Paperwater Fuses Club Culture with the Duo's Haitian and Liberian Roots

Eddy Samy and Daygee Kwia, the DJ duo behind Miami electronic outfit Paperwater, first met on the football field at Miami Sunset Senior High. The two played the same position and were naturally pitted against each other. However, their rivalry dissolved once Samy started listening to the beats Kwia produced and played for his friends in the lunchroom.

"We'd always kind of like, judge the beats, kind of American Idol style," Samy says.

"A roast table — it was a roast table," Kwia clarifies.

"Yeah, it was a roast table where we would roast his beats," Samy adds.

After going their separate ways for college, the two reunited in 2016 and formed Paperwater. In its earlier iteration, Samy managed while Kwia produced beats with local rapper Mikey Marriott. DJ gigs at intimate locales like the rooftop at 1 Hotel were Samy and Kwia's way of introducing themselves to the local nightlife, hoping the community would embrace them with open arms and fuel collaboration.

"We thought all the DJs would be like, 'Yeah, man, let's all come together and Kum Ba Ya,'" Kwia says. "No, it did not happen like that. It was a competition, like, a nightlife competition we didn't even understand and were oblivious to."

The fierce Miami nightlife molded Paperwater into its current two-piece setup, with Kwia and Samy as the sole active producers. Now, after three album releases under their B.E.M. series and countless singles, the duo is evolving its sound with the upcoming EP Club Paperwater, set to be released on May 5.

Kwia's first trip to his family's native Liberia for his relatives' weddings in early December sparked a flurry of texts between him and Samy. The EP is heavily influenced by the unique beats and rhythms Kwia heard at underground marketplaces in the West African nation. With only slits of light peeking through the covered canopies above and tangles of wire pouring out of CDJ setups, Kwia knew he was seeing and hearing something special.

"[Kwia] sent me a bunch of recordings of him in the markets, and in the markets, there were these DJs that would be playing this sort of like African techno that had a different type of rhythm that isn't traditional to the techno that's based here and in Europe. It has a different feel," Samy explains.
Samy — whose parents immigrated from Haiti when he was 2 years old — was inspired to reflect on the Caribbean beats he had been immersed in at home during childhood. Despite not having the opportunity to return to the island since he first left, Samy recalls feeling like he stepped into Haiti every day as a kid.

"Every time I would get home from school, it's almost like I would go back to Haiti because all you eat is Haitian food, all you talk is Creole, and all your parents listen to is Haitian radio. It's that all day, like you're just consuming it all day, and every Haitian party you go to, it's like the same playlist," Samy says. "The sounds are very distinctive."

One of those distinctive sounds — a synthy Casio piano melody — is weaved into one of the duo's new tracks, "All Alone."

Beyond the inspiration Samy and Kwia drew from their cultural backgrounds, they want Club Paperwater to be an invitation to the new club experience they've created so far and a canvas they hope to grow on with remixes already in the works.

"Club Paperwater is almost literally like us doing club music, but it's also like the members, so everybody that's in our universe, or everyone that we work with," Kwia explains. "It's like if we had an imaginary club or a member's club, this is sonically what it would be like."

Paperwater formed on the principle of bringing dynamism to the stagnant techno music they often heard growing up in Miami's club scene. Samy hopes Club Paperwater builds on that dream.

"I don't know, like, for me, when I hear some techno tracks, they're very soulless. It's very monotonous. The rhythms are the same, and it's not exciting. I don't get inspired by it," Samy says, "So, I wanted to just be like, Well, what would I do? What would keep me in the club?"

Club Paperwater. With Paperwater, Tamae, Young Bootyspoon, Tizza, and M.A.P. 8 p.m. Thursday, May 4, at SkateBird Miami, 533 NE 83rd St., El Portal; skatebirdmiami.com. Tickets cost $12 via shotgun.live.