LAPA
LAPA is a signalwave project that started in 2025, using mostly Argentinian samples, some rough production techniques and sociopolitical views in almost everything.
Pool Plants: What is your personal history with Argentinian music? Who are your favorite Argentinian musicians or bands? What kind of non-Argentinian music did you listen to growing up?
LAPA: It’s all my father’s fault (jaja). Since I was a little child he made me listen to some of his stuff on cassettes and cds he had at the time. He is fan of some of the most well-known musicians in Argentina like Charly García, Soda Stereo, Sui Géneris and stuff like that. He isn’t a big connoisseur of Argentinian music, but he related a lot with the rock acts that appeared when he was young, as it was the only music that got played on radio and the only things anyone could buy at the time. So he got me into all these famous rock stars from Argentina which I listened to at a very young age, and as I grew older I became highly curious about music and discovered a lot of other stuff. But even now there’s a HUGE quantity of artists I never listened to yet.
As for non-Argentinian music, once again blame my dad: he says when I was 3 I asked him to put a Deep Purple cassette over and over again (jaja). Then in my teens I discovered The Cure and the first U2 albums and post-punk blew my mind, along with Pink Floyd and other well-known things. I became an explorer of music later, when I could get some wifi (jajaja (my own voyage through metal deserve a whole page jaja)).
P: How were you first introduced to vaporwave music and how did you get your start in the vaporwave scene? How did you come up with your artist name? What do you like in the current vaporwave scene?
L: It might be around 2014 or 2016 when I listened some songs from Floral Shoppe through Nahuelsat. Don’t judge, but I truly hated it (jajaja), I couldn’t get it at the time. Searching for “vaporwave” on YouTube, at least in that particular moment, didn’t help either because everything seemed to be lame edits of very well-known ‘80’s songs, like just pitched down and the infamous ‘slowed and reverbed’ thing, like something very cheap without any other purpose but to make a bizarre meme. But then, even when I felt it like a bad joke and sometimes it made me feel kinda nauseous, there was something that was calling for my attention. Eventually Nahuelsat found about Saint Pepsi’s Hit Vibes, then future funk, and it was a one way path without end. You gotta know, Nahuelsat and me are friends from a long time. We both live in San Juan, maybe not real close but we try to see each other very often and we talk about music a LOT so we share a lot of music too.
So, after that failed first experience, future funk was the real starting point of my unending journey on vaporwave. I listened to a lot of future funk mixes on YouTube at my job, but then some situations there changed and workplace became a lonely and boring one. The job suddenly got better but not exactly my feelings of loneliness and strangeness, so future funk wasn’t enough. Mallsoft entered the chat, and that was a BIG change for me. The more I listened, the more I got hooked on mallsoft. YouTube algorithms started recommending signalwave and VHS Pop mixes, which at first I didn’t get. Not exactly the same reaction like classic vapor (jaja), but I wasn’t a fan. Can’t remember how, but I found International Telecom and quickly became a fan without knowing that was signalwave. Then I found S.N.R.T.M.’s first album and Mom & Dad’s Computer’s TCR-4 alias, and I completely signed for it. All those experiences were only as a listener and a music fan, but over the years I dreamed of making a mallsoft album, even writing a list of possible samples I still have on my phone. At the end of 2024, I can’t remember how or why, but I decided to make signalwave as I felt it easier to make and closer to what I do (I’m a journalist IRL, so everything with radio and TV samples are GOOD to me jajaja).
Why ‘LAPA’? Nahuelsat suggested it: is the name of an old airline company from Argentina that went broke 4 years after being involved in the worst plane “““““accident””””” of the country. The company was sick from bad capitalist practices and a lot of people died in a horrible crash because of it, so the name ‘LAPA’ means the worst side of capitalism here. At first it was a shocking concept for me in my ‘almost mallsoft’ phase, but the more I thought of it the more it seemed to be a strong option. It’s Argentinian, it’s a short and kind of memorable name, and it represents something very political. So it stayed.
As per what I like in the vaporwave scene: there’s a lot of communities I don’t know about at all, but it’s an unstoppable force of creation and I love it. And the Signalwave community is one of the best, supportive and emotionally positive and realistic places I’ve found so far. It really fueled my work, from the literal support to just see so many talented people do beautiful things and listen to all those stuff.
P: When making vaporwave, how much do you draw on Argentinian music and influences? Have you made albums that are about Argentina in any particular way? Do you think there is anything unique about Vaporwave from Argentina?
L: LAPA is intentionally an almost 100% Argentinian sample-based project, except for “Lenguaje Extranjero” which is, as the name suggests, international samples. It is a sort of mission, mostly because I feel that, while isn’t something bad at all, there’s a lot of albums that rely a lot on japanese samples and culture overall. Not a nationalistic point of view at all (I completely despise all forms of nationalism and fascism, by the way), but it feels like playing safe, and even at some point like cultural appropriation. And there is a big, huge, wide world out there! Why not look for something else that you can also relate to? I mean, it’s not like all Argentinian music represents me. But they DO represent a lot of things that I want to say with LAPA about my local society, my local culture, and my regional history. Think about LAPA as a window to certain aspects of how is to live here, of course through my eyes, but in the same way as having an idea of how is to visit Morocco while listening to S.N.R.T.M. or Hungary with some M1Televízío stuff. So yes, I take a lot of Argentinian stuff in mostly what I do Except for literally 3 tracks: 2 on the Café album and one in the Miniaventuras. In every case because it suited a lot, specially on the Café for concept and context reasons.
About ‘particular ways’: well, first three releases must be like a method trilogy (jaja). I was so amateur then (not like I’m an expert now but I know some more things than a year before) and did a lot of things in what I call the “LAPA method” (patent pending jaja), but then every album has its own way of making as it suited for a concept. Miniaventuras is 2000-based so I had to do something more refined and made it almost entirely on FL Studio. LU4ZS Marambio is about the amateur radio on the Antarctic base of Marambio so it had to sound a lot more broken and raw. Café is about the last dictatorship and it has a truly raw sound and a lot of noise to make an unnerving feeling about the whole situation. Every album has a method based on particular reasons.
About Argentinian vaporwave, I really don’t know much of this national scene. I mean, I listened some things but it was a long time ago and it doesn’t sound very distinct to other stuff of other countries, but again, it was a looooong time ago and maybe those projects evolved. But in some ways that I cannot precisely say I feel a level of commitment in Argentinian producers, like my pals in Argentum Quorum, which is something I’m very proud of them. Like, when an Argentinian person decides to go into vaporwave, it’s probably going to be on full mode, or coronación de gloria mode (laughs in Argentina flag).
P: Have you worked with other Argentinian musicians or artists, either locally or nationally? How about people in other countries in South or Central America?
L: By now I just made a collab album with Nahuelsat, Argentina, which is one of the things I’m most proud of what I did so far. Also an EP with him again for Halloween (which was a funny thing because I was in his home and suddenly said ‘let’s make some music’ and in a couple of hours it came along), and then the first EP by the collective Argentum Quorum with him and East Access, before Ishiiburidai came into our team. With him on board we made 2 or 3 tracks for compilations so far, but we’re currently planning our first LP as a group. Nahuelsat is from my province San Juan, so there’s the local work; East Access is from Mendoza (literally our neighbour), and Ishii is from Buenos Aires, so that covers the national work. I haven’t contacted people on a continental level yet, but I would love to.
P: Do you think you are able to connect easily with the American or European vaporwave scenes despite the geographical distance?
L: Do you mean ‘American’ as ‘US’? Because to me ‘American’ means from the América continent (jaja), so I have to say: it’s something cool to find things quite relatable in América. Countries like Chile and México have a lot of artists where I found projects with music or methods I can relate. Shoutout to Dream Industries, who’s from Perú. As per US and European projects, it’s something I feel with the rest of the music I listen to. Most of my taste comes from England, for example, so it’s not like I find those places as strange in terms of vapor. There’s one thing I said before, that I would like to hear more things from US and Europe that uses local music instead of relying that much on Japanese samples. Again, it’s not like it’s a crime, but come on, you’ve got a LOT of music you can use and make everyone feel the same way you feel when you turn on the radio in your car, so why not?
P: What is one thing you would like to see happen with vaporwave in Argentina or vaporwave in general? How do you think the vaporwave scene in Argentina could grow?
L: First of all, I would like to see more projects in genres like mallsoft, signalwave, slushwave (even when I’m not a slush person) and more, and not just classic vapor or future funk which are always more popular. Nothing against it of course, it’s just I feel the same as with the majority of Argentinian music: we tend to stay in comfort zones, like a “hippie state of mind” approach to every genre that ever goes to mainstream. If we do any kind of rock, it’s mostly what we called ‘rock barrial’ in the ‘90s; if we go metal, it’s a generic type of metal; if we go pop or electronic, it’s mostly danceable but inoffensive. Not like I want to offend people, but I do want something that can disturb you and make you dance, jump, get angry or happy or sad like NOTHING in your life before. I mean, there’s a lot of acts that actually do that, but not exactly the majority in national mainstream. And what I’ve heard so far of national vapor goes that way, mostly on a safe route. I’m not exactly the most dangerous act in local vaporwave of course, but I want to see more thought into it, not just grab a song and put it in a different tone and tempo with tons of reverb and nothing else.
About growth: I would like to see more spaces for vapor projects on places like facebook groups or discord. Then, there’s a thing that has to be addressed: NO FASCISTS ALLOWED AT FUCKING ALL. As we’re in a mostly internet based genre, it is quite easy to find horrible people around, and Argentina had always horrible people that hates everything because of stupidity. It’s a historical issue, and sadly the last decade and a half of governments here have created a lot of shitty idiots by indulging in corruption while saying they were defending the poor and diversity, or simply following the ABCs of conservative bullshit. This whole situation soon translated to the internet here, so vaporwave has horrible people too. Does Argentinian vaporwave wants to grow? LET’S GET RID OF THIS ASSHOLES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, not a single inch of space for haters of life. No healthy growth can happen with people like these.
You can find LAPA's music on Bandcamp and YouTube and with Argentum Quorum on Bandcamp. You can follow him on X.
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