David 
redwater first piqued my interest through a few tracks he released with the on-campus hip-hop collective Hideout. This past spring, he collaborated with Hideout on their KEEPSAKES mixtape. KEEPSAKES is a fantastic mixtape that highlights a wide variety of talented artists in the Champaign area. One of my favorite songs on the mixtape was redwater’s song “BROKEN JUMPER,” a collaboration with EL!JAH, Yxnas, and sxre, a track that I found myself playing on repeat when the mixtape first came out. His verse on “BROKEN JUMPER” highlights his vocal versatility while playing off the creative production of sxre. After the release of KEEPSAKES, redwater was a name that came up frequently in conversations I had with others who followed Champaign’s music scene. At a recent show at Urbana’s Mirror venue, I ran into the artist while with my colleague Jon. We struck up a conversation with him and one of his frequent collaborators, Knomada, a talented keyboardist. During our conversation, redwater realized that we had missed his set and offered to perform one of his songs for us, an offer we were delighted to accept. He serenaded us with his song “locust” as we sat outside The Mirror, bobbing our heads, stunned by his generosity. This past week we sat down with redwater and were able to gain insight about his creative process, his musical influences, and his new album Fahrenheit.
redwater first started recording music when he was a teenager, originally releasing boom bap style raps before creating music that was more emo and melodic. His story is one of constant reinvention. Throughout his earlier years of his musical career, he spent time creating music in various genres before carving his own niche in the EDM/hyperpop genre that he’s known for today. When we asked redwater about the origin of his name, he had this to say,
I was wanting to bleed my old self away, who I was at that time and I wanted to have a more flowing state of evolution as an artist.
He further elaborated saying that the “red” in his name represents the blood of rebirth and water represents the constantly changing flow of evolution.
Growing up, redwater drew influence from a wide variety of genres; modern rap, edm and metal/nu-metal. Taking note from the sounds of Playboi Carti, Young Thug, and LUCKI, he formed a solid foundation for his musical evolution to thrive. He also cited a few modern sources of inspiration to his music such as che, brakence, bladee, and 2hollis. redwater also discussed the rise of his friend Reesh, an emerging rap artist from the Bay Area. Reesh is a musical innovator, blending Indian instrumentation with underground rap, creating a new genre called Bollytekk. redwater had nothing but praise for Reesh, describing him as one of the most underrated artists out right now.
We were excited to ask redwater about his experience with Hideout, not only because that was where we had first heard of him, but also because we were intrigued by Hideout’s creative impact. redwater was first introduced to Hideout by his friend JRjoos who was the president of Hideout at the time. Hideout was a stage in redwater’s career in which he truly grew into his own. While being surrounded by other creatives, he pushed the boundaries of his music, shifting from his style of rap at the time, cap rap, to the EDM style of music found on his new album Fahrenheit. redwater looks back fondly on his early involvement with Hideout,
One of my favorite, favorite times of my life is my time in Hideout because it helped develop me and helped me find my artistry. […] Before, I was kinda just in my room recording and putting it out. I didn’t have peer reviews, people critiquing my mix, saying ‘oh try this arrangement’. Having that huge collaborative process where you can walk around is awesome. I think it’s so good for artists to be in spaces like that where you can bounce ideas off of each other, it just evolves you.
On July 18th, redwater released his album Fahrenheit, an album that he had been working on, at least conceptually, since 2022. While Fahrenheit had been a concept since 2022 redwater elaborated that much of the album came together in the five months leading up to the album’s release. redwater explained that the creative process varied for each song. Some songs such as “rain” came together quickly. He describes the process of recording “rain” as almost casual. While playing Zelda with his friend and fellow artist roro, they started recording over a beat sourced from YouTube and recorded an album-quality song over the course of a few hours. Other songs required a more exhaustive creative process. redwater’s song “trace” is the product of a thoughtful process of intentional revisions, which resulted in a song with carefully crafted lyrics and multiple beat switches. redwater describes his song “locust” as the best song on the album. It’s a track featuring a hypnotizing beat coupled with catchy lyrics; “locust” is the highest streamed track off Fahrenheit. While “locust” may be the most streamed track, redwater feels that “sidearms” is the most underrated song of the project, especially the second half of the track that features his friend Knomada on the keyboard. On Fahrenheit redwater explores darker themes in juxtaposition with poppier, lighter beats. Straying away from the more nonsensical lyrics of modern hyperpop such as the influential band 100 gecs, redwater opts for more serious lyrics drawing inspiration from the lyrics of R&B. This shift sets him apart in the hyperpop genre making his music something that he can definitively call his own.
redwater’s collaboration with his friends is an integral piece of the creation of Fahrenheit. His close friends Reesh and roro, who are both featured on the album, aided in his creative process throughout the production of Fahrenheit. The impact of the artist’s close friends can be found throughout the album. The first feature on the album comes from rghvarchive, an R&B artist currently located in Amsterdam. Contributions from Reesh and roro can be found all throughout the album, redwater gave high praise to his two friends, who he met through college. The final feature on the album, Seairy, is JRjoos’s partner who redwater met in 2022, Seairy is another organic connection redwater made through his music. Throughout the interview he spoke highly of his friends, emphasizing their musical prowess and constantly putting the spotlight on them. It was clear to us how much redwater’s friends mean to him and how their culture of contribution has heightened the quality of their music.
Basically it’s a close circle of friends, that’s my favorite way to work with people, I don’t like random collabs a lot, I like being very involved in the process.
In the future, redwater intends to keep pushing the boundaries of his music. He wants to eventually become fully self-produced while producing for his friends, crafting a signature sound of his own, “I think all the most amazing artists produce themselves, all of the most talented artists are self-produced”. Undoubtedly, he will continue his musical evolution throughout the creation of his next project, Vessel, which is slated to be released in early 2026. redwater will keep up his creative output in the form of a new music video for his song “no time”, a personal favorite of mine, which is out now! In the meantime, new listeners can check out Fahrenheit, his latest album. redwater will continue to perform and his next performance will be held at Champaign’s Lover’s Graveyard venue on October 4th, he’ll open the show starting at 8pm.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE NO TIME MV
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW REDWATER ON INSTAGRAM
CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW REDWATER ON SPOTIFY
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