While "summertime" is often a euphemism for "laziness," New Jersey-based Memory Tapes, the alias of songwriter Dayve Hawk, is anything but idle. He is fresh off releasing his sophomore LP, Player Piano, a mini-European tour and already focusing on two new albums.
Formerly known as Memory Cassettes and then Weird Tapes, Hawk is a man of many identities. His first release under the Memory Tapes moniker, Seek Magic, was a collection of subtly danceable indie songs that gained national attention (Pitchfork.com described the album as "a record of achingly gorgeous dance-pop") back in 2009. But for his follow-up album, Hawk concentrated on a different approach to his surreal, melancholy sound.
Player Piano is an airy blend of lo-fi pop songs: uplifting, dreamlike melodies with hints of dark lyrical content. "I like the contrast of singing a love song about not being in love or something," Hawk explained.
On the track "Sun Hits," Hawk coos, "nothing's a dream if you never wake up" against a fast-tempo dance beat. Similar contrasts throughout the album give it a different edge from Seek Magic. "It's a lot less of a dance record than Seek Magic was," Hawk said. "The songs are in a classic pop format, small-scale, simple songs."
After a brief session with the former Philly-based post-rock band Hail Social, Hawk turned his attention to solo projects, which was his intention all along. "Memory Tapes is driven by what I want to do. I didn't grow up playing in bands, I grew up recording in my basement on tape decks," Hawk said. "All the stuff I recorded as Memory Cassettes, I did before Hail Social even existed."
Although recognized for the various remixes he's done for artists like Crystal Castles,Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yeasayer and Britney Spears, they are not part of some master plan. "I've always been asked by the bands," he said. "For a while, I basically had a rule of saying 'yes' to anyone because I didn't see it as any huge artistic statement. I've started to turn them down because that was all I was doing. Listening to a loop of a Britney Spears' song all day can be intense."
A self-described introvert growing up, Hawk found solace in listening to his parents' albums like The Beatles' White Album and Magical Mystery Tour on his Fisher Price turntable. "I listened to things based on if the name was funny to me," he said, "I got into David Bowie because I thought The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars sounded funny."
Hawk is now focused on working on two new albums this fall, both with a different sound: one completely instrumental and abstract and another guitar-based, inspired by another classic, Television's 1977 album, Marquee Moon.
Although he recently returned from a mini-European tour in Paris, London and Glasgow with Air France, Hawk's life is not a whirlwind of lavish parties and extensive trips - in fact, it's rather mundane. He lives in rural New Jersey and spends most of his time with his daughter, using the serene surroundings to garner inspiration. "Cities have a lot to offer but, in way, can be sort of distracting," Hawk said. "I can basically sit in a field and make a record. I'm more inspired by an internal thing [and] being in a rural area feeds into that."
