Meet Akash Gururaja

Today we’d like to introduce you to Akash Gururaja. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Hip hop/R&B duo Gold Revere, Akash Gururaja, and Ian Crumley started making music in Ian’s basement in 2017 before making a major splash on the scene in 2020 with their viral track “Goldfish Crackers.” What started as an experimental summer project in their hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa quickly gained traction thanks to the duo’s vibey mix of hip hop and R&B influence, classical training in piano, violin, and vocals, a knack for staying on the pulse of social media trends, and Ian’s production acumen matched by Akash’s lyrical intuition.

After releasing three DIY EPs and close to a dozen singles, the duo, college freshmen at the time, came out with their single “Goldfish Crackers.” The infectiously quirky ear candy made of Ian’s whistle meets-country-trap hip-hop beat and Akash’s playful lyrics struck a nerve on TikTok where the associated #GoldfishDance began trending. Eventually, the phenomena drew the attention of Pepperidge Farms who went on to create an official Goldfish Crackers TikTok account dedicated entirely to a stop-motion Goldfish character performing the animated dance tutorial. The song’s success caught the interest of Sony Arista who subsequently signed the duo. Gold Revere released their Lavender EP in December of 2021 with the support of Arista, riding the trends again to make the songs Lavender and Alibi both viral hits on TikTok.

Ian and Akash first met in the 9th grade choir and quickly became close friends and performed together throughout high school in show choir, all-state choir, school musicals, orchestra, and the like. Both have grown up in diverse musical households – Ian’s mother was a former opera singer, his father a professional drummer in a jazz band, while Akash was raised on Indian music and started piano lessons at age four and violin at age nine – Gold Revere boasts a deeply complex musicality. Their shared musical lexicon and approachable, goofy personalities make the duo an
alluring anomaly. Intrigued by intricate song structure and genre fluidity, taking notes from acts like Tyler The Creator, Kanye West, and Jacob Collier, Gold Revere finds their niche with an impressively unique sound. “We want to make music with meaning that sounds great and is fun,” says the duo. “Using innovative sampling, we’d like to keep expanding and pulling in different genres to appeal to the widest variety of people.”

Ian and Akash now graduated from college (Iowa State and Vanderbilt respectively), continue to make music remotely, sending tracks back and forth, and recording in their makeshift studios. “I make a beat then send it to Akash,” says Ian. “I start writing lyrics and we go from there,” says Akash. Since the acclaim of their Lavender EP, they have been releasing singles independently and received various Spotify editorial placements. Their most recent project, released on New Year’s Day 2024 is titled “4 On The Floor” and contains four house-inspired pop songs. A departure from their normal releases, Gold Revere’s new EP has already received praise from fans and highlights their spontaneity, musical width, and creativity.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Making music remotely for the last 5 years has been challenging. We have to find new ways to stay creative and keep up with the content and branding side of music.

Ups and downs of streaming and social media… our growth has not been linear and we have grown and shrunk in terms of audience… staying consistent with releases and focusing on musical growth brings more fulfillment than focusing on numbers.

How do you think about luck?
We have had great luck with success on social media, many of our videos have received the viral attention every artist looks for, leading to our songs with millions of streams.

Our “height” came just before the pandemic and many of our deals with Pepperidge farms and rollout strategies with our label were postponed and put aside due to the uncertain nature of the Covid landscape.

Contact Info:

• Website: gold-revere.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldrevere/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goldrevere/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoldRevere
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GoldRevere
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/goldrevere
• Other: linktr.ee/goldrevere

Image Credits
Tommy Grissel