Hip hop/R&B duo Gold Revere, Akash Gururaja and Ian Crumley, started making music in Ian’sbasement in 2017 before making a major splash on the scene this year with their viral track“Goldfish Crackers.” What started as an experimental summer project in their hometown ofCedar 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 stand alones, the college freshmen cameout with their single “Goldfish Crackers.” The infectiously quirky ear candy made of Ian’swhistle-meets-country-trap hip-hop beat and Akash’s playful lyrics struck a nerve on TikTokwhere the associated #GoldfishDance began trending. Akash sings: “Goldfish crackers whenI'm tryna fake a smile, and then black coffee when I'm tryna walk a mile. Red velvet cake iswhen I'm thinking bout the aisle and DOTS when I feel I haven't seen her in a while.” Usingpopular snack foods for deeper metaphorical meaning, the song stuck.“It’s a love song,” saysAkash. “A different way to say you miss someone. Looking at something through another lens.Plus, everyone loves Goldfish Crackers.” Eventually the phenomena drew the attention ofPepperidge 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.
Ian and Akash first met in 9th grade choir and quickly became close friends and performedtogether throughout high school in show choir, all state choir, school musicals, orchestra andthe like. Both having grown up in diverse musical households - Ian’s mother a former operasinger, his father a professional drummer in a jazz band, while Akash was raised on Indianmusic and started piano lessons at age four and violin at age nine - Gold Revere boasts adeeply complex musicality. Their shared musical lexicon and approachable, goofy personalitiesmake the duo an alluring anomaly. Intrigued by intricate song structure and genre fluidity, takingnotes from acts like Tyler The Creator, Kanye West, and Jacob Collier, Gold Revere find theirniche with an impressively unique sound. “We want to make music with meaning that soundsgreat and is fun,” says the duo. “Using innovative sampling, we’d like to keep expanding andpulling in different genres to appeal to the widest variety of people.”
After performing as Gold Revere at prom followed by a summer tour, Ian and Akash headed offto college but continued to make music sending tracks back and forth recording in their dormrooms. “I make a beat then send it on a private SoundCloud link to Akash,” says Ian. “If itpasses the ‘garbage or fire test’ I start writing lyrics and we go from there,” says Akash. Theyboth laugh. Now at the end of their freshman year, Akash a neuroscience/pre-med major atVanderbilt and Ian a mathematics major at Iowa State, Gold Revere welcomes the summer witha viral track on their hands and a lot more in the ‘fire’ pile ready to go.
