Interviews

alovesopure: Hardcore Musician Tobby Davilmar Takes Electronic Music Path for Solo Project

Photo: Sal Rispoli

Meet Tobby Davilmar, a musician who is an integeral part of the South Florida hardcore scene. Throughout the years, he's played in such bands as Be All End All, Way of Life, Ephemeral, and most recently, Collateral. If you're interested in learning more about what's been brewing down there, check out this profile I put together on Fortress Records, a label that's released some of Tobby's work.

But we're not here to talk hardcore today, as I wanted to shine the spotlight on alovesopure, Tobby's solo project. Best experienced through headphones, alovesopure's latest album, You'll Be a Memory, is a bliss pill that takes you on a electronic music voyage dulcet to the senses.

I instantly fell head over heels in love with You’ll Be a Memory, so I wanted to speak with Tobby about it and the wide-ranging influences that helped inform the 10-track collection.

What was your gateway into electronic music? What were some of the records or artists that initially hooked you in?

Forgive me for the amount of name drops. So, besides always loving rap music, in middle school, I was into really funny scene music: 30H!3, Brokencyde, Metro Station, etc. Outside of that, I’ve always had a general affinity for bands like Phoenix, Washed Out, MGMT, Daft Punk, and other mid-late 2000s indie pop and whatnot. I credit my sisters for getting me into them.

By the time I got into high school, vaporwave was really popular so my friend at the time got me into stuff like Yung Bae, VHS logos, and Macross 82-99. Soon after that, I discovered XXYYXX, Tomppabeats, Taylor Deupree, and Homeshake too and that sort of changed everything for me.

You play guitar in other bands, but when did you start figuring out keyboards, sampling, and the production side of what you’re doing with alovesopure? 

I’ve been doing alovesopure since 2016, but I don’t think I ever actually knew what I was doing until 2020, honestly. That’s when I started to figure out how to write a song rather than pressing a chord for 8 minutes [laughs]. The first songs I ever did were more influenced by drone music.

Speaking as someone who has never written/performed music in the vein of alovesopure, how do you usually compose your material? Do you start off with a riff/motif and build from there, or is there a different pathway you prefer?

Usually, I’ll be listening to a song that has a part that I think would be cool to sample. Sometimes I’ll cycle through a sample pack with breaks and hits and see what sounds good. Most of the time, songs will remain drafts for like years until I somehow figure out what to do with them.

For the example, in "Blossomed Pt. 2," that one was a chop from GarageBand loops that sat for almost 2 years. I like to take influence from a lot of things so it keeps things fresh. 

Is there an overarching theme to the You’ll Be a Memory album? Since it’s instrumental music, do you think about that kind of thing?

I do think about themes a lot, but they don’t tend to be super definitive if that makes any sense. Warmth Is Promise Kept is a pretty somber record I think. That record was made during a pretty sad time in my life. It was the same atmosphere during the making of YBAM too— but I wanted to make a record that was more upbeat and fun. 

I base albums around feeling and I guess the feeling for 'You'll Be a Memory' is looking toward the other side of things instead of looking backwards. That may sound a bit silly for a record with no lyrics 

For anyone reading this who might not be familiar with electronic music, and the musical references that have helped inform what you do in alovesopure, what would be some albums you would recommend they start off with?

• Bjork - Post/Homogenic/Vespertine
• Portishead - Dummy
• Sweet Trip - Velocity:Design:Comfort
• Squarepusher - Go Plastic
• Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
• Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right to Children
• Darla Records - Drums & Bliss Vol. 1
• Bowery Electric - Beat
• Loveliescrushing - xuvetyn

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You'll Be a Memory is out now via Sunday Drive Records.

Head over to the alovesopure Spotify page to check out some playlists Tobby compiled featuring some of the project's influences.
 

Tagged: alovesopure, be all end all, collateral