Meet Waavypanda: Music producer and twitter personality from The Bahamas and most likely the only one reading the blog from there. His Bandcamp bio should give it away, but I’m not fooled by it: ‘yo I make ambient lofi and vaporwave stuff’. Emphasis on stuff. His creativity seems to have no bound, taking him to vaporwave and beyond like a musical chameleon personified, showing in his ever changing profile pic. The first one to call me momma sap online – and starting a hype right there. One of my most fervent followers, outspoken, funny, and last but not least, a fellow discoholic. Catch him if you can!
My Kind of Music, with Waavypanda
My MIND IN DISARRAY sums it up perfectly.
It’s SO time for a new Spotlight! My life has taken a turn for the busy – no complaint, I just can’t deal with it since my brain’s close to exploding sometimes lol – and I haven’t been able to get back to a regular publishing schedule yet. Believe me, it has been very frustrating for me and I really do have to keep telling myself to just Calm the Heck Down. But we’re finally here: The First Spotlight of this new year! And I’m starting with one of Waavypanda’s latest albums – at the time of writing – released the 12th of January 2022, by Engram Recordings. Let’s Goooo!
The freakin Bahamas people! I feel so honored every time readers from another country are added to the stats, I can’t even explain how that feels. It’s such an incredible thing to have people from the other side of the globe tapping into Colorful Expressions. I’m guessing it’s kind of the same thing for the Spotlight artists portrayed here. Numbers don’t matter – well, they do – but the idea people from countries I’ve never been before – and probably will never visit – are reading my stuff. Mindblowing. Every time. Of course I wasn’t aware where my guest of today was hailing from at the start, but discovering this little fact was a nice, tropical surprise indeed.
I guess you could say I officially met Waavypanda on a Discoholic stream, though his name was already familiar to me. I think we’ve been mutuals on twitter (He is less active on Instagram..) since then and whenever I tweet something, he’s always that one person to give me the first like. Gotta love him for that alone right, lol. Of course I’m not really returning the favor, since I’m way too slow to keep up with the amount of tweets not only Waavypanda is sending out. The whole of my timeline is bursting at the seams within certain time frames, it’s must be a time zone thingy. But I just want it to be understood: it’s never anything personal from my side Waavypanda! I also hope you do realize what it is you’ve unlocked by starting to call me momma sap. In all honesty though readers, he did ask permission. Just a pity he went from momma sap to liking wiener sapper better. (thnx Discoholic, ugh)
Waavypanda is into ‘ambient lofi and vaporwave stuff’, and though I’ve gotten a bit more familiar with vaporwave – believe me when I say, a bit – ‘ambient lofi’ still sounds like a crossing between a certain TV model from the what, 90’s? and someone’s ko-fi to me. Y’all can laugh now, I absolutely don’t mean no disrespect and yes, of course I kinda get the vibe, but as far as I can tell, it’s not just one vibe, it’s a stream I could easily drown in. Not the most terrible way to go I reckon. So what else to do then just listen to his music eh? Apart from the album ‘Mind in Disarray’, which at the time of writing is actually a completely fresh drop, I’m sharing them here in chronological order. Bandcamp only!
It’s not that Waavypanda’s not active on SoundCloud, because he is..kinda. He actually has two accounts there but, I quote: ‘SoundCloud is where I post random songs and snippets I don’t plan on releasing fully’. Anyways, I’ve added the links because that’s how I roll ya know. You can figure out for yourself where you choose to listen to his music, adding his YouTube channel in the mix, I quote: ‘and I have a YouTube channel I plan on uploading to more in the near future’. And let’s not forget his Twitch channel, because he does stream from time to time! Don’t worry your pretty little head about clicking on them right now, they’re all listed below as well.
Having gone through the earlier albums, Waavypanda’s music is relaxingly cool to listen to. I’m not sure if that’s where the ‘Waavy’ part is coming from, but it sure is fitting, while his music creates an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. To be honest, I’m truly amazed so far and I’m wondering if I’ll be surprised while floating along. Although I don’t get all the album titles – guessing there must be some inside jokes there, or referrals to stuff I have no clue about – the song titles are mostly speaking for themselves and carry the promise of calmth, with some darker undertones here and there. It results in an interesting combination if we’re talking emotions.
Then suddenly I feel like I’ve entered another of Waavypanda’s musical dimensions. Don’t talk to me about genre’s. I’ve seen how y’all call the genre’s I grew up with nowadays and though you might be right and I think it’s pretty inventive, it’s not how we used to call stuff. Trying very hard not to be that Gen X human, sticking to her ‘good ole days’ vibe, but genre’s are forever tricky in my book. Tried sites that list music genres and got blown away. It’s one of the reasons why I always ask the artist to describe their music. Hah, some of them aren’t even sure themselves. Does it matter though? Not for me and isn’t it way cooler to have invented something nobody really can describe, but you?
Create your own recipe by picking some of this and some of that, add your own spices. Try to stand out. Isn’t that what we all want? Well, I would anyways. Somehow I think Waavypanda is looking for new too. Always making new music, always looking for others to collab with, or to learn from. It’s interesting for me to see where artists get their inspiration from. We’re all influenced in one way or another, twisting it into one’s own thoughts and expressing it in our own quirky way, will stamp it as ours. My guess is, Waavypanda will keep discovering new sides to a genre, I quote a very recent tweet: ‘I’m back on my wtf did I just make shit’. Yep.
Any observant reader should have noticed that Waavypanda is pretty new to the music scene. I can’t stress enough how impressed I am when I see how much music some artists put out there in such a short amount of time. From the 2nd of October 2021, till the time I’m writing this, Waavypanda released 15 albums on his Bandcamp site and I’m not even counting collabs he may be telling us about later. Come on..at this rate his discography will be, I dunno, explode? Not a day goes by and Waavypanda tweets about whatever he’s working on that day and/or announcing new stuff to be released soon. Can’t not be impressed.
In the meanwhile I arrived at the heavier stuff, or so it feels. Waavypanda is a man with many faces for real. I mean, For Real. I can’t keep up with how many times he changes his profile pic and since I’m used to open the article with it – so anybody can recognize the artist, I asked him which one I should use. His answer, I quote: ‘I was planning on changing my pfp to my face today so ill send u one in a bit’. Well whaddayaknow! However, my hope was short-lived when I received an update not long after that, stating, I quote: ‘actually never mind I suck at taking pics u can use my Bandcamp profile pic’. Sigh lol. Hence the Bandcamp profile. It’s all good, as long as y’all know who we’re talking about here.
But yeah, some heavier stuff, music literally taking me to another dimension, or should I say, universe. I love it when music makes my mind come up with images that are beyond this world, moving in a dream state. Though I do have a very vivid imagination. Lots of artists could do very well in cinema’s I think, the same goes for Waavypanda. The movie automatically plays in my mind, even though the images won’t make much sense to anybody else, the fact his music is about more than sound, makes the picture complete. Pun intended.
Again Waavypanda is not staying in that particular corner, but keeps playing around with the genres. By now more people have picked up his talent, which shows in the ‘supported by’ section on Bandcamp and it’s cool to read some of the comments. You could say I’m not alone in my opinion about Waavypanda’s music, so those vibes are pretty clear even if he did not intended it to be like that. One can never be too sure and I stand my ground: it’s all in the ear of the beholder. I’ve heard the ‘ambient lofi and vaporwave stuff’ – at least I think I did – but that’s not all. There’s more in between and beyond and there’s undoubtfully much more to come.
Apparently Waavypanda has a bit of a preference to the darker sides of this life – or is he taunting them? – when his music gets into the nightmare realm. I wonder sometimes what goes on in the artists heads while creating pieces like this. (I have the same with movies, though I hardly watch anything anymore). Is it a way to release inside stress, worries, anxiety? Maybe. I can only speak for myself and though I’m mostly a positive person, when I’m writing it’s easy to dive into the less brighter sides of life. As if my articles are the only place where I can let my ‘negative’ self go. Anyways, ’13 hours insomnia’ sounds awfully familiar and well, ‘brain collapse’, I think I’ve mentioned something at the start lol.
We’re getting close to the end of my gibberish and nearing the moment where Waavypanda will take over and enlighten us about who he is and what he is about. What more can I say really? Other than it’s absolutely worth it to get to know Waavypanda and while you’re at it, get into his music. I remember when I first asked him if he would be interested to do this Spotlight, he answered, I quote: ‘my music isn’t all that funky tho’, and: ‘it is vaporwave but like a bit more experimental’. All the more interesting for me! When I explained how I would send him the questions and he could take his time answering – which he did not! I got them back the next day. Like. Wow. – he answered, I quote: ‘ok that’s good cuz my brain stops working when put on the spot lol’. I love it when I find common ground hehe. Worth. It.
What I will add, are two special albums. The first one being ‘loud music for broken toys’, released 27th December 2021, by Civic Duty Records. You’ll find the link to direct you to the album when you visit Waavypanda’s site. Or just click on the above! The album got a lot of attention on social media and not without reason. It also received a lot of support on Bandcamp and it’s so nice to see the recognition Waavypanda is getting. The album is unexpected fun at every turn, playful and yes, at times loud. But hey, let’s be honest, where kids play, toys are broken and it never goes without ..noise. Fun fact: Civic Duty Records is on my future Spotlight list, so keep your ears and eyes pealed!
The last album I’m sharing, is ‘kombat’, released by Waavypanda the 29th of January 2022, by textile rosary viscera. Wait. WHO? Uhuh. Just yesterday Waavypanda tweeted about doing something new, under a new alias. Will he ever get boring? I don’t think so. The album IS different from all the previous ones. If you find Waavypanda on twitter, you can see for yourself, I quote: ‘aka textile rosary viscera aka chaosbrokenmind. makes music sometimes. 1/3 of glass remnant. 1/2 of TWISTΞD MΞNTΛL. 1/2 of automaton concepts’. Oh and normalguytom lol.There you have it. I’m not gonna waste more words other than: BIG Thank You Waavypanda for joining me here! You have the stage!
The Interview
1️⃣ Let’s start with the obvious: can you please introduce yourself and tell us; who is Waavypanda? How and when did you start producing music? Do you play any instruments yourself and/or sing? Does the name has a special meaning/how did you come up with it?
‘Yo I’m waavypanda and I’m an experimental (kinda) vaporwave producer. I started making music in like Jan of 2020. I just started going to a community college thing and it was super boring so I started making music in my classes. Couple months after the pandemic started it became like this 12+ hours a day obsession. I do not play instruments but I used to sing in my church choir ages ago.
The meaning behind waavypanda is kinda corny but I tell it anyway. The waavy part is just there cuz it sounds cool but the panda part is cuz I’m biracial and chubby (black n white like a panda)‘
2️⃣ Who have been/are your biggest influences? Where do you get your inspiration from? And how would you describe your music?
‘I listen to so much stuff its hard to point to one influence but jpegmafia was the first experimental artist I got into so ig u can say he showed me that u can make weird music and people will still listen to it. I get inspired by so many things like movies, anime, someone humming a tune for example. Inspiration isn’t hard to come by for me lol.
My music spans many genre and styles but the one thing that stays consistent imo is how frantic it sounds so to answer your question I make frantic music’
3️⃣ What was your first ever experience with producing music? And how do you feel you have grown from that point on?
‘My first experience with music is me trying to make a lofi hip hop/relaxing beats YT channel the first month I started making music and the areas I think I’ve grown are getting comfortable with my daw and with working with samples’.
4️⃣ You don’t seem to stick to just one genre, are there genre’s that really have your heart? And why is that? How do you get from one genre to another, can you describe a bit how your creative process works?
‘In terms of making music anything with drum breaks I love and probably ambient stuff
In terms of listening I like the abstract hiphop scene that is blossoming rt now (the alchemist, earl sweatshirt, boldly james navy blue, pink siifu, jpegmafia, zelooperz and stuff like that. And I also like listening to the more ambient side of vaporwave like slushwave and late night lofi stuff
Tbh with u I cant really explain my creative process to u its like my brain is so full all the time I just use making music as a way to channel some of that chaos’.
5️⃣ You also seem to enjoy working together with your fellow producers. How do you find each other? Can you give us a bit of a background story about your latest collabs? What are the best parts of collaborating with others? What would be the collab of your dreams?
‘All the collab groups I’m in so far started from someone reaching out to do a track/ feature and somehow ended with a group forming lol. My latest collab is with ᴵˈᵐ ᵒᵏ(ᵕ̣̣̣̣̣ ͜ ᵕ̣̣̣̣̣ ˶ )♡ automaton concepts and we just dropped our first project Automata Theory
Last Wednesday the 19 of Jan. this group formed when I’m okay hit me up and asked me to be a feature on one of his upcoming album which was crazy for me cuz his album infinitesimally small and loved by drugs was one of my fav albums of 2021 so from their we worked on the feature then we joked about starting a group and next thing we know we our first album is out lol.
My dream collab would be with christtt. I luv his entire discography including his aliases. I think we would make some next lvl shit’.
6️⃣ What do you consider the toughest/most frustrating part of producing? And which part is the most fun for you? How much time would you say you spend per day on producing music?
‘idk if this counts as a part of the producing process but promoting my stuff is so difficult for me lol. I feel like such a douche constantly tweeting about my music but that the only way to get people to listen so yea I hate that lol. My fav part is coming up with the initial idea for a song whether it’s with a sample flip or with melodies.
I spend most of the day making music easily 12+ hrs a day’
7️⃣ What can we expect in the (near) future from Waavypanda? Which dreams do you hope to realize at some point?
‘My number one and only goal with music is to being able to make music only I can make.
And I have another ambient project coming out before the end of the month and I have 3 other projects planned for Feb.’
8️⃣ Is there anything else you would like to add/share with the readers? Anything I did not ask about maybe?
‘Uh not really, check out my collab projects glass remnant, twisted mental and automaton concepts’.
Again, Big Thanks to Waavypanda! It was so nice to have you here and I think you hold the record on answering the questions, heck you were fast! Of course I’ll keep following you on twitter and hey, big hug from momma sap to you! And you my readers, please give Waavypanda a follow, you can do that right here:
Follow Waavypanda on: Bandcamp – YouTube – SoundCloud (1) – SoundCloud (2) – Twitter – Instagram – Twitch – or simply go to Linktree
Wishing y’all a Very Waavy Weekend, take it easy, rest your brain, momma sap loves you ❤
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