Photos courtesy of FM Skyline
Since the release of his debut record in 2017, Pete Curry, a.k.a. FM Skyline, has been a figurehead of the vaporwave community. It’s easy to understand why – his unique brand of abstract, nostalgic, and dreamlike aesthetics have become nearly synonymous with, if not definitive of the “utopian virtual” style. His most recent album, Illuminations, has already joined the likes of EarthSim and Advanced Memory Suite as all-time vaporwave classics, and his upcoming record, Images, is sure to add to his seven-year winning streak.
A day after the release of his blissful new single, “Motion Pictures”, I had the pleasure of chatting with Pete about what to expect from Images, the music he made before vaporwave, and his “unhinged” live performances.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity purposes
Interviewed by Ethan Kung
Ethan Kung: “Motion Pictures” dropped yesterday. How do you think the reception’s been to it so far?
Pete Curry: The reception has been great – there’s a lot of hype for Images right now. Which is awesome, because I think it’s my best album! We opened up the preorder yesterday, and everybody seemed really excited.
Ethan: “Motion Pictures” and “Fresnel” [Images’ lead single] are both bigger and brighter than the songs on Illuminations. What inspired the change in direction for these new songs?
Pete: Illuminations is very nocturnal – shadows, mysteries, masks, and veils. But when I was writing for Images over the last couple of years, I was coming out of depression and working through some things. So in that way, Images is after the flood.
Ethan: I think that your music and your visuals have always gone hand in hand, to the point where they’re necessary to each other. What are the main inspirations for your aesthetic?
Pete: I’m really inspired by surrealism. I love René Magritte – he’s got this really austere style that is figurative, but revels in ambiguities and contradictions that strike a deep sense of mystery. And I’ve always looked at vaporwave as being about world building and curating things together. So I’ve just been trying to do that as well as I thought Vektroid and others were doing it when I first got into vaporwave.
Ethan: When you’re creating these scenes and soundscapes, do you ever have any sort of storyline built up in your head?
Pete: I don’t like to come up with stories, because I don’t want it to be that there’s a meaning, and then you get it, and then it’s over. But there’s always a narrative with images in the way that things speak to each other. It’s the same thing with music, where you’ve got tension and resolution. I try to make it feel like there’s enough contrast in my art so that there’s something like a narrative, but not one that you could put into words.
Ethan: Yeah, your music and your visuals are definitely abstract. I was just watching the video for “Harlequin”, and it got me imagining stories for the spinning top characters! It’s so evocative, which is a common thread with your music.
Pete: Most of the time, like for “Harlequin”, that imagery was in my head, and I was trying to get as much of it out as I could – I always get about 25% of what’s in my head out onto the screen. For the rest, I just kind of make stuff, and make it fit the overall vibe. I want it to be evocative, and I love that you can be carried away to someplace that your imagination wants to take you. That’s the power of things that are more abstract.
Ethan: What’s the process like for picking your singles?
Pete: I love picking singles, because I think about my albums the same way that songwriters and pop singers do. I used to write a lot of lyrics, and I’ve played in bands with songwriters. So I know that there’s a certain kind of tune that just feels like a single. Something that has that Beatles, “She Loves You” feel to it. It has to have a certain delivery, and has to represent different themes from the album it’s on.
There’s always tunes that you wish you could put in the spotlight the way you put singles in the spotlight. But I’m really fortunate, because I think that vaporwave fans listen to whole albums, so I feel like everything gets to be heard.
Ethan: Can you give me an example of a song that you wish you could have made a single?
Pete: For Illuminations, I went back and did a video for “Classique”, because that one was really important to me. It just says so much, musically, that I want people to listen to. I like “Overture” from that record too – it feels like a statement. But it takes a while to get to its melody, which is why I didn’t pick that one.
Ethan: Is there any input from your label [100% Electronica] when you’re picking these singles, or is it mostly your own direction?
Pete: Oh, it’s just me. I don’t think George and Lindsey [100% Electronica’s label heads] want to get their hands in what I’m doing. They don’t want me to sound like them – they want me to be me! I’m also a lot more careful about feedback than other people might be. If you’re looking for validation or some kind of guidance on something, then you already know what you need to change! So I’ve learned that if I feel like I need that, then I gotta keep working.
But I do send music to people sometimes. My friends Kevin [a.k.a. Equip] and Luke [a.k.a. Eyeliner] usually hear what I’m working on. I also send stuff to my girlfriend – she’s got good ears!
Ethan: That seems like the vibe of the vaporwave community – everyone is used to being independent. That’s also what makes 100% Electronica so special as the “major label” of vaporwave. It’s good to hear that they recognize that independence, and can be hands off.
Pete: Yeah, everybody at 100% Electronica has a very individual voice. Like death’s dynamic shroud and FM Skyline are very different! But we’re also very close. We’re all very similar people, and there’s a crazy serendipity behind us all being of the same mind, and around the same age. It’s funny how these things happen and I’m honored to be a part of it.
Ethan: What do you think the continued appeal of vaporwave is? Why are there always new players coming in, and why are people like you and death’s dynamic shroud still kicking?
Pete: Well, for me, vaporwave was a launching point. I’m getting older, and I’ve made a lot of different kinds of music. I just got so excited by certain ideas in vaporwave, and got a lot of inspiration really quickly. So vaporwave helped me find my own version of music. I don’t know if that explains it for everybody else, but that explains it for me.
Ethan: What kind of music were you making before you got into vaporwave?
Pete: I’ve done a lot of different things. I was doing a lot of songwriting, playing guitar, and singing songs for a little while. I was also playing bass with my friend Saw Black, so I would write with him a lot. I also got myself into college to study piano a couple of times, for jazz and classical. But both times, I stopped to get back to more creative music making.
I’ve also always been interested in visual arts too. With vaporwave, I was able to find my voice, and find a reason to do what I was always trying to do – putting the music and the visuals together. There’s also a bit of a punk outsider or DIY ethos that makes it really inviting. You don’t have to pass any art school crits!
Ethan: It’s easy to compare your music to things like video games and web browsers, but you’re also very much inspired by soundtracks. Can you tell me a little bit about your biggest musical inspirations throughout your career as FM Skyline?
Pete: As far as soundtracks, one of my biggest inspirations is Jan Hammer. He’s the guy who did the soundtrack for Miami Vice, but that’s not really what I’m interested in. He also did this beautiful soundtrack for Beyond the Mind’s Eye, which was an early ‘90s CGI compilation film. I feel like he was going through a crazy moment of genius where the sounds coming out of the new machines were matching the excitement of the new CGI. So I love that movie and that soundtrack together. It’s been one of the biggest inspirations for what I do as FM Skyline, the symbiosis that Jan Hammer made.
Ethan: It’s an interesting connection – that movies and their soundtracks are so essential to each other, and how that’s also the backbone of the visuals and music that you make.
Pete: That’s how it was with video game music too. There was only so much that people could do with the sound quality at the time. It’s fascinating that there’s a type of music that was designed within those limitations. The guys who were composing for Nintendo and PlayStation games, etc. were probably looking forward to a higher quality, but they wound up creating these unreal fantasy worlds, an alternate reality. I’ve tried to continue the way that they were writing music – just for the sake of it, rather than because I have to!
Ethan: How do you think Images compares to your other albums visually, aesthetically, and with the flow of its tracks?
Pete: Its closest neighbor would be liteware. It’s this really bright, sunny, utopic thing, but it’s way less plasticky. On Images, I’m not referencing computers as much – it feels more natural.
I was also trying to continue the work that I was doing on Illuminations – making everything really emotional. I’m centering emotion on all of the tunes from Images, so it’s going to be a big, heavy-hitting album!
Ethan: I’m really looking forward to that. I love liteware a lot – if I had to pick an FM Skyline album to call underrated, I would say it’s that one. Although vapor.midi.muzak is also a bit of an underrated classic!
Pete: I think so too, yeah. I don’t know if people even know that it exists, but there are some great tunes on there. *laughs*
Ethan: Later this year, you’re gonna be headlining the i2K Electronic Music Festival over in Virginia. It seems like it would be hard to translate your music to the live setting, but from what I’ve seen, you’ve done it really well. Can you tell me about how you accomplished that, and how your show has evolved over time?
Pete: When I first started touring as FM Skyline, I was just using my sampler, but over the last few years, I’ve transitioned to also incorporating a keyboard. Now, I’m actually playing all of the main melodies live, and I get to engage with my musicianship. Doing that is really important to me – I have to be doing something musical live. It makes it so that there’s stakes, y’know. I also like to jump around a lot, because I used to play a lot of rock and roll, so I have a lot of fun on stage. I get a lot of catharsis from going crazy and head banging.
I really love the idea of this guy playing a little MIDI keyboard, because it’s not supposed to be cool. It’s not supposed to be exciting. But it makes for this crazy, unhinged performance! Some people are taken aback by how loud and hard hitting my sets are – maybe because they’re having a much chiller time when they’re listening alone.
Ethan: Which of your songs do you think go the hardest live?
Pete: There’s always the new ones! I did “Motion Pictures” at the last ElectroniCON [100% Electronica’s music festival] and it was going nuts. I’ve also been playing the first song on Images, and it makes me cry *laughs* There’s always the classics too – “Harlequin” was fun to play. Same with “Overture” – it has this big drop, so I would always jump really high at the beginning of that one.
Ethan: I hope that you’ll come to LA and do another show soon – I’ll definitely be there!
Pete: Yeah, I’m sure I’ll be out there this year – I need to set something up.
Ethan: You recently opened a subscription service on your Bandcamp – FM Skyline Midiwave Industries Inc. Do you think the state of the music industry is going to necessitate more artists to find creative ways of making money like that?
Pete: I certainly don’t shy away from doing everything I can – with my subscription, it was important to me that I was able to preserve my process. I’m not doing anything for the subscription that I wouldn’t have done without it, it just made things a bit more job-like. It’s important to work consistently anyways, so it made sense for me to invent this format. It’s like those old computer magazines, where you get a physical magazine and CD. It’s not a ton of extra money, but I definitely need it, and I’m extremely grateful for the sweet people that support me with it.
It’s really hard in the music industry right now. It’s expensive to go play, it’s expensive to go on tour. But my personal philosophy is to do everything you can – I’m really into making the videos and the t-shirts. I love having all that be part of my world, and I also really believe in hustling!
Ethan: So wrapping things up here, what do you think is the future of FM Skyline?
Pete: For right now, I really just want to continue writing albums. I’ve already started another album that I want to work on over the summer once Images is out. One day, I’d also like to ghost produce, or be a writer for someone, perhaps when I’m older. It would be great if some miracle happened, and I was able to get wider exposure. But I’m also really grateful for all the support that I get, and it’s enough for me to keep going. So that’s the future that I’m looking at – more music!
Check out FM Skyline’s links, and his latest single, “Motion Pictures” below!
And look out for his new album, Images, releasing April 19.
