Wave music is one of the newest genres in the electronic music scene, and it’s just recently starting to get some attention. A lot of wave producers are releasing their tracks on SoundCloud right now, but it’s slowly making its way onto Spotify and other streaming platforms. Wave music in and of itself is very complex, and takes inspiration from a lot of different genres such as trance, hip-hop, dubstep, techno, house, and garage. Although wave music draws from a lot of different types of music, it is a very unique genre that hits you right in the feels.
When you listen to wave music, it’s a very different experience than when you listen to trap or dubstep. Trap music is all about the good party vibes, but wave is very emotional and gets you thinking deeply about life and all of the things you’ve experienced thus far. The wave music scene is getting bigger and bigger right here in Colorado, with a growing presence in Denver. Many local artists are starting to delve into making wavy beats, such as my boyfriend who goes under his producer name ISSANN (you can check out his social links down below). Some other Denver based wave producers are bounds, INFDL, and just connor if you want to check them out as well!
Source: Instagram
I recently had the amazing opportunity to interview a female producer from Stockholm, Sweden who goes by the name of sweeep (she also makes ambient music under the name sleeep). She is involved in the wave music scene, and I asked her some questions about her experiences as a producer and what she thinks about the genre.
Source: SoundCloud
When asking sweeep about how she got into the scene, she said “ Before I knew the word ‘wave’ I just discovered a lot of new independent artists on SoundCloud. I noticed many of them seemed connected with each other because of collaborations, collectives etc. And I think that’s why they started to influence each other which developed a specific sound.”
I also asked her about the female presence within wave culture and to this she said, “…there are tons of talented women making wave influenced music all over the world, it’s just that sadly I think there is still very much a culture of men only supporting men, and I don’t think it’s done maliciously or with intent but I think if we want it to change a lot of people have to make an effort to seek out these talented female and LGBTQ artists and start making an effort to actively support them whenever possible.”
For sweeep, this is all about supporting female-identifying and LGBTQ artists in the wave scene and making them more visible in the wave scene all over the world. (Girls supporting girls, am I right?)
Source: Twitter
Although wave is just making its way into our ears (and our hearts), I personally believe that this genre is just going to keep getting bigger. When asking sweeep what her favorite part about being a wave producer is, she said “I’ve never seen myself as a wave producer, but I’m becoming a part of the scene because I’ve been playing at a lot of wave events. Getting the opportunity to play live all over the world is something I’m very grateful for.” Wave heavily relies on the live music scene for producers and artists to get recognized.
Source: Instagram
As sweeep mentioned before, female and LGBTQ wave producers are under-represented in this genre, and when I asked her if she felt women had more of a presence in wave versus other music genres she said “Unfortunately not. If the people involved don’t actively try to give women more presence and support it will end up like every other white cis-male dominated music genre.” As a female producer in the wave scene (and just being a female in general), it is important that we as humans support females as well as people in the LGBTQ community in this genre because maybe we can start to make waves (pun intended) in the representation of different people in all music genres, including wave music.
Her answer to my next question surprised me a bit at first but made a lot of sense. I asked her how her femininity translated into her music which she replied “I have always been questioning femininity and masculinity, and wondering why a specific behaviour should be connected to the gender. Whatever femininity is it’s not translated to my music.” I think the concept of what masculine and feminine behaviors are, especially in music, is important to mention because I agree with her. Why does masculinity or femininity need to be translated in music in specific ways?
Source: Twitter
If any of this has interested you, I encourage you to check out sweeep’s music down below. She’s an amazing producer, and person in general, and I’ll provide links to all her socials down below. If you’re interested in listening to some wave, there are some other great producers out there that you should check out.
sweeep
just connor
SORSARI
ISSANN:
There’s also a TON of amazing artists that are signed under the record label vibe.digital, so check them out too. Also check out wavemob for some awesome music from some awesome people. Here are the Spotify playlists for vibe.digital and wavemob. I wanna give a shout out to sweeep for letting me interview her for this article and if you’re interested in wave music and want to check out more artists than the ones I mentioned, definitely check out this article from Highsnobiety. Stay wavy ✌️