Interview: Ragers burn slow and hot with ‘Raw Footage’

We’re all fools on social media. We engage with only the parts of ourselves we want others to see. But when the black mirrors crack and crumble, we are left with the reality we’ve tried our entire lives to dodge. Judging by hip-hop crew Ragers‘ single “Fools,” an apt takedown of what’s tearing us up, we’re really all at the mercy of our fingertips. “I’m a bitch-ass princess making my own rules,” an unnamed vocalist hisses and spits on the hook, situating the scratched and looped anthem as a chilling reflection of today’s dark world ⎯⎯ or at the very least, our perceptions of it. “Time is my biggest struggle. I have a career in media, and that’s my 9 to 5. I’m also finishing up my degree in French literature, so I’m at school most nights, and then have to either go DJ or work on music. I also spend a lot of time in Paris, and I’m gone a lot. At times, I hate technology because it takes over my entire life, but I am also so dependent on it. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have my phone on me at all times,” determines one band member, who remains faceless.

“It’s become an inside joke with my friends and family ⎯⎯ that I don’t have time to see them because my life is a constant battle of finding enough time to do all the cool stuff I have to do,” he adds.

“Fools” is just the tip of the iceberg of the group’s new record, called Raw Footage, drawing upon fizzy flow and production that’s both glossy and comprised of frazzled, genre-burned edges. From the title cut’s scattered swagger to the velvet surface of “Alright” to the sky-dice of “Starburst,” the record diverges from their previous records, which were considerably more sunny in texture and tone. “The album deals with a lot of darker stuff, so it’s probably our ‘darkest’ album,” he says, citing previous endevours being cemented in Los Angeles, instilling a far more “sunny, summery vibe.” Raw Footage took hold in their brains last fall while the band were out in Paris and later polished in Montreal, sending a “colder and darker” shockwave across the 10 meager songs. “‘Alright’ is the song that represents the spring. It’s a lot more like some of our older material while still sounding very new and fresh.”

Thematically, the record spins and dips “a little bit all over the place. I stepped away from the truffle-dealing character I had come up with as Billy Eff le Chef and let myself explore other themes,” he says. “So, I talk about everything from my suicide attempt to my love of wine.” That exposed honesty is bent and twisted at the album’s very backbone, often feeling intimate and unnerved, even when the lyrics fall off the tongue like liquid drops. “We really wanted to get back on the road, which meant we had to get back in the studio and work on new stuff. I think we also all really missed the feeling of being in the studio and onstage together, and we all had stuff we needed to express.”

Raw Footage isn’t necessarily a loyally-cathartic step, but one steeped in life’s barbarism, mirroring the ravages of everyday life through a hyper-focused hip-hop lens. Such songs as “Skyfall” and “Medicine” are fluid but puncture the brain with delicate insight. Additionally, there is a sense of mood presented through chapped and fractured production choices. The album feels as larger than life as a Kendrick Lamar disc, and that sawing comparison is only the driver to their future.

Below, gain insight into heartbreak, failures and triumphs, relationships in the digital age and lessons learned.

What has been the toughest heartbreak to get over?

A few years ago, I broke up with my girlfriend right before we left for California to go record our album ‘Joshua.’ That breakup triggered feelings in me I wasn’t sure were possible to feel, and it got me pretty close to rock bottom. Since then, I’ve had to deal with these feelings, and it’s been extremely hard. A lot of that hardship has been translated into the lyrics on this new album.

Do you find it difficult to navigate relationships in the digital age?

I think it has good and bad sides. With social media, you kind of become an open book, and people can form an opinion on what kind of person you are just by a glance at your profile. On the other hand, we’re more connected than ever, so you end up meeting people you probably wouldn’t have otherwise. It becomes this dilemma where you have great availability, but you also have to compose with the notions of “real self” and “online self.”

What led to recording “Alright”?

[Another band member] came to me with the beat and a draft of the lyrics. That’s really his song. I think it’s super personal for him, and it’s kind of the song that he had been needing to write for a while to get some sense of closure. We worked on the lyrics a bit, recorded it and then thought it would sound really good with some horns. So, we called up Valaire, and they were down. I think their horn part might be one of the highlights of the album, so we’re super thankful they jumped on that track.

Is the process of bending genres a long one?

Not really, because it’s not necessarily a conscious thing. I don’t really listen to that much hip-hop or funk, but the other guys in the band do. I’m an electronic music DJ, and I come from a background in hardcore punk, so my influences come from there. It becomes really symbiotic in production. We all just sort of bring our different styles to the studio and make it work.

How has art allowed you to process failure and triumph?

If I didn’t have art as an escape mechanism for my emotions, I really don’t believe I would be able to hold it together. My art has become an extension of myself, and it’s how I manage to deal with my success and my failures.

What did you learn through this album?

We definitely became a lot more “professional” with this album. We imposed ourselves a date by which everything had to be done, so we learned to work on a schedule.

Straddling the worlds of pop and hip-hop, do you find yourself making up new rules as you go?

Since those genres aren’t really our background, we have the liberty of just doing whatever we want. I don’t believe the idea of “genres” is relevant in 2018 anyway. Everything has become such a mix of everything else.

How would you reflect on the past five years of your life and career since you started this collaboration?

It’s insane what we were able to achieve. We literally just decided to start this band after being frustrated with our previous endeavors and managed to accomplish outstanding stuff in only five short years, all by ourselves. People can say what they want about us or our music, but they definitely can’t call us lazy, since we’ve proved pretty much everyone, including ourselves, wrong over these past few years.

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