Alvin Eighties is a synthwave artist, active since 2020. I'm a long-time guitar player with a heavy metal background and, though I was listening from a good time to some electronics and proto-synthwave producers already, I have been hit hard by the genre around 2016/2017.
Deeply experiencing this music as a fan led me to the desire to write my own thing. When I felt ready to start, my inner kid was reborn under the moniker of Alvin Eighties.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Genoa, Italy, north-west coast.
What is one of the first songs you remember liking as a kid?
This is hard but I'm going with basically any song from the albums True Blue and You Can Dance by Madonna
What were some of the influences you had that made you start making music?
The very first ones that made me start, I'd call them close encounters of the Rock kind! Guns n' Roses, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin...
At what age did you start playing/singing?
I was 12 years old.
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself after finishing school?
Follow your passions but be a "doer", not just an eternal dreamer.
What are some of your favorite songs at the moment?
I'm more a full album than a one hit listener. More than ever, atm I'm very much into both retrowave and extreme metal music (mostly black metal, some industrial and some grindcore). Concerning retrowave / synth scene, I'm listening quite a lot to MicroMatscenes, Dimi Kaye, WOFS, Megan McDuffee
Do you listen to your own music besides when making it or do you listen so much it gets tiring after it is released?
Well, in the making I have to listen to it many times and I can easily get frustrated. So, after it is released, I only try to enjoy the mood of my music with a more relaxed approach and let the other people say their opinion. Any kind of feedback is important. Positive critics make you feel good and grateful, negative critics can include good advice that push you to go on and improve.
Are there any collaborations you would like to have in the future?
Even if they all are far better than me, I will tell you. Dimi Kaye for he is a great guy and a great guitarist who helped me so much during these two years. Then, as up to now I released only instrumentals, I'd like to collab with some female voices (thinking of Bunny X and others). Not to mention the chiptune microcosm (Cobra Commander, CoolAm7, WOFS) and, last but not least, MicroMatscenes. Mat is the retrowave Italian excellence, it would be a dream to have a collab with him one day.
What is one of your favorite memories so far in your music career?
The first time I was featured on Kaarin Zoe Lee show on Nightride FM. I felt truly blessed because I love her show, the live chat is amazingly fun, and people are very supportive each other.
What advice would you give to someone that is just starting to get into music?
Keep a low profile and always be humble.
A BIG THANK YOU to Alvin Eighties for doing this interview!
Be sure to check him out on the internet here:
great interview, i love how the influences range from extreme metal to synthwave. its what makes the scene so interesting i think.