ΛDRIΛNWΛVE AMA 12/10/2019 & 06/12/2019
Links: Soundcloud Bandcamp/Merch Spotify Twitter Facebook Youtube
Artist Introduction:
I’m ΛDRIΛNWΛVE, the upside down “V” is important, as if there is an impostor or alien masquerading as me, that’s how you know how to shoot.
I’m from Jacksonville, Florida, born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days.
I’m not gonna reveal my age because I don’t look like it and it makes me just a little more mysterious, so I can be 14 or 41, it’s up to your interpretation, A few people in the scene know my real age, though.
I’ve been making music since I was a little kid when i broke into my stepdad’s guitar case while he was away and started playing around with it (no regrets). I started making electronic stuff at 16 (good luck guessing my age from this), after every single band I’d been in until that point failed or disbanded due to laziness or creative differences. Figured I’d give a crack at doing everything myself. My first DAW was actually an online in-browser flash app called Audiotool, which is still pretty rad and you can still find some of my old Electrohouse tracks on there under my old alias (Secret). I’ve since graduated to Ableton Live which has been both my enemy and best friend since then.
Before I answer any questions though… I have a couple of announcements:
1. NEW TRACK WITH CRYSTAL KITSUNE IS NOW OUT!
Listen here: Soundcloud Bandcamp
It will be on all streaming platforms next week! We worked our veins out with this one. We have no veins now. There’s just blood sloshing around our muscles now. That’s how hard we worked on this. Seriously, I hope you all enjoy it.
2. NEW FULL LENGTH ADRIANWAVE ALBUM WILL BE RELEASED IN NOVEMBER
3. FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT: ALL OF MY MUSIC WILL BE AVAILABLE IN 3 SINGLES COLLECTIONS ON ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS AS OF NEXT WEEK!!!
AMA Part 1:
Q: Have you ever expected “It’s good to see you again” to go viral?
Fuck no, never in my dreams, but that’s a whole ass story too.
The tl;dr is basically I was in the military on a temporary assignment (oh yeah, I was in the US military for a while, so there’s that i guess), I had taken my production laptop so I could work on stuff in my spare time, but the hard drive failed and I lost EVERYTHING from before “It’s Good To See You Again”’s released. That track was a quick “drums over a sample” BS throwaway track i made after buying a new HDD and starting from scratch to show everyone that I was still active after like a month. Crazy how that ended up huh?
Q: Any plans to make your Japanese crab dance a meme?
That was actually the plan, Sparkly Night wanted to put a bunch of different music over it and start a whole “Adrianwave dancing goes with everything” meme train. We’re workin on it, but I wholeheartedly endorse making memes out of me howver you want, especially if it’s the crab dance video.
Q: Why did you start to make music, and who were your inspirations?
I never really had a reason I don’t think, for music in general I’ve just always done it, sang, played whatever instrument was nearby. I’ve never really thought about it I guess, maybe my Stand ability allows me to make music out of anything.
As for influences, my mom and stepdad were VERY religious and didn’t let me listen to anything but Gospel CDs as a kid (which is probably how I ended up getting into Soul music), so my other family members secretly lent me the classics, Earth Wind and Fire, The Bee Gees, The Pixies, Black Flag, fucking Sinatra, you name it I got hooked tf up. I was really into Punk when I was a wee lad so you might hear a lot of Punk traits as far as “power”, “loudness”, “energy” and “speed” in my music.
For future funk specifically I was into the vaporwave/seapunk type of visual art and music when it emerged since my physical location is the internet, but I didn’t get into FF until a friend showed me 若い’97 by SUPERSEX420. I’m still proud he was the first artist I listened to, there’s also a lot of SUPERSEX420 influence in my tracks as well due to that.
Q: Heard of laowhy86?
Yeah, I actually found out about him through HIM NOT CREDITING ME IN HIS DESCRIPTIONS but I emailed him and we got it ironed out. Very chill guy, very nice actually.
Q: Collab?
You know ya boy always down.
Q: How many waves are you on?
As many as legally allowed at one time.
Q: What was the track you had most fun working on?
That’s a tough one, I will actually scrap a track if I’m not having fun with it so kind of all of them equally? If I had to pick one in particular I think Darling, because I went really balls to the wall with it, recording a shit ton of guitar and bass parts with real instruments and incorporating them into a sampled track that ended up going really hard was a pretty bitchin’ time.
Q: Favorite plugin for slap bass?
I actually wouldn’t know about that :/ I’ve messed around with a lot of slap bass VSTs but none of them really made the sound I wanted in my head so I just bought a real bass and learned to slap (actually still learning, slap bass is difficult and painful). I actually suck giant dragon cock at bass so if I’m recording, I’ll just slow the track tempo, record that part, and speed it back up again lmao.
Q: Saint Pepsi rebranding ruined vaporwave and killed his career, agree or disagree?
Nah, he still makes good ass music that’s still very future funk-influenced, just with a refreshing Pop twist. It’s a 10/10 formula for success honestly. Losing one of its Kings definitely did hurt vaporwave a little though since he brought so many people into the genre.
Q: I want to be famous, what to do?
I’d tell you if I knew ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My best advice is just try. As long as you’re actually genuinely trying at whatever it is you want to be famous for, people will feel that in your work and do what they can to boost you up. Alternately, I guess you could just do some ignorant shit in a video on the internet.
Q: If there was an older track you would remake knowing what you do now what would it be?
All of them :( I have actually tried making a short “RE:” EP with a bunch of remade old tracks but they just didn’t feel the same so that idea got canned. It’s not something I plan on really doing, but if any track needs it it’s “It’s Good To See You Again” so I could make it into a real not-lazy track so people will stop saying mean stuff in youtube comments.
Q: Macross82–99 slaps ur girl on the ass, wyd?
Slap his.
Q: Is the letter “h” your favorite letter in the alphabet?
Good guess, but nope! My favorite letter is actually =̷͑̍+̸̇͋_̴̎̒-̴̇̐+̶̓̈́`̸̌̅
Q: If Future Funk artists were all characters in Super Smash Bros, including you, who would be the best matchup for you and who would be the worst matchup?
Hmm, really good question! Depends on how you judge what traits they would have in a fighting game. If based on irl stature, my frame data would probably really good but I wouldn’t do much damage or knockback so I’d probably beat Macross, Moe Shop and Night Tempo but lose to Desired and Vantage . If based on our music, I am fucking bottom-tier trash like Little Mac, they’d just taunt from the other side of the stage and I’d lose a stock.
By the way, I play smash competitively under the tags MILFHUNTER or HENTAI GUY, and main Cloud and Joker. Hmu if you see me at a tournament or online! The only thing I will ever be unironically cocky about is that I’m the best Smash player in the entire Future Funk community. I will money match you AND your whole family. I’ll even demolish your pets in Smash. I’m not afraid to take your money and prevent you from renewing your Fakku membership.
Q: Who are you listening to right now? (Favorite artists?)
Hmmm, right now I’ve been addicted to breezy J-rock like Unison Square Garden and stripped-down just-barely-not-pop-music stuff like Celeina Ann and Clairo.
I forgot anything by Shoji Meguro. The SMT and Persona (especially Persona 5) soundtrack is a mainstay in my playlists 8 days a week.
Q: How do you see the future of the genre?
Honestly, based on its recent growth it’s probably gonna either blow the fuck up or completely crash and die due to its largely online-only presence. But, recently I visited Tokyo to play a show and we went to HMV Records, one of the most prolific record shops in the world, and they had an entire City Pop and Future Funk section, so things seem to be lookin pretty aight.
Q: Best Sailor from Sailor Moon?
Tuxedo Mask.
Q: Top anime this year?
Tough one. Contenders for me are probably JoJo part 5, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Carole & Tuesday, Kaguya-sama, and I haven’t see Dororo yet but the manga is absolute flames so probably that too.
Q: Do you watch seasonal hentai? Any recommendations?
There’s seasonal hentai? Nice, now I have something to look forward to tonight ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
(real talk, I don’t watch much hentai, I’m not about that whole cheap ass repeating-3-frames-of-thrusting thing they all have. More of a doujinshi guy.)
Q: Are you excited about Death Stranding?
FUCK
YES
Q: What is your favorite game of recent/ what have you been playing the most of recently?
Lifelong MonHun fan, so I still play a lot of Monster Hunter World regularly. I’m mostly an ARPG/JRPG guy, so you can probably guess what else I like haha. My all-time favorite series is Final Fantasy, but lately I’m playing a lot of P5 to prepare for Persona 5 The Royal, and Dragon Quest XI.
Q: How was the Tokyo show and the Future Funk scene in tokyo?
The Future Funk scene in Tokyo is fucking crazy. It is a VERY popular genre as far as non-mainstream stuff goes. Kissmenerdygirl who organized the event had to make it into a “secret exclusive” kind of deal because more people than the venue could hold were going to come see us. The crowd was very energetic and pumped the entire 6 hours it ran for. The Japanese music scene is just crazy, in a very good way. Drugs are banned, so you can trust people are going to your show for you, instead of just to get fucked up (they seem do a pretty good job of that too though.)
Oh yeah, here’s my set from the Tokyo show, brought to you by our very own Music’s The Hang Up.
AMA Part 2:
Yo, it’s your favorite Adrianwave.
WAVE 01, a 38 min collection of my earliest ADRIANWAVE work is out NOW on all major platforms like Spotify and Apple Music! Pick your favorite flavor of streaming and listen here: https://ffm.to/wave01
WAVE 01 cassettes are coming THIS SUNDAY FROM NEO MOTEL https://neomotel.bandcamp.com/
WAVE 01 merch coming soon as well! Clothing, stickers, 12" Vinyl in the works as well and will hopefully be finished before the holidays!
Q: What are you doing for Christmas?
I live away from family so I usually spend it with friends, my special lady and doggo. I hope you have a good Christmas!
Q: What got you into music in general?
I have a better answer to this on Part 1 of the AMA, but the cliff notes is growing up in church gave me a Soul influence, and I also was lent many classic funk/disco/dance/pop records and CDs etc from circa 60s-90s by family and friends growing up, I grew up on a lot of classic rock and punk as well, and all of this shit together basically makes the music I make sound just as crazy of a mix. From there I kind of just picked up old instruments laying around or sang and somehow developed musical skill from it (my family is very musical, but mostly filipino or mixed pinoy so primarily everyone sings and no one can play instruments for the most part) I played in bands but I don’t work well with others and members always got lazy or quit, so at 16 I was lucky enough to start messing with electronic music and releasing solo stuff. from there I had some good electronic/dance projects but my biggest endeavor so far has been ADRIANWAVE.
Q: What was the greatest moment in your music career?
Literally 100% of it. Even the shitty stuff is awesome to me.
But the most standout moment is when I went to Tokyo to play with some extremely talented people I respected, and they were like “OH SHIT ADRIANWAVE”, that was crazy since I never even met them irl and they loved my shit. totally insane concept to me how effective the internet is, and how we don’t need a physical place as long as the spirit of Funk is there.
Q: What is some of your favorite non electronic music if you have any?
I only listen to paulstretched samples of Hank Hill saying “Boggle” layered with ambient burger king kitchen SFX.
Lately I’ve been really getting back into progressive stuff like Yes and for some reason I’ve been very inspired by the The World Ends With You OST by Takeharu Ishimoto.
Q: Whats your favorite anime Mr. ADRIANWAVE?
That’s really tough for a huge weeb like me but it’s a toss-up between Berserk, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Evangelion, Gundam 08th MS team (or anything UC tbh) or Code Geass.
Q: Personal favourite Future Funk artist?
SUPERSEX420. Hands down. also motherfucking Skylar Spence/Saint Pepsi.
Q: Are you still coming to Aessential and ready to get down?
Motherfucker YOU KNOW IT SURPRISE EVERYONE CATCH ME AT AESSENTIAL 2020.
Q: Is your name really Adrian?
It is, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if it was like Dave or Thomas or something completely different? I think about shit like that a lot for no real reason.
Q: Favorite pair of anime tiddies?
Man, yall askin the hard questions. Toss-up between Tifa Lockhart from FFVII and Saeko from High School Of The Dead.
Q: Nice pfp, can you send me?
I wish I still had a copy, but I’m actually not sure where i stuck it digitally. I could find it for you but you’re probably better off reverse image searching it. I literally googled “giant anime tiddie.”
Q: Need an artist sometime?
Message me some of your work and I’ll hit ya up! Usually I do all my art or sometimes my fiancee will whip something up for me digitally, though.
Q: disney+, hulu, netflix, hbo, youtube, prime — pick one and the rest is cancelled?
50/50 between Hulu or Youtube (if management would improve). I think fan sourced content made by normal people has more value than any other platform. But damn, Hulu got that T H I C C selection.
Q: What does your IRL friends & Family think of your music and FF?
Most of them like it if they’re younger like under 30, a lot of older people i know still fw it but boomers and older family usually are like “oh… ok, well this is different, it’s very nice that you’re pursuing your passion” without saying they don’t like it or the usual “grumble grumble what happened to music grumble grumble.” My family and friends are thankfully all awesome enough that theye all at least support me though! Even if they don’t really understand.
Q: Who is your dream collab with?
Anri, Mac DeMarco or Nobuo Uematsu. Or like, Ariana Grande, that would be fuckin sick.
in Future Funk though, a french house-y collab with VANTAGE// would be fuckin sick, I’ve always loved his style.
Q: Most Pinoy thing you’ve brought into your music?
I sampled a videoke menu music once. Also I recorded a song sampling rice for a bunch of sounds I’m waiting for the right time to release.
Q: Are you gonna bring out your crab dance at live shows?
YES, I also wanna start doing more stupid shit onstage like that, I wore a wizard hat to the PITCH SHIFTER Chiyoda show during my set and threw it into the crowd and shit, that was a lot of fun and people seemed to like it even though i’m 3/4ths filthy gaijin so I think it would be a really fun thing to do.
Q: What is the ΛDRIΛNWΛVE crab dance?
One of the funniest weeks of my life was staying with Sparkly Night, Crystal Kitsune and KITE0080 from Music’s The Hang Up in a Tokyo Airbnb, where we got drunk and fucked with our music and media a bunch. I got into it and did a weird crab dance to the track Crystal Kitsune was playing. I have no regrets The story is sometimes I just do shit like that, and that felt like a good time to let the ADRIANWAVE inside out for a bit. Everyone should let out their inner ADRIANWAVE now and then.
Q: Have you ever been stuck at writing music, like Writer’s Block. And if so, do you know a way get out of it?
All the fucking time dude. The secret is your creativity is just like a muscle to an extent, sometimes it just needs a stretch and a warmup before working at max capacity. Of course it’s not really that simple, and sometimes you just have to wait for it to hit you again, but my favorite thing to do to try and get the juices flowing again is just make dumb goofy shit you’ll never release like idk SPEEDCORE BREAK BEAT PLASTIC LOVE or try a technique or style you haven’t before. The important thing is to use the mental “muscles” you know you have without letting yourself overthink it.
Q: Is music your full time thing, or are you maybe planning to make it that, or do you have something else?
I’m glad you asked actually, this is a huge change in my life and I can’t really talk about it anywhere else I have an IT & military background and have been working an overnight network security job, so that’s been like my “day life” for like the last several years but ADRIANWAVE is taking off to a point that I am able to freelance from home and focus on music full-time but for substantially less money. Hopefully if I work hard enough I can actually do what I LOVE for a living instead of just what I’m good at. It’s really scary but I just keep telling myself this one thing: “YEET.”
Also I’m planning on streaming games and shit under “ADRIANGAME” lmfao if ya’ll would be into that since I’ll have another 10 hours a day to be kinda productive. I like to think I’m funny enough to entertain that way too, hopefully I’m right haha.
Q: Are you interested in joining online music events or is your focus on club events only?
I’ve actually played online stuff like that in the past and on the Future Society twitch channel, and I was planning on streaming some sets from my studio (which if you haven’t seen on my instagram it’s vapor as FUCK so hopefully it’s a good “stage” to stream from) I’d also love to play any events anywhere, I don’t give a fuck, I love this scene and I love vaporwave. Anything the community wants I can help provide, I will happily do so, if you want me to play anything at all just shoot me a message and I’ll do what I can!
Q: Did you learn formal music theory?
No. I figured out SOME of music theory lmfao, I just do what I can to make the sound “FULL” if that makes sense, if it’s still not right I’ll go on Youtube and level up my Ableton skills until I can make the sound I want come out of the bleeps and bloops.
Q: Why no Λ in ADRIANGAME?
I have to paste it all the time, sometimes a bunch of ground up salmon rolled in bean paste and rice wearing a hoddie and swetpants like me can fail to please, not the pitchforks.
Q: Do you have any other aliases?
You’ll never see this one coming I am also: YUNG BAE, MACROSS 82–99, DESIRED, NIGHT TEMPO, ARITUS, YUNG LEAN and I am also the youtuber videogamedunkey and the FORTNITE twitch streamer Ninja & Knuckles.
Seriously though, I have old aliases but nothing I’m juggling with ADRIANWAVE at the moment. I do plan on making a lo-fi alias like “AIRSHIP” or something silly like “LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL4893” where i’ll only release songs in 7/8.
Q: Any reason why asphalt romance is on Wave 01 when it was on Tokyo Romance or is it because why not?
It was originally a single, my very first popular “breakout” one if you will, and I just tossed it on that EP as a kind of headliner. But since it was originally a single anyway, I decided to put it out on part1 of the singles collection also!
Q: Do you have any last words?
Uh, pretty much just thank you guys, I wouldn’t be where I am without you guys listening, and I guess just stream the shit out of WAVE 01 and my other tunes as much as you can, so I can keep making more music!
Here’s a link to WAVE 01 on all services: https://ffm.to/wave01
Don’t forget, Cassettes out THIS SUNDAY on Neo Motel! I will open my Bandcamp Merch store soon as well for the sick WAVE 01 goodies once they come in!!
Thanks Rugemie for having me, and again thank you guys for listening, I’m amazed every day at the insane amount of people that like ADRIANWAVE and I’ll continue to do my best to give you more sounds from my noggin. ❤
This AMA was held in the Future Funk Subreddit Discord. Join it here: https://discord.gg/guF4qvU
