Vetor Interviews: Wavezim

Wavezim brings the heat from Fortaleza in his first self produced LP: The first project from Ceará-born producer is an homage to the state capital of Ceará, Fortaleza, and its shining night scene

Text and interview by Pedro Paulo Furlan

Photography by Jonas

São Paulo, 6PM. If you still don't know Wavezim, don't worry, soon you will. The key word in this sentence being 'still', since the Ceará-born producer Oni Braga has shown he's here to stay - especially in his newest album, “Kalor” - which means heat - released in July.

Born in Pacajus, in countryside Ceará, started DJing when living in Fortaleza and, since january, an inhabitant of São Paulo's concrete jungle, Wavezim brought the Fortaleza night scene with him on his newest project, released by Bicuda Records. When I sit down to talk to him, the producer finds it important to make this homage explicit.

“It's a record inspired by the city of Fortaleza, and it's a record dedicated to the city of Fortaleza”, says Wavezim about “Kalor", adding: “Releasing it in São Paulo was a way to bring the Ceará way over here, our warm and tropical way to be”.

Photography by Jonas

Months after his move to São Paulo, home to the biggest underground scene in Brazil, Wavezim doesn't plan on letting go of his sound roots - and even less of the scene where he grew up in. Part of Bateu, a Fortaleza nightlife collective, one of the biggest names in the northeastern Brazil's electronic music scene, Wavezim's growth also is a signal for Fortaleza's total domination. 

The heat of Ceará’s electronic music

Music has always been a part of Wavezim's life, from his grandpa, who was a huge fan of Nelson Gonçalves, to his mom buying him pirate CDs and DVDs. With this love for music in itself, came the love for curating sounds and for DJing, even if he hadn't realised it yet.

"When I think about when I actually started to DJ, I remember playing that I had a radio station and getting those DVDs and scribbling on the back the songs I liked the most”.

During his teen years, dancing, Wavezim developed a close connection to music - talking to me about that moment in his life, he says: “When I was 16, me and my friends would go to each other's places and, while five would dance, one would be responsible for the playlist”. This playlist creation became full fledged DJing when one of them bought a CDJ.

Remembering trips where they took the equipment with them, Wavezim says he did his first sets back then: “our play time was pretending to be DJs, DJing just for us”. But it was just when he moved to Fortaleza that he started to see the nightlife as an actual career - especially after watching a BADSISTA set.

According to Wavezim, that was the moment “my mind fully changed”, and that was when he fell in love with not only DJing, but with club music production, dedicated to the dance floors of Fortaleza's growing night scene: "I started playing sets in Fortaleza and producing sounds that really made a different in the night”, he tells me.

It was during this self-exploring moment that he met Bateu. Now a part of this movement, that is already nine years old, Wavezim says that the organizers approached him when they saw his potential, admiring his work as a producer besides just a DJ.

Talking about Fortaleza's scene, the producer compares it to São Paulo's. Pointing out how São Paulo's is divided in a bunch of different groups, which with it's type of person, Wavezim says that the Fortaleza one is made by one big group: “The people that go to techno parties also go to the brazilian funk ones, because everyone is part of the same group”, he says, adding: “And Bateu was the one that brought together all these tribes, techno, funk, reggae”.

Photography by Jonas

At the start of this year, the artist decided to move to São Paulo, and, bringing all he learned in Fortaleza - besides an almost finished record that would become “Kalor”, Wavezim is still paying homage to his city with the music he's creating.

“The record is almost like a Fortaleza dancefloor, it goes through all these different genres, but there's a throughline. 'Kalor’ embraces every vibe and club that's in the city”.

Bringing the heat to Brazil's underground scene

Released in July, Wavezim's new album brings out all his electronic music influences, passing through techno 4x4, drum and bass, breakbeat, funk and latin sounds. For the producer, this record was “like a jigsaw puzzle” - talking about the creation process, he points out: “It was putting it together that I built the big picture, it was like, let me get the drums from here, this loop from here, and that became something entirely different”.

“Kalor” was born from “BOOM BATUQUE”, his track on Mamba Negra's latest VA “Pregação". Saying that that was “the start of the sonic research for the album”, Wavezim says that it was also when he decided to bring more organic sounds - and to invite other collaborators.

With features from DJ co.kr, Clementaum and Mia Badgyal, the producer told me that the process with each of them was different. While co.kr incremented and intensified Wavezim's techno inspired track “KALOR”, Clementaum made “TORMENTA” into a real club banger, with new arrangements, and Mia Badgyal wrote original lyrics and brought eurodance to “BLMM” (“Bitches Love My Makeup").

To Wavezim, this was the perfect project to introduce him to the national scene, and also to feed his most loyal audience: the queer and underground scene. In the end of our conversation, the artist stopped to reflect about his career and his fans - pointing out that the presence of the queer community in his life and audience was exactly what he planned, since he started producing inspired by queer artists.

“My whole social circle is made of queer people and, to me, that's a win in itself, I know my sound is in the right place”.