This is the first of however many mixtapes I’ll make until I inevitably get bored and start another project. This isn’t the first time I’ve become religiously fixated on something. In the last 12 months, it’s already been: starting a DVD collection, ROMhacking a Pokémon game, making zines, rehoming PS2 games without cases - it never ends, and this will probably be the same. Maybe it’s something I could do from time to time rather than run at headfirst. Optimism is the number of 0s you put before the 1 on the first issue.
I wanted this mixtape to feel like a night drive (that was even the working title). I was chatting with a friend about 80s music just being the best decade of music, which I could swing either side of the fence on. But there is something about the blend of acoustic and synthetic, the live and the programmed that feels timeless. So a lot of these songs are from the 80s and the others are definitely inspired by them - but I think the main focus for this issue was to make something reflective. I can imagine driving back from somewhere late at night with friends, inebriated (with a designated driver, of course), putting this in the tape player and enjoying the silence, reflecting a long day. I usually hate silence but something about doing it whilst listening to this sounds nice.