"Honey, in the darkness I know, your pathway will glow"
Riki is a Los Angeles-based Synth-Pop project commandeered by the eponymous Riki, a visual artist and musician who was active in the California punk/goth scenes, before founding her solo endeavor in 2017. Riki's desire to explore her own sound led to the release of the Hot City cassette tape in 2017, after which she signed to the highly acclaimed Dais Records. She has since released two full-length albums.
Her music has attracted significant amounts of attention in the modern electronic/post-punk/underground pop scenes, and has led to her sharing the stage with acts such as Trisomie 21, Front 242, and Cold Cave, among others, as well as several tours and festival dates.
Discography:
Gold - 2021
Riki - 2020
Hot City (Maxi-single/Mini-EP) - 2017
Riki and her music provide examples of the following:
- '80s Hair: The cover of her self-titled full-length debut features her rocking Siouxsie-esque 80's goth hair.
- Album Title Drop: Gold has one, on the song "Viktor""Viktor, everything you touch, turns to gold."
- Author Appeal: She has stated that her single Napoleon was written about none other than Napoléon Bonaparte himself, her historical crush.
- Break-Up Song: "Böse Lügen" and "It's No Secret".Riki: Almost all the songs that I write are romantic love songs...I mean, there are no love songs without heartbreak songs.
- The Cameo: Fellow Dais Records band Choir Boy appears in the video for her single "Marigold", and Riki herself briefly appears in the video for Nuovo Testamento's single "The Searcher".
- Cool Car: The music video for "Florence & Selena" prominently features her driving through LA in her blue Porsche.
- Cool Shades: The music video for "Marigold" sees her wearing a pair of stylish visor sunglasses.
- Cover Version: She has covered the Spanish language song "Porque Te Vas", by the Spanish singer Jeanette.
- Darkwave: On the first album, especially.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The cover art for the first album has this vibe, although the "eerie" factor was dropped in the visual art for the second album.
- Flower Motifs: Featured prominently in the video for "Napoleon", and the cover art for Gold.
- Genre Roulette: Not the most extreme example, but within the umbrella of "Synth Pop", her music does encompass a fairly wide range of styles, with influences such as Italo Disco, classic New Wave, Darkwave, early EBM, Post-Punk, and even Dub and R&B on the second album.
- Gratuitous German: On the songs "Strohmann" and "Böse Lügen".
- Intercourse with You: "Oil & Metal", and to a lesser extent "Hot City".
- Let's Duet: "Marigold", the lead single from her second album, Gold, features a vocal duet between Riki and the producer of the album, Joshua Eustis aka Telefon Telaviv.
- Lighter and Softer: Her music tends to be considerably more accessible and pop-oriented than that of many of her contemporaries in the dark electronic/post-punk scene, and her lyrical themes tend to focus on love, courage, heartbreak, perseverance, and eroticism.
- Minimalistic Cover Art: The cover art of her second album.
- New Sound Album: Her second album, Gold, is notably less dance-oriented than her first album,and focuses more on atmosphere and "quiet moments". In interviews, Riki has said that this shift in sound was partially inspired by the lockdown and abrupt halt of social life resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which happened in between the first and second album.
- New Wave
- One Name Only: Riki.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Don't be fooled by her diminutive size, which belies her truly powerful vocal capabilities.
- Scary Scarecrows: The German lyrics to "Strohmann" seem to describe an ominous scarecrow figure, which Riki has implied could be interpreted as love for an idea of someone, rather than for the person themselves.Riki: Maybe looking at it more vaguely, it's about, you know, projecting ideas of love onto this image that is maybe not even real or really there, but in the song “Strohmann”, it’s alive as a scarecrow.
- Self-Titled Album: Her full-length debut album from 2020.
- Sexophone: Some songs on her sophomore album, Gold feature saxophone, with Riki citing the natural
- Synth-Pop: For simplicity's sake, her music most often is classified as this.
- The Power of Friendship: Prominent themes on "Earth Song" and "Charming World"
- The Power of Love: "Spirit Of Love" and "Monumental".
"There's a melancholy feeling that you know/Turn it on, turn it on, and watch it grow"
