LET'S MEET AT RIORAVE

From one viral hit to the next, Riovaz’s sonic experimentation is exciting and demands all attention. While no two songs sound the same, you automatically know when it’s a Riovaz song, and that's the point. Leading up to his tour, office got the chance to talk to the artist and catch a glimpse of what Riorave is all about.

Continue reading below for an exclusive interview.

How are you today? What have you been up to?

I just woke up like an hour ago. Honestly, I just ate my first meal of the day. My day is really just starting right now.

What did you have?

It's like this Ecuadorian dish where I'm from. It's called bolon– like plantain in one ball. It's really fire.

So you're off to LA, I'm assuming for the start of your tour, right?

Yeah, Riorave, sold out LA show. First LA show. It's gonna be dope.

And what are your thoughts and feelings behind the tour? Because it's your first headlining one, right?

I'm really hyped. I love performing. Now it's gonna be my own show and I really want to run it the way I have envisioned in my head for years. So I can't wait to see all of this that we've been prepping for come to life. And my fans have been really eager to come to this LA show, like resell tickets for almost $300. They're fucking hype.

What do you kind of have envisioned for your own shows?

I just imagine my fans really raving or jumping on stage and I'm throwing them off stage. I just want some chaos because that's what I really want to create in my dance world that I'm trying to build. Just like some beautiful, chaotic moment.

Sick. No, it'll be super fun. I feel like a lot of people talk about ‘Prom Nights’ being your viral hit back a couple years ago, but listening to more of your stuff that's been coming out now I feel like you can really see the progression of your sound. Like finding yourself as an artist, you know. But with Riorave, what is it about rave culture that you find inspiring, and what would you categorize Riorave as?

I love the rave culture because it's a sense of comfortability, that when you go to rave, you can really just be yourself. You can dress the way you want and people just accept you for who you are. And I really, really find a lot of comfortability in that because it's hard to feel that comfortable in any other place in the world, because you're always constantly being judged. So that's what really takes me for the rave culture- and also, the music is just hard hitting. I love that shit. It's just like a perfect world to me and I just want to create. I just really want to build that with my own music.

Has there been a time where you would say that maybe you weren't feeling as completely accepted?

Yeah, like growing up. I've definitely felt that in school. I went to school in white suburbia, sorta. Just like jocks and football and I wasn't really fucking with that. I was constantly called weird for not liking it, which never made sense to me. So, music and the people I've met definitely made me feel more accepted. I've made a lot of friends online more than I've made in real life.

You've also mentioned a couple of times that phrase "detaching from reality." Where would you say that your mind goes when you're detaching from reality?

I think about the future a lot. Sometimes it's actual detachment, like dissociation. I'll be watching my life go as if it's a movie and it's really weird. But I just been thinking about the future and that's where my mind wanders off to.

Is it sort of like an excited future and an anxious future because I know a lot of time when you think about the future you can fall into those anxious sort of tendencies.

It's kind of both. Like, I'm really excited about new music and the future of the shows, but that shit comes with a lot of fear. Because I don't know what's actually going to happen. So you get all these thoughts, you don't really know what's happening.

Would you say those sorts of thoughts propel you to continue to do what you do?

Yeah, because I really want to find out what's gonna happen in the end. So I just keep going.

Cool. Yeah, I'm excited to see the aftermath of the show. But yeah, that's kind of funny because I was reading some of your Tweets and somebody asked "What happens after Riorave?" and you talked about playing PS2.

Dude, I just bought one. It's so fun. That's like a whole different world.

Is that where your mind goes when you detach from reality?

Exactly, my mind goes into the PS2– that shit is hard. I fuck with it.

What was your favorite game?

It was these WWE wrestling games. Like Smackdown vs Raw in 2007. But I just got GTA San Andreas for the first time. I never played that game before. Or I'm playing Tony Hawk American Wasteland, something like that. That shit was crazy.

You also started making music at 13. So what were some of those influences and reasons why you chose to start writing music at 13?

I've always been infatuated with music because of my upbringing. My parents loved music, my sister was a singer, and my brother would make beats on FL Studio, and that's the program I use now. My influences that made me start making music was like Famous Dex, Playboy Carti, this was like 2016. And like, Nebu Kiniza is like that guy who made Gassed Up shawty- those were my influences at the time, because I was rapping and singing over these Famous Dex, Playboy Carti type beats. And that was off the Apple headphones. Good times.

So what would you say was the progression to the sound that you're making now? Like, how did you come from Playboy Carti, and Famous Dex to your music, because they're sort of different…

It's just like what I'm listening to at the time. I started making dance music in the summer of 2021 and I heard like, these artists making some dance tracks, and I was really fucking with it. That's when I really wanted to take my singing from here to over here. So I thought my singing over that would be perfect and then I made my first dance song called "Leaving You." And from then on I've just been making dance music.

When would you say was sort of a time where you felt like that tide turning to you being able to go on this headlining tour by yourself?

That was like, beginning of 2022 when I went to Paris for my song, "God Save the Girl" and I did a music video for that. I think that was when I really realized I could really create and make an impact with this type of music. That was really the turning point. Definitely going to Paris and then going right back to school because I was still a senior at the time.

And when you came back to school, how were your classmates reacting?

I came back from Paris on Sunday night, and then I had to go to sleep to go to school that same Monday. And then when I came back I told them I went to Paris, but I felt like they didn't believe me. They just didn't believe what I was doing because I go to school with them, like I grew up with them. It didn't click in their head until after I graduated.

How would you say that social media and being online has shaped you and your music?

I think it saved me in a good way because I've met a lot of cool people that have impacts on my music and my journey. I met the best people on the internet.

So you have an EP that'll finally be released probably a little bit before this interview comes out. So how is this EP different from past projects? And what reactions from fans do you hope to receive?

I hope that they don't get it at the first listen, I want them to get it at the 10th listen or so. This EP is like a journey. It's an arc of who I am as an artist and these different genres that I spread across this EP. It's an introduction to the fans and to let them know what I'm trying to build and who I am as an artist, because people are still confused on who I am as an artist. They'd be asking, what's my genre? Or like, what's my style or whatever. So, this EP could really let them know what I'm really trying to build.

So people are trying to put you in a box? I'd say there's no real sort of category for you and the sky's the limit with you and your music.

When people ask me for my genre, I just say my name. I'm forever evolving so I wouldn't box myself into anything.

No, that's really refreshing to hear because I feel like sometimes in the industry, you do one thing, and you feel like you have to stick to it.

I feel like that's just boring. As an artist, I'd get really bored if I was making dance music for the rest of my life. I just can't imagine that.

So what would you say are your writing processes when you get into the studio?

I find a beat first usually on YouTube, or my producer friends. I just listen to the beat and if I fuck with, I'll load it up onto whatever I'm recording on and then freestyle it in a way. I'll have my mind gone, say these random words, and see whatever fits. Then I just build off that. That's what I've been doing for all my songs. I go into the studio, not knowing what song I'll make and it just kind of just happens.

Would you ever consider delving into making songs in Spanish?

Yeah, I have a Spanish cover on my soundcloud on my archive. It's that one song, “Lamento Boliviano”- it's like a classic song. I sang it in Spanish and my fans were fucking with it. They didn't even know I spoke Spanish. They were like, "Riovaz is Hispanic, like what?" But yeah, I want to tap into the Latin American side for sure cuz they have some fire music too, bro. I'm trying to make some cumbia, I'm trying to make anything dude. I need help from my mom, though, for that proper Spanish.

I feel like you are breaking the norm by diving into all these different areas of what can be deemed as a musician. How would you say that you break the norm?

I don't know. I really just am myself. My EP is actually called "Disturb the Norm," which is funny you say norm. But I don't think I'm actively trying to disturb the norm, I'm just trying to be myself and not be like any other artists on my label or like any artists in the underground. I feel like everybody follows these certain formulas. The formula I do and how I present myself online, or like how I post is just by trusting myself with what I feel is right. I don't like to be on schedule with anything, so I just do what feels right. I feel like that's kind of disturbing the norm, because people are just on schedule and everything is pre-planned and shit.

If you had to say one thing to the people who doubted you growing up or didn't believe in your music, what would you tell them?

I'd honestly just laugh in their face because I've dealt with so much shit like that. I'd just say, "Bro, like stop talking." People were so worried about what I was doing instead of themselves just because nobody was making music in my town, or whatever. So just worry about what you got going on because if you fuck with the next person, they're gonna be bigger than you. Trust, you hate on someone– they're gonna be bigger than you. I've seen too many stories like that.

What would you say is your goal for this year?

My goal is honestly is to get people familiar. I also want to get my flowers this year. I feel like "I Feel Fantastic" was one of the first, after Pink Pantheress, was one of the first house songs that really took TikTok by storm because that shit was everywhere. I feel like a lot of people overlooked that. So I think this year I want to get my flowers for what I did, because a lot of people overlooked that.

It'll happen for sure! Is there anything else that you wanted to mention?

I have a single out this Friday, "U Neva." That song has been in the works for a year because I never finished it.