, that's the
thing that kind of sucks when we talk to the rest of Wavemob cos we're talking
about all this stuff that's popping off here and when we're like 'How's it going
in America?' they're kind of like 'Yeah, everyone still don't get it'.
Yeah, sounds as if it'll be a while until Wave makes the same progress
in the states as it has here unfortunately!
K: I think it's
weird it hasn't popped off in the States the way it has in the UK, cos trap is
more alien here than it is there and really, the genre isn't that far off. I
think we're just fortunate to live in a city like London where there's a lot
going on, and people want to do creative things. All of the UK members of the
mob are based like a trains-ride away from London, and it's the best and most
open-minded place for it to develop.
S: That's true man,
when you look back at the history of UK music there's been some weird shit
that's been accepted. The reasons I can think it might not be going down in
America yet is firstly, people might just think it’s rap beats, but the second
one is maybe that Witch House had a thing over there already, and they kind of
got over the Witch House thing already.
Kareful, your recent track 'Night Skies' with Deadcrow was sick! How
did that come about? That got a pretty big reaction
K: Well Plastician
messaged me and was like have you heard of this guy Deadcrow? I checked him
out, went on his Soundcloud and heard a few bits. I listened to his EP and
thought it was pretty good, and then he told me it was like a year old so I
asked to hear some new bits, and when I heard that I was like 'man, this guy's
really good'. So then yeah I was making a track and he asked me to send him
something, so I sent something over that was like nearly finished, pretty much
all there. I was thinking he might just finish it, but he added quite a lot to
it. It was a really good collaboration, and he finished it really quickly,
which was sick. And yeah, we've just kind of become friends since then.
Nice man! So, what does it feel like to be part of the wider Wave
scene at the moment? Is the community still growing?
S: Yeah the last
year or so has been really fun! We’ve thrown a lot of cool parties and stuff.
K: Yeah to be
honest I’m really enjoying myself right now! It's actually moving at an
incredibly fast rate, growing really quickly. And it really seems like
everyone's working together, nobody seems to be really in it for themselves.
Just want to keep inspiring each other. There's no hierarchy either, I don't
feel, which is really nice. Also because
the scene is growing I’ve actually been able to relax on the production front
for a bit and focus on other things, like my radio show.
Yeah, you've got a slot on Radar Radio haven't you? How's that going?
K: Yeah really well
actually. I run it with LTHL, and his scene is like even smaller than ours,
'cause he does the more like Wavey-grime stuff, almost like a sub-genre of Wave
or something that's so similar that it's happening at the same time through
natural progression. It's cool man, he's a great person to work with, a very positive,
funny, friendly guy, we have so much fun on the show together. It's also great
because we both pick a guest to come in each time, so I pick one of my mates or
another Wave producer, and he brings in one of his mates so every show we get
to meet new people. The social circle is growing, which is really good, 'cause
when we get round to doing shows we can have more people turn up and play, and
it all just grows. It’s nice to get towards a point where we all know each
other personally rather than just online.
Nice, and how have your shows abroad been Kareful? Did you play Wave
in Barcelona and Krakow and did it go down well?
K: Well it was
funny cos when I was in Poland, I was playing like solidly Wave and they were
real wheeled down but like everyone else who was on before and after me were
playing even more left field stuff than me, like proper dark witch house and
stuff, so when I came on it was actually a little bit more upbeat, which was
weird. I think it went down well though. And then in Razzmatazz in Barcelona
the guy before me was playing EDM trap. When I went on I was thinking like what
do I do, but I just went for it and played fully Wave, and at first a few
people like left the room and weren't feeling it, but by the end they were back
in and they were havin' it.
Ah that's cool! I didn't even realise there was a scene for that in
Spain!
K: Nah basically,
well Razzmatazz is huge, like three times the size of Fabric or something, have
a club night trap residency in an upstairs room, called Trill. They've booked
all sorts before, Darko, Shem and stuff. And one of the guys had basically been
a fan of some of my bare old tunes and has just been following my sound and
watching me grow and watching the Wave scene grow. They just like to
experiment. But yeah, I hope the sound continues to grow internationally!
Alright guys, lastly can you give me and the readers some recommendations
on who to be checking out right now
S: Sorsari is sick,
he's a bad man.
K: I think right
now in the wave scene, the men of the hour are Sorsari-
S: And then
Deadcrow is fucking sick
K: Yeah he's got so
many sick unreleased tunes as well. You've also got-
S: Harukasuka!
K: Helix as well
man. He's just dropped a tape that I was feeling. And there’s another guy who's
doing mad stuff, called Laire
S: Noah B's sick as
well man, some of his shit is fucking mad.
K: And obviously
all the Wavemob guys as well, Klimeks etc!
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