WARPSPEED | INTERVIEW + TRACK REVIEW

Blending the melodic craftsmanship of classic songwriting with the dreamlike atmosphere of vintage video games, late-night television and fading childhood recollections, Warpspeed exists somewhere between reality and imagination. It's music that feels strangely familiar, as though you've wandered into a place you've never visited but somehow recognise. Rather than chasing modern trends or empty nostalgia, the project is driven by timeless melodies and the emotional pull of moments that refuse to stay in the past.

Behind the project is a songwriter fascinated by the way music can preserve entire worlds, transforming ordinary experiences into hazy, cinematic landscapes that listeners instinctively want to revisit. With the help of a lifelong friend and collaborator, Warpspeed has quietly crafted a sound where melancholy meets hope, and every song feels like another doorway into a forgotten corner of the mind.

We caught up with Warpspeed to discuss world-building through music, why melody will always outlive trends, the emotional difference between memory and nostalgia, and how childhood continues to echo through every note.

TRACK REVIEW -

"The Moon and Me" opens on a set of inquisitive, slightly haunting keys that pull you straight into WARPSPEED's world before you've had a chance to decide whether you're ready. The bass sits smooth underneath, holding the whole thing steady while the vocals do something more interesting, less about telling you what the song is and more about leaving the meaning half open, letting you fill in the rest. The countermelodies are the giveaway that this one has been sat with. They're too considered to be accidental.

It's a track for a very specific pocket of the week. Friday night, straight out of the shower, mirror check, keys in hand, the last song before you step out the door.

https://www.youtube.com/@warpspeedband

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Warpspeed began with video game music before evolving into something more song-driven. Do you think you’re still building worlds first and writing songs second, or has that relationship flipped over time?

Yes, it started as two separate projects.  One as a world-building experiment, the other as a song-writing experiment for my love of The Beatles, Beach Boys, Kinks, ELO, and stuff like that. Then I tried transforming them together. I like melancholy with structure.  Dreams you can sing along to.

A lot of nostalgic music relies on references to the past. Your music seems more interested in recreating the feeling of remembering. What’s the difference between nostalgia and memory in your mind?

To me, memory is flat. Nostalgia has a sense of urgency to it, like it’s imperative to go back and revisit, or treat it as if seeing a whimpering dog with one leg on the street and nobody to take care of it. It’s in your chest trying to burst out, and it’s seeking attention.  Everyone’s past is different, so I like to immortalize my past how I heard it and share that with others.  Also, when a certain song comes on, your entire being instantly knows exactly where you were when you heard it.  Nostalgia hits hard; memories just sort of linger there. Nostalgia is like getting hit by a truck but then falling into another hazy, distant world, while memories seem to just sit there like hanging ducks in a windowsill in Chinatown at night.  Nostalgia is urgent and makes you want to time travel, but you can’t.

You’ve known your producer and collaborator since childhood. After all these years, how much of your creative shorthand comes from music, and how much comes from simply growing up together?

A lot of it is growing up together. Sending music back and forth.  Have the same taste in music and genres.  If I give him a track to work on, I don’t even need to check in.  I am confident he will do with it what I need.  Plus it’s good that someone else works on it because then it adds flavor to it.

The name Warpspeed feels like movement through time rather than space. If your music could transport listeners anywhere, where do you think it naturally wants to take them?

I heard someone say that all we are trying to do in life is go back to the womb.  We’re yearning for that comfort.  So I guess I would say I am trying to transport people back in time.  I especially like late 80s and early 90s media and the nostalgia from that.  It is familiar but distant.  It feels like entering into a tunnel of the mind.  Old cartoons and media have a certain melancholy to them.  When I listen to them, it feels like I am home.

You mention that atmosphere alone isn’t enough and that melody has to come first. In an era obsessed with vibe, do you think strong songwriting is becoming a lost art?

Yes, all the time I am hearing artists that are trying to create just a chill vibe.  In the 50s or 60s, that was not really a thing.  You had to be good at songwriting.  Throughout the ages, what people want to hear most is melody.  The songs that stick out from the past are always the ones with good melody.  It’s why Sabrina Carpenter is so big.  It’s not just a vibe; there's decent songwriting involved with the addition of proper production.  Melody always comes first for me.

The Beach Boys and The Beatles could make listeners feel nostalgic for moments they’d never actually lived through. Is that the kind of emotional magic you’re chasing with Warpspeed?

Sort of.  I think it’s more powerful when it’s your actual memories.

Video games, films and music all have the ability to create imaginary places. Which medium do you think has influenced the way you tell stories through sound the most?

Probably video games.  Especially early video games I played as a kid.  You’re not just watching the game; you’re in it, experiencing it as a kid.  You’re in another world.  The feeling you get as a kid sleeping over at a friend or grandparent’s house, and there is a TV on in the other room, or you are trying to go to sleep with a TV on in your room, is what  I am going for.  I remember sneaking out and seeing what my grandparents were watching when I was 6.  I peeked my head around the corner, and they had a movie on late at night.  It was like, what world are they in right now?  But when you’re lying on a couch, and your eyes are half open, and there are commercials on, but you’re not registering the meaning, is what I like.  Halfway in between sleep, in a theta alpha brain wave state, about to lose consciousness, and all you have in front of you is these cartoons or old people selling you commemorative rings or collectible coins at 2 am on infomercials, becoming your temporary mother, singing you a lullaby to sleep.

Having someone who’s worked with artists like Weezer and Brian Wilson involved in the project sounds impressive, but friendship seems just as important to the story. What can lifelong trust bring to a creative partnership that technical expertise alone can’t?

There is no guesswork.  Plus, we have been sending music back and forth of artists we like since childhood, so that plays a role as well.  Also, there is no pressure when recording; it is mostly laughs.

Many artists spend years trying to sound modern. Your music seems more interested in sounding timeless. Do you think those are two different goals?

Yes.  Modernity gets outdated pretty quickly.  I’m not trying to be modern.  Only a little bit to stay relevant.  That’s where melody comes in. It’s the melodies that stick in people’s heads and stand the test of time.

If someone discovers Warpspeed twenty years from now and presses play without any context, what do you hope they feel first: nostalgia for the past, curiosity about the future, or the strange feeling of being suspended somewhere between the two?

The strange feeling of being suspended somewhere between the two.  It should be a way to heal from the past and give you hope for the future.  Like all good therapies do.  Music is therapy.  It points out the things that were good in your past instead of bad, or at least helps you process it, which makes you excited and curious about the future.