Dayve Hawk (born in New Jersey), better known by his stage name Memory Tapes, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer, and the former frontman of the Philadelphia-based band, Hail Social.
The whole appeal of dance music is being liberated because music is liberating and it's not about club culture or the social aspect of playing the mating game or whatever you're doing at a club. It's more about the euphoric aspect of listening to music.
I'm not a very social person. I'm interested in music and I'm obviously tight with my family - my daughter. I'm not at the club hanging out at night. I'm at home making records.
It seems that the Internet is setting the standard for almost everything. I can't imagine having something like punk rock happen where an entire culture is doing one thing. It's not like all the kids in England are discovering the Stooges and the Ramones at the same time. All the kids in England are discovering every band that has ever existed. I can't imagine there being one huge cultural moment like there was in the past. Everything ends up being kind of postmodern.
I'm definitely one of those people who feels that they were born in the wrong era. I don't know if that's nostalgia. I have a hard time relating to most current things. It's funny because I get associated with nostalgia a lot, but I don't hang out being like, "Man, if it were 1986. . . If only. . . !"
I always tell people that I have never ever gone dancing in my life. But that's the point. It's the point of dreaming of doing it, imagining doing it. My music is like a fantasy version of it, not a practical version of it. With the way a club DJ would make a track - they are in the club, they know how to get people excited. I don't know how to get people excited. I'm just imagining euphoria; I'm not necessarily feeling it.
I like things that are contradictory or seem one way but are another way. I think it's more genuine. It's the way I am. I am very positive in certain ways and extremely negative in other ways. I think it's most appropriate if I can write a super pop-y song singing about killing myself.
I think there are basically two kinds of musicians: some are extroverted and some are introverted. I think extroverted musicians are more in the entertainer kind of camp, which is just as valid, but you're going to be more apt to make music that is of the moment - whereas if you're coming from a more introverted place, the music is going to end up being more about the past or more personal. It's not going to be about the people in the room, per se.
Most of the press I end up doing now asks, "Make a playlist for us. . . What are your top ten current bands?" I'm like, "I don't even know one band!" It's kind of awful. I would love to get more new music. I'm just not that amazing with the Internet and things.
I think it's silly when people try compartmentalize musical genres. That was always my problem with the chillwave thing - people were trying to make it into some kind of musical movement, when it was not a movement. A couple dudes had a couple songs for a couple months. It's going to be a disparate onslaught of people throwing ideas at the wall.
There's no love in my songs. There's just a lot of resentment. Just bad attitude. But that's intentional, that's what I like. I love the whole idea of Motown. Their idea was to sing how down on their luck they were, but the song implied hope that it would get better. I liked that idea, and I wanted to go even further with it.