EIGHTYEIGHTWAV
Toronto based EIGHTYEIGHTWAV is amongst Canada’s top new Hip-Hop/R&B artists. The rapper grew up with the sounds of Daft Punk and Nirvana, an upbringing that later convinced him to learn music production. He made his Spotify debut last year with the album “Lost In My Mind”. It received critical acclaim, with songs like “devil in a red dress” and “your lips on mine” garnering significant streaming success. The artist followed the album with two more singles, both soaring him to even greater heights. “INSANE!”, released earlier this year, was the artist’s most popular with nearly 100 thousand Spotify streams. This recent work has earned EIGHTYEIGHTWAV a spot on some of Spotify’s most popular playlists. We recently spoke to the rapper about his musical roots, origins of his name, and more!
How did you start making music?
I’ve always loved listening to music as a kid... I’d just be on YouTube every night listening to artists from Nirvana to Daft Punk. So when I was like 15, one of my teachers assigned some sort of project where we could present it in like any way you want. We were talking about the assignment and she was like “oh since you like music, why don’t you make a song?”. I thought that was a terrible idea but I ended up messing around with this free music production app anyway. I started to have fun producing music so I ended up buying FL Studio 12 and the rest is history.
Where did the name EIGHTYEIGHTWAV come from?
The EIGHTYEIGHT part came from me just seeing the number everywhere at a certain point of my life, it was kinda weird. I’m not a very superstitious person but I kept noticing the number enough times to where I eventually searched up what it meant. Apparently it’s an angel number and it’s some sort of sign that the universe supports your “life purpose”. Then I threw in the WAV part because a wav file is uncompressed, so I thought there could be some hidden meaning behind it. Plus I think EIGHTYEIGHTWAV would look cool on a shirt or something. What’s the hardest thing for you when it comes to making music?Honestly the hardest part about making music is just liking what I’ve made enough to put it out. I’m very picky with what I release because I want to make sure that I’d listen actually to it, you know? That’s the hardest part. I’ll make like 50 instrumental before I make one song I like.
If you could pick any non-musician in the world to have dinner with, from any point in time, who would it be?
Definitely Oprah.
In terms of musicians, who’s your choice for a dream collab?
I could name so many artists that I’d love to work with. I think right now though, It’d definitely be cool to work with FINNEAS. His production is crazy and I find his use of layering in his music pretty cool.
Favorite non-music activities?
I’m reading a lot of comics right now, mostly Marvel. I love the art and stories behind them, they’re definitely helping me get some creative ideas for my music.
What can fans expect from you in the future?
Definitely more music and possibly some things on the visual end of things!
