Following his breakout EP ‘crows,’ Orlando’s fast-rising emo artist rouri404 returned today with a reimagined version of his latest single, “decay” on Red Bull Records. Featuring longtime collaborator Vaeo, the pair call on producer SAY3AM to deliver a phonk remix fit for club rotation. Building on rouri404’s cyber-influenced emo sound, SAY3AM injects frenetic beats and powerful bass, reminiscent of Fred Again’s emotive style. He seamlessly enhances “decay” with added grit and a bit of stutter to the already heavily layered track. The remix feels like a natural evolution to rouri404’s unique production and refusal to be defined by one sound.
On the remix, rouri404 shares, “I often don’t collaborate outside of my close circle of friends, so getting to do a “decay” remix with SAY3AM was a welcoming challenge. After finishing up my EP “crows” I started talks about a potential remix for any song off the EP. We all agreed “decay” would be amazing for a remix & started throwing ideas around, ending up talking about the Phonk scene that has been going up online the last couple of years. After shooting some names back and forth I found a good handful of artists in this scene I really connected with, started talks and landed on SAY3AM. Originally trying to collaborate over text, we decided calling for a couple of days would be a lot easier, during which we got to learn a lot more about each other. Without failure my favorite part of collaboration is just seeing how other people interpret what I say, and making it into their own piece of art.”
About rouri404
Art and the internet are society’s last true equalizers, a refuge for the disadvantaged and dispossessed to take on an alias or avatar, rise above their circumstances and become whoever they want. Indeed, for most of his life, Orlando native Joseph (Joey) Cash thrived in the grids and waveforms of Logic and SoundCloud when more traditional structures failed him – a high school dropout at 16, Joey’s future was clouded by substances and self-doubt. He bounced from one construction gig to another, fired for spending too much time rapping to his coworkers at one site, and nearly bleeding out from a catastrophic accident at another. By the beginning of 2021, Joey realised that he could not half-step his way towards transcendence.
Expanding beyond his early incarnation as a hyperpop artist, Joey took on the name rouri404 and “instantly went way harder than I ever had before,” he recalls. “It was like an overnight switch of just like, oh, I know what I’m doing all of a sudden.” In the process of becoming rouri404, Joey finally became himself.
‘crows’ is rouri404’s second release for Red Bull Records and also the first project of the rest of his life, where he emerges from the oversaturated, online morass of hyperpop, trap-metal and emo into something truly singular. But he’s not lost sight of his origins as both an artist and a fan. The title of crows alludes to Slipknot’s cherished, earliest demos and the haunted Brandon Lee action film of 1994, whose soundtrack – then a novel culture clash between goth, industrial, metal and grunge – reverberates to this very day in rouri404’s music.
As an Orlando native, rouri404 also honours the profound impact of his home state on modern pop, a sonic lineage that encompasses Underoath, Skrillex’s dubstep and metal core roots, and the dirtiest of Dirty South hip-hop. In high school, Joey’s friends booked some of the earliest XXXTentacion shows, where he began to absorb the late artist’s ability to bypass the qualifications and timidity that keeps most “confessional” music feeling safe, the sort of thing you’d hear in a coffee shop. During this formative period, the late Lil Peep’s work became aspirational as rouri404 shifted his vocal approach from “spiritual, lyrical, miracle” rap to a powerfully vulnerable scream-sing. “I think that people resonate with the rawness of my voice, it’s just, emo. And once I get the idea of what I want to say, I’ll just say it all.”
‘crows’ leaves nothing on the table, the realization of a rise that began with the release of “Narcissist,” a song that grew from a SoundCloud loosie to a Top 100 hit in the matter of hours in 2021. “I had only done the hyperpop sound before that, and ‘narcissist’ was more of a 2000s pop-rock song,” he reflects. “And immediately I was like, oh, I can do whatever I want.” Building on 2022’s striking ‘GORE’ EP, rouri404 leans even harder into guitar-driven rock and emo, a showcase for his emerging talents as a lyricist, arranger and executive producer.
The terse, evocative titles of “smile,” “skin,” and “spit” reflect rouri404’s gut-punch approach to songwriting; “for ‘Skin,’ I was just in LA and I was not having a good time in life at that point,” he explains, letting loose an intense freestyle in the same studio where Evanescence and Incubus recorded their shiniest radio rock hits. While ‘crows’ incorporates elements of math-rock, drum-n-bass and EDM, the closing “decay” hints at an even more adventurous future for rouri404; “I feel like there’s just not much like that out there where it’s like somebody screaming over a house beat,” he boasts. “I would never be able to accomplish something like that any other time in my life.”
It’s a coherent, concise work inspired by the duality that comes with creating art in online spaces – how does one reconcile the unlimited capacity for self-expression with the unlimited capacity for self-invention? rouri404 sees artists like the prolific Bones and the perfectionist Daft Punk as his two guardian angels; “I’ve found myself struggling between being mysterious with perfect visuals and perfect aesthetics and the other side of, I want to get as much out as fast as possible.” Yet, as rouri404’s skills and stature escalate, the creative process remains true to his origins as a lost soul with a lifeline to his audience, representing for people like himself – the misunderstood teens, the budding lyricists stuck behind the cash register of a dead end job, the overwhelmed music nerds searching for something permanent in a time where everything feels disposable. ‘crows’ isn’t just the arrival of rouri404; the next generation just might find their inspiration here too.
