At 20 years old, Riovaz is a walking enigma perfectly primed for Hollywood speculation: a self-made New Jersey innovator ushering in a new wave of electropop called Riorave—a sound that turns vulnerability into anthems and heartbreak into energy. His meteoric rise from viral TikTok success to festival stages like Governors Ball and Lollapalooza is impressive, but even more so when considering his defiant mindset from the jump. He didn’t wait for permission, college credentials, or industry handshakes to make a name for himself in music. In fact, he bet everything on making it in music.
“I never wanted to go to college. I would tell my mom that, and she’d get so mad at me,” Riovaz tells Beyond the Pines in a Zoom call from his ambiently purple-lit home studio. Music, as he puts it, was his get-out-of-college-free card, especially after his bedroom pop hit “Prom Night” blew up on TikTok with over 100k video creates. “‘Prom Night’ went viral at the perfect time—I was a junior in high school and used that song as leverage to get my other music heard. Obviously, it worked.”
Flash forward a few years, Riovaz is now celebrating the almost two-month anniversary of his self-titled debut album, a project that reflects that same high school audacity: raw, self-assured, and just chaotic enough to feel alive. With over one million Spotify streams and a top-five placement on Apple Music within its first week of release, the album cemented his rise from adolescent experimenter to genre-defining trailblazer. Alongside this milestone, Riovaz unveiled the music video for the album’s centerfold track, the heart-racing “327BPM,” directed by @noahsocold, where he sets off fireworks in an abandoned field in Atlanta while revving silver cars in parking lots.
Yet despite these triumphs, Riovaz hadn’t soaked in the debut’s acclaim yet. “Usually, when I release music, it’s [like I experience] a post-release depression. It’s like, ‘Damn, I released everything I made.’ It’s such a weird feeling.” Riovaz isn’t lying, either: he hardly has music lying around post-release, revealing he only records songs “with the intention of releasing” them and only has four leftover tracks that didn’t make the final cut.
Signing off on a self-titled debut is no small feat—it’s putting your name on the line, bold and center, with no choice but to face criticism head-on. Fortunately, “Riovaz” (the debut album) lives up to its promise of being the life of the party, even at times when it locks eyes with the New Jersey-born’s heart and soul. Without his usual entourage of collaborator-friends skaiwater, Nimstarr, and Kanii, the album positions Riovaz as both the night’s ringleader and the emotional core of his self-coined Riorave movement. Described as a “natural progression,” the sonic journey begins with three light, cyber-like introductory tracks that gradually erupt into an electroclash catharsis—a sound reminiscent of the gothic, lo-fi stylings of Lil Peep with glaive’s hyperpop maximalism.
This genre-bending chaos isn’t accidental, though. That techno touchstone was, more or less, in tune with Riovaz’s own listening history during the album’s genesis, coining the early 2010s’ dirty pop aesthetic (a la the UK series Skins) as a major influencer: “Last year, all I was listening to was The Dare and Snow Strippers. The Indie Sleaze revival was super my vibe.”
While the album’s versatility offers plenty of standalone, party-starting moments like “clockwork” and “327BPM,” Riovaz emphasizes that anti-chronological listeners miss half the story when jumping to their favorite track. “You could sing the most distraught lyrics over the happiest-sounding beat ever. It’s insane,” he explains, pointing to the opening tracks “radiolove” and “skin” as a duo that thematically “go hand in hand” and sonically share similar glitch pop melodies.
Both “radiolove” and “skin” push a compelling mix of bedroom pop, liquid DnB, and bombastic synths steeped in heartbreak, which he hints “my ex probably inspired [that].” The feathery electronic production of “radiolove” revolves around a singular tension point, where Riovaz sings, “It’s hard to say; just tell me I’m your only one. It’s something I’m never used to.” The story seamlessly blends into “skin,” where the bubbly landscape grows with crunchy adlibs and a more biting realization: “Baby, I can’t love you like I used to.”
You could say that “brush it off!!!,” one of Riovaz’s favorite tracks, acts as the unsung third installment of an unofficial trilogy as it transitions from the beginning track’s introspective grit into a more club-ready affair, all while retaining the residual romantic turbulence that inspired the record. “‘Bro… I’ve never had a chorus like ‘brush it off!!!’ before! The words are completely different from how the beats feel,” Riovaz admits. “I get that from The Smiths; Morrissey’s writing is like that—happy-sounding beats with distraught lyrics.” With its vibrant bass and emotional undercurrent, “brush it off!!!” is the perfect turning point towards the album’s more buzzworthy “oh snap” moments.
Building on that momentum, the album’s emotional arc crescendos into its more high-energy centerpieces, namely “327BPM” and “2004,” which make heartbreak shimmer on the dancefloor while simultaneously embracing the Riorave ethos. While the beats are frenetic and designed to move bodies, the lyrics never lose their emotional edge. This juxtaposition—loveless journalings wrapped in a club melodrama—defines much of Riovaz’s sound.
Still, the record’s emotional (and fist-pumping) gravity doesn’t dissipate as it closes. Riovaz’s two self-produced outro tracks, “warm face” and “in the end it’ll mean nothing,” reclaim the introduction’s energy, acting as a sobering reflection on the themes spanning the album’s 27-minute runtime. “Those [tracks] are special because they’re the first songs I’ve ever produced on. They’re more stripped down, and I like how they cushion the album.” Much like how the unofficial trilogy introduces a gritty, almost itch for escape, the self-produced outros flirt with the early hours after an unforgettable night and the consequences of untreated heartache.
Although no promotional tour dates have been announced for his self-titled debut, that doesn’t stop him from dreaming about taking his Riorave sound to new, unconventional spaces. “I want to perform somewhere really weird, like Russia or Iceland—it’d be crazy to host a rave under the Northern Lights. If I went to a rave like that, I’d never forget it.” Anywhere else? “Berlin seems cool, too.” For now, music videos like the club-ridden “brush it off!!!” and the recently released “327BPM” are Riovaz’s way of looking forward to reuniting with his fans soon. Whether they’re throwing monogrammed candy bracelets onstage at Irving Plaza or sending questionable beats to his burner email, Riovaz cannot wait to resume the shenanigans. “I’m just grateful for all my fans. They go hard, and I’m super thankful for them still being here with me,” Riovaz says. “Coming up from TikTok is weird. It’s super hard to convince those fans to stay around, but a lot of them grew up with me as I was growing up.”
Even as he’s busy dreaming about hosting Northern Lights raves, Riovaz has already begun planning his next record. And unlike many artists, who shy away from bold predictions, he can’t help but feel the adrenaline. “My next stuff is going to be my best music yet. I’m super confident in that,” he says. Riovaz also has his sights set on dream collaborations, citing Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil as someone he’d love to create with: “I feel like we’d make some cool shit together.”
They often say youth is wasted on the young, but Riovaz proves that sentiment doesn’t apply to him. His debut album isn’t just a showcase of sheer drive—it’s a reflection of what today’s generation is craving. Instead of imitating the MySpace and Tumblr crusaders of indie sleaze, Riovaz reinvents their influence with a new-age electroclash flair—something he likes to call Riorave. Even industry-grade “deep cuts” can’t touch the bombastic unraveling of “skinlove” and “warm face”; where most artists prefer a stripped-down production, Riovaz packs on the defeat and vocal effects.
Lush, eargasmic production usually comes at the cost of half-baked lyricism; however, Riovaz also sidesteps this beginner trap with ease. His tracks chronicle heartache while maintaining a dynamic, pulsating energy—where even sadness can’t stop the party. Whether he’s wrestling with closure on the mind-tingling “skin,” dancing away insecurities on “brush it off!!!,” or (maybe) moving on with “it’ll mean nothing in the end,” Riovaz’s self-perfected Riorave proves that growing pains aren’t just endured—they’re celebrated. With “Riovaz,” he not only crafted an unforgettable debut but also set the stage for a must-see career defined by unapologetic ambition and sound all his own.
Leave a Reply