RY!UKA is a producer of dark experimental rap music. We had a chat with the man himself about the project, his new single 'RAILS' and his upcoming EP 'FEELINGS ARE TEMPORARY'. Enjoy!
Greetings RY!UKA! There’s a lot of mystique surrounding the project and your persona. We’re interested in hearing the origins of how the project started?
My project "FEELINGS ARE TEMPORARY" started with the song RAILS - it has a small story behind it. In my personal life I'm kind of in a bad situation - suffering from depression due to a break-up of a two-year relationship. After a suicide attempt while being drunk waiting on the rails for the train, I put all of my emotions into the making of RAILS, the song where I "invented" my new rap-style. At first it was not meant to be released on my RY!UKA profile because usually on my songs I use the deep voice on moody drift-phonk beats. But my friends liked it, so I decided to give it a chance and started working on a whole EP.
There’s many layers to your music, we hear elements of phonk, dark-rap and trap all blended nicely to create a darkly aggressive sound. What drew you to these sounds and this style of music?
Whenever I make a beat or write the song lyrics to a beat, I unintentionally tend to bring up the dark sound & write deep lyrics. I guess it's because I mostly listen to all those genres you mentioned. It's just the style I adore & want to reproduce!
Are there any artists in particular that inspire you?
My biggest inspiration are $uicideboy$. I've been listening to their music for 6 years, since I was 13 - I know every song and most of the lyrics to em. Other big inspirations are Lil Peep, Freddie Dredd, BONES and Ghostemane. Also a big fan of all of them for years now.
You produce your own beats, talk us through your writing/production process?
As I mentioned before, I take most of the motivation from my inspirations and genres I listen to. On good days I feel it in my blood and start working on something which comes out real listenable. On other days I'm not able to do anything good. I guess that's what every artist gotta fight with!
But all in all I do it like:
I. Find motivation II. Open up my DAW III. Build Melodies IV. Add Drums & 808s V. Make a Structure VI. Write lyrics out of my head VII. Record VIII. Mix as far as I can
Your recent single ‘RAILS’ hits hard. The beat is both fierce and melancholic and compliments the mood of the lyrics. What inspired the themes of the song and lyrics?
Thank you very much! While making the beat I was pretty zoned out hungover from the day before. But what I remember is - I immediately loved the sample and just had to use it. The rest came all from itself.
Any plans to take RY!UKA beyond the studio and into a live setting?
I'd prefer staying anonymous for now, since i'm working a job which I still haven't told about my hobby. But if I had a real breakthrough with my music - like about hundred thousands of fans I would love to have shows.
Finally, are there any artists that you wanna shout out for our readers to check out?
6COV is the only featured artist on my EP, big shouts out to him! And if you somehow stumbled across my music and you like it, and don't listen to $uicideboy$ yet, try it!
RY!UKA's EP 'FEELINGS ARE TEMPORARY releases February 4th.
Follow RY!UKA on Instagram.
Follow RY!UKA on Spotify.
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