Wraithwalker – Representing ATL in the international synthwave scene

“I want to really put Atlanta on the international scene,” Justin “Wraithwalker” Stokes.

Wraithwalker, aka Justin Stokes, is an Atlanta, GA based electronic musician.  After departing from college and playing in a few bands, he has ventured out solo into the synthwave music scene.

The synthwave scene is collection of various forms of electronically produced music that draws heavily from 80’s sonic palettes and culture.  Wraithwalker, although born after the excess of the 80’s has absorbed much of it’s essence through the internet.   These influences can be heard in his new album, Hellscape 2X19.

Hellscape 2×19 is the sophomore entry into his discography.  Featuring 12 original tracks, the album demonstrates a young musician tackling his weaknesses head on.  A vast improvement from his initial forays into the realm of the synth, Hellscape has a mixture of slow ambient tracks, upbeat EDM-style ravers, and all of the trappings of the synthwave genre.

Slickster: What’s going on in Atlanta?
Wraithwalker: Nothing. It’s cold and rainy!

Slickster: How long have you been creating music?
Wraithwalker: I’ve been doing this for about one year. I started in January 2018, but I’ve been working in FL Studio (Fruity Loops) since I was sixteen.

Slickster: What’s the inspiration for Hellscape 2X19?
Wraithwalker: The key idea for Hellscape was to write something that was consistent, clean and listenable. My first album (Spellbound) was a complete mess! It was chaos – unmixed and rough!  What I wanted out of this one was an obviously marketable finished product.

Slickster: What’s your favorite band?
Wraithwalker: It’s such a cop out to say Perturbator, but I’ve been listening to him since 2012 and he’s had such a huge influence on me and my musical direction. Perturbator is my biggest inspiration *but* that’s a close tie with Mega Drive and Deadlife – Everything I know about progression, layering, and sound design I learned from straight-up copying Mega Drive. I honestly think he’s brilliant and I look up to him in so many ways.

Deadlife is a newer act, but he blew up very quickly – and rightfully so. In 2017 I was at a point where I felt synthwave overall had stagnated, like nobody was innovating, and that made me question whether or not it was even worth it getting back into music, just to jump into a genre where only a handful of acts had their own distinct sound, and even fewer among them received any recognition whatsoever. Then Deadlife released “Bionic Chrysalis” and it just blew my mind.

I played the hell out of that album. He proved to me that there was still room to experiment and shake things up within a genre which had become formulaic, and I owe it to him big time. I’ve seen people whine “oh this is just EDM, this isn’t retro at all” but again, that’s part of the problem with synthwave – sure nostalgia can be a focal point of the genre, but yknow, the rose-colored goggles only serve to limit the potential of what you can do with the power of retro synth sounds + modern production software.

Slickster: Oh yeah! Obviously, Perturbator is awesome.  I love how he really keeps the listener guessing on the album New Model.
Wraithwalker: Totally.  If you listen to New Model, in comparison to the rest of his discography, everything up until that point had been a clear and consistent product.  Then, with New Model, he’s completely turned the whole act on it’s head.  Honestly, it was a huge innovation on the genre.

Slickster Magazine: If you could go back in time and give some advice to your younger self, in regards to being creative, what would you say?
Wraithwalker: Do not go to college! I started college when I was sixteen, because I got accepted early. I was so busy then, music had to take a back seat to my studies. Time flies by, and now I have $20,000.00 in debt and my degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on!  I’m kicking myself now thinking,”what if I had stuck to doing music all that time?”  Maybe I should have followed my passion instead of going to school and getting some worthless degree.

Slickster: Where did you go to school?
Wraithwalker: Mercer University in Macon, GA.

Slickster: Track six on Hellscape 2×19 is Bleed, and is by a long shot, my favorite on the album.  It’s got the badass soundbite with Jessie Ventura from the movie Predator, then it launches into a super heavy bass and drum groove.  Can you talk about how you developed that track and your inspiration for it?

Wraithwalker: I’m glad you asked about this track!  I was having a bad day at work, and all of sudden the main riff for Bleed popped into my head.  As soon as I got home, I laid out the basic structure of the track and it all fell into place perfectly!   Once I listened to the loop over and over, I started to hear that short sample (“I ain’t got time to bleed,” Jesse Ventura from The Predator – 1986) in the back of my head.

Bleed is influenced by sci-fi and shooters and all that. Of course the machismo and brutality of Predator accompanies the track nicely, but I wanted to capture that essence of being alone, trapped, anxious, angry, desperate, in a very violent “kill or be killed” type of situation with no way out.

Slickster: What is it about the original Predator movie that keeps a truly hardcore, dedicated fanbase loving that movie?

Wraithwalker: It’s just a brutal movie!  It’s all these macho-dudebros, commandos, and they are shooting and blowing stuff up – but then they all die and Arnold Schwarzenegger is left on his own to battle the F’ING PREDATOR!  It’s the whole man vs. the unknown theme.   The Predator isn’t a god nessarcaily, but it is unknown and much, much more powerful than he is (Schwarzenegger, “Dutch”).  Yet somehow, Schwarzenegger manages to overcome that and kill it.

Slickster: Did you see the Predator remake?
Wraithwalker: No I didn’t.  The last film I watched in the theater was Blade Runner 2049.

Slickster: That movie also had another epic electronic music score in part by Hans Zimmer.  Do you care to weigh in on the differences between the OG score by Vangelis in comparison to Zimmer’s new approach?
Wraithwalker: I love the original Vangelis score, but it feels kinda dated now.  But the original Blade Runner feels pretty dated now too.  It’s 2019 now, which is the year the original Blade Runner took place. I feel that 2049 is the logical continuation of that.   So, the new movie is more modern and the soundtrack reflects that.  I saw it iMAX and felt every bass hit. I love the way Zimmer can slowly build ambiance and stack layers and layers of sounds on top of each other.

Slickster: Hellscape 2×19 has a mix of some faster tempo tracks and some slower ones. The upbeat music seems to work well as a companion to athletic activities.  Was this your intention? Are you athletic and if so, what is/are your sports of choice? 
Wraithwalker: No!  (Laughs) I am probably the least athletic person ever!  I go hiking around my neighborhood sometimes.