Mike
Vorpal’s Memes fuses darkwave atmospheres, heavy guitars, and cinematic
tension. This 30-word intro sets the stage for exploring fragmented modern
life, emotional depth, and the haunting question: what does it mean to be
human?
1. Your
debut EP Memes is described as a fusion of darkwave and guitar-driven
intensity. What drew you to this specific sonic palette for your first solo
project?
Well, I’ve
always liked really heavy guitars even as a little kid whenever my parents were
listening to music and something like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin would come
on. I’d get really excited I like that stuff, but I also like pop music and the
kind of pop music that I like is stuff like Duran Duran and The Cure and The
Pixies… so I guess when you mix those things together you kind of get the sound
that I guess I’m sort of known for.
2. The
track “Manhunter” stands out for its dense, cinematic tension. Can you walk us
through the creative process behind that song—from first spark to final mix?
That song
is one of those songs that I think of in that it wanted to be written. I was
trying to write something that was similar to The Cars and then lyrically I
took inspiration from a movie from the 80s called Manhunter and that basically
is what the whole song is. It’s a musical narrative of the movie Manhunter.
3.
There’s a clear sense of psychological depth and cryptic lyricism in your work.
How much of this EP is autobiographical versus observational or fictional?
That is an
excellent question. I often wonder that myself. I would say a really good part
of it is observational and every bit of it is fictional. I mean, it’s nonlinear
for the most part, so it would have to be fictional. The parts that are
autobiographical… I think that stuff comes out sort of subconsciously. Like the
song “Charlatan”. I’m not really sure what I was thinking about when I wrote
that song other than being kind of a bad person that gets involved in
relationships and masks the whole time. Then they get frightened when things
start to get real and they feel vulnerable. I have to wonder how much of that
is about myself… and honestly I really don’t know.
4. You
mentioned wanting Memes to feel both “immediate and timeless.” What techniques
or choices—musical, lyrical, or production-wise—did you employ to strike that
balance?
Well
musically there’s definitely a retro feel to it. A lot of the songs have been
said to have a sort of grunge vibe to them and I mean rock ‘n’ roll in general
is kind of an older genre now, but it’s always had the ability to kind of
transcend the past and be modernized in someway. And production wise, I used a
bunch of different techniques. Every song is recorded a little bit differently,
“House of Capricorn”… some of the tracking from that is recorded from tape and
then of course edited in a DAW. The like the percussion to that song and some
of the post production stuff is all digitally enhanced. So I think by
approaching it that way, and then with my musical choices, I was successful in
achieving what I set out to do. Lyrically? I mean, I kind of just let lyrics
sort of happen and whatever it is at the end of the day is what it is.
5. The
title Memes suggests a commentary on how we experience modern life. How do
internet culture and digital fragmentation inform your songwriting or thematic
direction?
I think
that Internet culture is such an intrinsic part of every day life now that it
informs almost every thing whether artistically, industrially, or
philosophically. I think that it’s so pervasive to society as a whole, that it
just influences everything no matter what. And I think that we as humans pay a
price for that because the way that we now experience information is so
fragmented… simply because our attention spans can’t handle so much information
being thrown at it. We kind of get cheated a little bit from getting a quality
experience out of things and I think that’s kind of you know, what I was going
for with the theme and title of this work.
6.
“House of Capricorn” and “Overboard” seem to carry emotional weight beneath
their sonic textures. Are there specific themes—loss, identity,
disconnection—you found yourself returning to while writing?
“House of
Capricorn” is definitely a personal song and certainly has emotional weight to
it because for whatever reason I have been involved with several Capricorn
women, so it definitely you know has an emotional undertone to it that is
personal. “Overboard” on the other hand is about an incident that had happened
a few years ago in the Bahamas, where somebody who had just graduated high
school jumped off of a party boat at night and the video was on TikTok. I saw
that video and I just kind of became obsessed with it for a minute… because it
was like you were seeing somebody die in one of the most horrific ways
possible, and it was just so nonchalantly captured on a cell phone. So that
definitely holds emotional weight as well, but it is a different kind of less
personal, more observational emotional weight.
7. Your
vocal delivery on this EP is stark and calculated—almost like a narrator in a
psychological thriller. Was that a conscious decision to complement the music’s
unsettling atmosphere?
Yes, it
was. I was trying to work within my limitations, while at the same time trying
to compliment and add to the music. So while I might have some range when it
comes to singing, I also know that I’m not like some magnificent vocalist. So I
try to do what works best for my voice and then obviously you know… make it
work with the rest of the music.
8. Who
or what are your main musical influences for this project?
There’s a
touch of post-rock, grunge, darkwave… but it also feels distinctly personal.
I’m a music nerd so I listen to pretty much every genre. I believe that there
is something of value in every genre of music so it’s nearly impossible to say
what the specific influences are. I mean this record has influences from like
Nirvana and David Bowie to Billie Eilish and Slint. So it’s very eclectic in
its delivery. I think that most of the stuff that I will put out in the future
will always have a hint of all three of those genres. They just tend to be sort
of my favorite my flavors.
9. The
EP feels very visual in its atmosphere. Do you envision your music as
cinematic? Have you considered scoring film or working with visual artists?
I also do
some acting so some of that perhaps carried over in the delivery. I’m
definitely a cinephile and I love visual mediums. It would be very cool to
score a film, and I have worked with visual artists in the past. One of my
favorite things to include in a live show is a visual presentation that is very
interesting.
10. As a
solo artist, how did you navigate creative control versus vulnerability? Was
there freedom in doing everything yourself—or pressure?
I’ve never
felt particularly confined when making music. Like even in On The First Day…
They Were Kittens, I had a lot of creative control within that band. From
songwriting down to production. So I never really felt confined. Almost all of
the time we all saw eye to eye. I would definitely say that there was more
pressure this time to try and just let the music be and not get too hung up on
my own performance. I’m thankful to all of my friends and family who were
honest about things when they would hear it, because that sort of helped me to
Let things breathe and not get in my own way.
11. If a
listener could walk away from Memes with just one emotion or thought lingering,
what would you hope that to be?
What does
it mean to be human?
12. Now
that Memes is out in the world, what comes next? Are there live shows, videos,
collaborations—or a full-length album on the horizon?
All of the
above. I’ll be playing around Portland and the Pacific Northwest to promote
Memes. There is a video for “Q” on my YouTube channel. and I hope that I get
the chance to make more videos. It’d be really cool to do a video with my
friend Rocko Zevenbergen from Bad Taste Video. That would be cool because that
would check the collaboration box as well. And yes, I am writing more material
and the next release will be a full length album.
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