Loss, memory, and the healing power of synthwave. Driven by raw emotion and retrofuturistic soundscapes, Lost Tapes of 88 transforms tragedy into art. Read our discussion with the artist below!
Describe your sound in 3 words
Retrofuturistic, emotive, cinematic
Your upcoming 6-track EP, NANDO, is a deeply personal tribute to your brother Fernando. What was the emotional threshold that made you decide to channel this chapter of your life into your music?
Last year my father died after a scheduled heart surgery that went wrong, and it clicked that, to help process his loss, I just had to open up to the world through my natural form of expression, which is music. So I dedicated a tribute EP to him called OYANARTE, which is his first name. Unfortunately, in February my brother also passed away, which was totally unexpected. This loss cut much deeper, not only because the wound wasn’t healed yet, but because you don’t normally expect death to reach someone in their late forties. So this ode is heavily rooted in the good memories and the pain that surfaced after this tragic event.
“Knowing that making music would heal me, I just sat in front of the computer and let my inner emotions flow…”
Lost Tapes of 88
You’ve described the focus track ‘Into the Void’ as a catharsis reflecting an endless, turbulent mental vortex, ungroundedness, and hopelessness after losing your brother. How difficult was it to translate such a raw, destabilizing state of mind into the studio?
I’m the oldest of three and Nando was 14 months younger than me. So I can’t remember a time without him because I was too young when he was born. His loss showed me the hard way how deeply connected we were. And that quickly hit me as I noticed that, because we had a lot of time growing up together and used our common love for music, metal bands, cars and basketball as a way to get in touch via direct message on Instagram, now I found myself alone and very confused. As if I was dropped by an external force into a void, a limitless aseptic white space with no walls or ceiling, only infiniteness. Imagine that white room scene in THX 1138 where the protagonist gets tortured by the android cops. Even though I was going through a turbulent moment, my therapist evaluated me and said I was still functional. So knowing that making music would heal me, I just sat in front of the computer and let my inner emotions flow with the creative energy. Suddenly, a cyclical/hypnotic, almost trancey melody emerged as I was choosing a raw timbre for the rhythmic synth. Then I felt an urge for an even dirtier bassline to express that visceral sorrow I was feeling. And later, while developing the structure I felt the tune had to acquire an anthemic vibe as I needed to show a sense of falling into my own broken mind. To complement the song in terms of imagery, I called my friend Thomaz Simões (thmz sim), a France-based Brazilian cartoonist, to make an animation with his drawings inspired by a bunch of selfies I took some days after my brother’s death. I was devastated and had the gloomiest look. So he created an animation where my head gets folded, twisted and dismantled only to reconstruct itself in an annoying and desperate loop.
Your favorite most trippy mind bending synth riff you wish you had composed yourself?
Most definitely that ripping dirty riff from Justice’s Phantom Pt. II. When it was released, around 2008, I remember thinking those two Frenchmen found the coolest way to replace the 90s guitar riffs we all loved with heavily compressed futuristic synths. They were so raw and yet so captivating. It makes you wanna break stuff.
Artists and people that have influenced you?
Well, for this synthwave project, I’d definitely say Com Truise’s funky futuristic beats and beautiful synth timbres; Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein for the Stranger Things OST; and, of course, Kavinsky, who is the ultimate ‘hors concours’ for every synthwaver.
What is the story behind your name? Why specifically 1988? How does this particular year mean to you?
My father was a professor with a PhD in Nuclear Physics, and had two opportunities to take our Brazilian family to live in the US during his research. The first time was in 1978, when I was a baby, so the only memorable experience for me happened during 1987/1988, when I was 12 to 13 years old and studied at a Junior High School where I made many friends and started playing basketball, and learned how to play the upright bass in the orchestra. Back then my parents bought a VCR, a camcorder and a lot of Scotch VHS tapes for us to record our trips and every movie and TV show we could, helping us remember the English language once we came back to Brazil. Because many moments of that period have faded from my memories—but are still reachable in those tapes as an external extension of myself—I envisioned a dystopian situation where I lost them, and along with them, all my recollections. So with this project, I’m always searching for those ‘Lost Tapes’ and, since 1988 flows better phonetically than 1987, it made sense to use it as a reference year for those cool experiences abroad during the golden era of the 80s.
If the music of Lost Tapes of 88 was a film, which film would that be?
It’s hard to choose one reference as we are complex beings. So, I’d say LTO88 would be a mix of sci-fi movies like THX 1138, Flash Gordon, Tron, The Black Hole, and Dune, with 80s kids’ adventure classics like Back to the Future, The Goonies, and BMX Bandits.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
To keep dreaming, but with my feet a bit more grounded. Life is, of course, a plethora of beautiful and joyful opportunities, and we should throw ourselves out there, but we need to stay resilient and be prepared for the hard, troubling events that often come out of nowhere to deeply challenge us.
Thank you!
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