Having a string of innumerable past projects often involving floaty synths, soft rhythms and weird un-identifiable sounds, Memory Tapes aka Dayve Hawk is a one-man musical wonder. He has since moved onto solo projects after his Philadelphia-based band Hail Social, an 80s-sounding synthy electro outfit with lyrics so mundanely catchy that they almost made you feel guilty for listening to them. Since fitting right into the days of the '06 synth-influenced electro of the French West-Coast scene (despite being on the other side of the world), he has continued to enrapture the blogworld with a seemingly new direction- his new projects from Memory Cassette, Weird Tapes to now Memory Tapes on Something In Construction. You can still hear the links to Hail Social via the distinctive breed of synthiness paired with the often melancholic minor keys, let alone his same vocals but the sound has almost certainly progressed, with more adventurous sampling such as the basketball court squeaks used as percussion in 'Green Knight'.

Dazed Digital: You've worked under a lot of similar sounding aliases / projects... What's the story behind your names?
Memory Tapes: Well Weird Tapes was something I did for fun... it was mostly chopped up samples and stuff. Then I started posting demos I had recorded in high-school and that was Memory Cassette. After a bit I was bored of both and also people were getting confused, so I just combined them into one project: Memory Tapes. I took it as a fresh start, no samples or old tracks, and made the full-length 'Seek Magic'. People still tend to refer to me as "Memory Tapes / Memory Cassette / Weird Tapes" so it didn't work as easily as I would have hoped.

DD: How would you describe your work?
Memory Tapes: Honestly I wouldn't... I'm very much a "Talking about music is like..." type of person. Even if I wanted to I don't think I could, it's like describing your own personality. Maybe some people could do that but it seems a bit delusional to me.

WHATS…
...so special about you, then?
I think my social skills are special in like a "special olympics" kind of way.  

...your worst vice?
The usual... sex / drugs.

...the world coming to?
Endless complaining

...your worst fashion secret?
I'm too poor to have fashion secrets. I've worn the same pair of sneakers for seven years.

...your favourite website?
Probably Youtube for all the old performance clips.

...better, analog or digital?
Analog for sure but i'm mostly stuck with digital.

...at the top of your shit list?
The person who coined the term "chillwave"

...are you listening to now?
The Dream