An Interview with Wabie — TWENTY MINUTES LATER

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If you use Tik Tok, you’ve probably heard Wabie’s oh so catchy “Hey Lover!” Dig deeper into his discography, and you’ll find the most impressive quality and quantity of releases. In the past two years, Wabie has released two albums and a variety of singles, all the while being a full time college student. I had the pleasure of asking him a few questions about his music and you can read our interview below.

HAS MUSIC ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF YOUR LIFE?

I took music lessons as a kid. I didn’t really like the lessons, so I taught myself how to play guitar off YouTube. I joined a band in high school and then we all went off to college. I had to learn how to play everything else if I wanted to keep doing music. And then two years ago, my freshman year in college, was when I put out my first song.

YOU’VE MADE SO MUCH MUSIC IN THE PAST TWO YEARS. THAT’S CRAZY!

Yeah. I’ve been talking to people in the music industry and they all tell me I’ve released a crazy amount of music. Apparently, you’re only supposed to release a song every couple weeks. As soon as I finnish a song, I like to put it out. I don't like sitting on it for too long.

ONCE YOU GET THE IDEA FOR A SONG, HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO FINNISH IT?

There are a bunch of times where I’m working on a song for a week and then I just kind of drop it cause I don’t like it, but if i’m really inspired by something then it’s a shorter process. The last song I did took two days, but that’s like working from 5pm to 6am both nights. And then I work on making sure it sounds nice for the next two weeks, but after the first two days most of the song is pretty much there. I’m just messing with the levels and mix and everything.

HOW DO YOU START WRITING A SONG?

My first instrument was guitar, so I usually start with guitar, but a song can start with anything—like a bass line or piano—but usually guitar.

WHEN DO THE WORDS COME IN?

I finnish the whole instrumental and then I play through the entire song. I have a hard time figuring out melodies just by singing. I do a really long guitar solo throughout the entire song and then I replace the guitar with words. That’s how I figure out melodies.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE SONG YOU’VE RELEASED SO FAR?

I think “Guppies” was probably my favorite song to make. That one took the longest too. It took a month. My favorite song overall is probably “That’s What Everybody Said.” Not a lot of people know that one, but that song means the most to me. I wrote it right after college and it’s basically a thank you to everyone from high school who helped me become confident in who I am. It’s also kind of a goodbye to them too.

DID YOU FIND PEOPLE THAT SUPPORTED YOU ONCE YOU GOT TO COLLEGE?

The first year here was kind of rough. Everyone was going out to parties and I couldn’t get in because I’m a guy. I go to SDSU and they have a really big frat culture. It’s all fraternities and sororities here, which I wasn’t really down for. Then I joined an environmental fraternity— my major is environmental science with a major in sustainability. And then I joined this music group and then a climbing club. You just have to find whatever extracurriculars you’re interested in and you’ll find your people that way.

DO YOUR NON-MUSIC EXTRACURRICULARS CARRY OVER INTO YOUR MUSIC?

They give me happier experiences to write music about. A lot of my music from my freshman year of college is sort of depressing. But then my second album is my second year of college, and the music from that is a lot more upbeat and fun.

YOUR SONG “HEY LOVER!” IS VERY FUN AND FIFTIES. DO YOU OFTEN EXPERIMENT WITH OTHER DECADES/STYLES WHEN YOU’RE CREATING MUSIC?

I’ve always been into that surfy/old timey kind of music. I grew up on The Beatles, Beach Boys, and Queen. I’ve recently been listening to a lot of BROCKHAMPTON and Roy Blair—people that mesh genres together and don’t really have a set tone. They experiment a lot which I think is cool.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC TO SOMEONE WHO’S NEVER HEARD IT BEFORE?

It depends on which song honestly. I have some songs that are more hip hop influenced and some that are more classic rock or alt rock. I guess I would say bedroom pop mid-fi. It’s hard.

HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON NEW STUFF? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO!?

“Darcy” came out two months ago and I’ve been sitting on music since. “Hey Lover” has been blowing up and I think I’m going to re-release it with the help of a distribution platform. When I initially released the song, it was just me uploading it myself and I didn’t really put any thought into marketing or release planning. It’s all very new to me. I have the music ready to go. I just need to figure out how to release it so it can reach the most people.