Interviewing Limousine, the mastermind behind ‘Wrestling Wave’

Gracing the scene roughly a month ago, on April 5, multifaceted producer and creative mind Limousine released “Wrestling Wave 2,” a follow-up to his debut album from 2016. Wrestling aficionados and casual fans alike may find its blending of vaporwave aesthetics with iconic WWE moments to be enjoyable, as I certainly have. I was compelled to reach out to the artist for an email interview and he happily obliged. Let’s look into this new project.

“My Way” samples sections of the same song by Limp Bizkit, once used as the theme song of Wrestlemania X-Seven — when the company was still known as the WWF. Limousine’s transformation of the song has a slow pace and draws out the vocal passages, acting as a sort of prelude for what’s to come. “These Walls,” not to be confused with the Kendrick cut, is an electrifying beginning with tons of reverb and abrasive acoustics. Thirty seconds in, the vocals of an announcer are heard, likely making an entrance for Santino Marella, former U.S. Champion in 2012. The second half slows to a crawl, maintaining its sinister nature the whole way through.

The following few cuts are more recognizably vaporwave, which is an electronic-based music genre with many sub-genres. It often implements nostalgic elements from television, shopping malls and internet culture, with an overall emphasis on viewing consumerism through the lens of years past. 

The track “Leaving the Building,” with DJ Lil $mokeshop, features a groovy instrumental and an infectious vocal loop overlaid on a wrestler about to fight “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

“All-American” lives up to its namesake, as its guitar riffs feel like they have the power to shatter the ceiling of sound. “Staples Center” is also a highlight for the record, sampling Kanye West’s “Paranoid” and a bombastic speech made by The Rock. Credit to Limousine for combining the two pieces of media so seamlessly that it sounds as if they actually were co-occurring. Additionally, the boosted low-end adds to the magnitude of it all and makes for a banger. 

“Leave the Light On For Man” echoes lo-fi hip-hop influence with the help of producer Wizard of Loneliness. The tamer instrumental is juxtaposed by impassioned words made during a Hell in the Cell match. “Wembley” is a breakcore-inspired cut that begins with Vince McMahon introducing Mike Tyson, before “Stone Cold” Steve Austin claims he wants “a piece of Mike Tyson’s ass.” When the fight commences, the instrumental goes crazy, and while the two legends could have never fought surrounded by such digital music, it makes for an energetic soundscape.

“Heartbreak Hotel Hotline” has a tinge of jazz like Limousine’s other albums, such as “Omega Mall X,” of which I’m quite fond of. This song and the outro track, “Harddrive Graveyard,” are themed around The Undertaker, the latter of which includes his motto, “Taking souls and digging holes.” A cheering crowd fades into a supercut of each song called “Wrestling Wave 2 Live at The Staples Center Los Angeles,” at least on the streaming version, where extra crowd cheering is incorporated for a hyper-realistic experience since the venue is never silent.

Relistening to the album to write this review, I realized the wrestling clips are low in the mix, and this works to its benefit. The artwork, song titles and listed features are based on wrestling, so the music itself predominates while the themes are supplementary, though they are all intertwined. Either way, it makes for a unique sound that I will gladly wait to hear developed even more!

Rating: 4/5

Equally unique was the opportunity to talk with the producer himself, who went above and beyond in elaborating on how his music career came to fruition and everything else he’s been working on. Responses have been edited for clarity.

James: Did you have any prior experience producing before the first “Wrestling Wave” project, or was there a level of spontaneity to it all once you fused wrestling with vaporwave?

Limousine: I started making music at a super young age and picked up the guitar at thirteen years old. I actually went to school for sound engineering at Berkley back in around 2011 to really learn the basics of Ableton and music theory. I’d been in bands in the past during high school but decided to do the Limousine project back in 2015. The Wrestling Wave idea came up kind of by accident while working at an old job. I was listening to a vapor mix and accidentally opened a wrestling video in a second tab and everything clicked from there organically. The project got a lot of attention right away and I just kept it rolling from there.

J: Being eight years since your first “Wrestling Wave” project, how have you honed your craft? How do you see your music changing within the next eight years?

L: I would say I went full-on with vaporwave once the first Wrestling Wave album came out. I definitely felt motivated by the messages I would receive from fellow wrestling fans around the world. Since then, I really started to work heavily on making mallsoft music, which was heavily influenced by Cat System Corp. 

The future is an interesting question. I would like to continue, but at times, I feel that vaporwave is dying and this demotivates me. I plan to release two more mallsoft LPs this year hopefully, my next one coming out on Business Casual this August. I do think I will make another Wrestling Wave album, as I kind of hinted on the Bandcamp page, but time will tell, to be honest.

J: Your creative process is fascinating, and it undeniably enriches the immersion when listening to your music, intertwining vaporwave with audio footage of California malls in “Omega Mall X,” or nature sounds on “Dusty Roads.” On your Bandcamp page, you described producing the Wrestling Wave projects in a dissociative state, as if your body was a vessel that was creating something otherworldly. Tell me more about that.

L: I very much appreciate the compliment! I am fascinated by field recordings, and the sound around us, the ambience we take for granted, moments not used. With my mallsoft albums, I try creating a space to visit aurally; I want you to see, feel and smell things, not just hear. I am always honing this technique, but it’s hard, as not many other producers try this method.

Wrestling Wave 2 was made very quickly, within a couple of weeks. I actually scrapped the original versions twice and ended up with the third revision, which was released. I was going to originally go with a similar sound to the original but decided to go with the Attitude Era theming instead, which is more of my time, to be honest. Overall, I am happy with what came out in the end, and feel it does represent me and my favorite fighters at the time. But production-wise, this thing was very easy for me to complete as far as roadmap and completion.

J: Bandcamp and streaming platforms like Spotify are going through growing pains, as Bandcamp has been acquired twice in the past two years, while Spotify is facing scrutiny for not supporting artists enough. From an artist’s perspective, do the direct lines of support found on Bandcamp outweigh the exposure gained from streaming services, or are they equally important?

L: Bandcamp sadly feels like it may be near extinct. I get zero support from Bandcamp now, and tape sales have slowed. Spotify supplies me with a check each month for my streams, which Bandcamp just pockets. Spotify also added me to their vaporwave curated playlist, which completely changed things for me back in July 2023. It was my second time being added, but the financial incentive was extremely motivating. I took a three-year break from releasing anything between 2020 and 2023, but I am very happy I made the comeback, as I have met so many great people in just the last two years.

J: With references to Run the Jewels and Kanye West in your song titles, along with West’s “Paranoid” being sampled in a song off your new record, do you have any particular influences or favorite artists at the moment?

L: I am very much a fan of all music really, definitely a bit of a Kanye fan because I feel he is one of the rare artists left that still contains some mystery. I am very much a fan of hip-hop music, and sampled music in general. Any plunderphonics in music has my attention, as I am a very big record collector and have been for about seventeen years now. Some larger influences would be MF Doom, J Dilla, Madlib, as well as my contemporaries like Luxury Elite, Cat System Corp, Waterfront Dining, etc.

J: I saw there was a collectible card slab themed around “Skymall” that was available at a vaporwave event in New York City. Being a collector myself, I must ask if you collect cards or other collectibles, and if not, what other media do you enjoy outside of music?

L: Yes, I am actually a professional trading card grader for Professional Sports Authenticator. I have been with the company for a number of years now and find it very fulfilling. I am a big collector at heart and a nerd, so this job was essentially made for me! I also played a lot of sports growing up, so it’s up my alley. I collect a lot of wrestling, UFC, Pokemon, animation and sports cards.

J: I appreciate the efforts of you and other vaporwave artists to expand the genre beyond the internet, with shows that connect the community and physical media that further ground the movement in reality. Also being a record collector, owning an album fosters new levels of attachment to the music, and social gatherings based on a shared interest are obviously great. Why do you think it’s important to own music or experience it with others?

L: You know, when I first released Wrestling Wave, it got some attention, but it really did not blow up until I made tapes for the album. Then, it turned legendary, because it sold out so fast, and I came out with like six different variations of the tape. I am also hyped that I can live in someone’s collection when they buy a tape from me. It’s like a little piece of me has been spread across this entire planet.