Miami-based DJ duo Paperwater are plotting bold moves for the next year, including a NYC-centered outpost of their DJ, music production, and creative consulting endeavors. Members Daygee Kwia and Eddy Samy stopped by NO BAR for a Sunday set during their recent visit. Between beats, we caught up with them on their sound, the New York nightlife scene, and the future of the music industry.
Give them a follow here and catch next month’s NO BAR music lineup here.
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THE STANDARD: How did you meet each other, and what sparked the idea to join forces as Paperwater?
PAPERWATER: We met in high school during football tryouts and ever since we have been best friends. I was a part of a group called Afterthesmoke that got signed to Warner Bros and at the time Eddy would always give me advice. Eventually that situation deteriorated and I moved back down to Miami. That’s when I was offered the opportunity to DJ and Eddy asked to learn and do it together. The rest is history.
How has the Miami music scene influenced your sound as producers?
It has influenced us to have a very energetic and dance-oriented sound. We like to describe Miami as the capital of South America and the Caribbean - a melting pot of cultures. The club culture definitely reflects that - it allows us to experience genres in a unique way and understand how to fuse them together.
You recently spent a portion of your summer playing in NYC. What stands out about the music and nightlife scenes here?
The main difference I noticed is that it's not as segregated when it comes to different music tastes in NYC. We recently did a DJ set at a dance party called QUENCH in Brooklyn that was filled with people from all walks of life who were really open minded. It allowed us to not only play our own original songs, but cover dance records over multiple decades.
What are your favorite samples, either in other songs or your own?
DAYGEE: One of my favorite samples and songs is “Through the Fire” by Chaka Khan which was sampled by Kanye West for “Through the Wire”.
What is your dream location to play a set?
One of our dream locations to perform at would be Madison Square Garden in NYC & Red Rocks in Colorado. For clubs, I would like to be a resident at Le Bain.
In addition to creating music, you run a creative consulting agency, Halffullcreative. What overlap do you see between the two disciplines and who would be your dream brand to collaborate with?
The overlap between us and Halffullcreative lies in our creative endeavors and passions. With HF we are able to offer event organization, brand collaboration, and workshops, which allow us to have a deeper relationship with brands and venues. It also allows us to creatively express ourselves outside of DJing and music production.
Although we already collab'ed with them, Off-White is our dream collaboration. Having the opportunity to have worked with Virgil before he passed really opened up our eyes to how far we can grow, as well as how to be free as a creative without compromising client delivery. We hope to continue working and building with them in the near future.
You recently hosted a workshop teaching people how to produce music using AI. What do you anticipate will be the most exciting (or terrifying) trends in the music + tech sphere in the coming years?
We are really big on technology and with A.I., we choose to embrace it as artists. It’s been advancing very fast in the last couple of months and we will see more sophisticated AI systems that are capable of composing original music. This will help with creative blocks for artists. I can see it hurting sync licensing jobs because companies can hire an A.I. operator to replace musicians to make the music.
With Apple going into AR & VR we predict that virtual concerts will be more of a thing in the near future. I think this is great because I can see artists blowing up in the future and connecting directly with fans.
Like crypto, I think A.I. and blockchain tech will pay royalties in a more transparent way. On the downside, I can see major job displacement, copyright & IP challenges, and a bunch of soulless music being created. I would suggest everyone to embrace A.I. to understand how it works to better prepare ourselves.
