Raury: “As a new artist, going the extra mile is really necessary”

In the new, November issue of DIY (out tomorrow - Friday 6th November), Raury takes time out of his rocketing ascent to stardom to reflect on on what got him here.

Every speck of optimism coming from the mind of this excitable newcomer stems from his past. Back when he was fourteen, Raury was in the depths of depression. His Aunt had passed away, and he’d just started a high school while all his current friends went elsewhere. “I felt very alienated. I didn’t like myself. I didn’t like life that much,” he remembers. But from day one of his career, he’s always cited one album that changed his life - Kid Cudi’s ‘Man on the Moon’. “I embraced me being different. It made me comfortable in my own skin and encouraged me to chase my dreams. Ever since then, I decided I was going to make music for that fourteen year old right now, or that nineteen year old now.” Music wasn’t always the only option for a kid who, aged nine, was “hellbent on success”. He googled how to build a career before he’d even become a teenager. “Guitar, working out, making sure I was super fast - I was picking up a bunch of things with the mindset that by the time I’m seventeen, I’m going to be killing it in something. And I was right.”

There’s plenty of idealism in what Raury proclaims, and everyday cynics will snipe and dismiss him as a naive so-and-so. But his big claims are grounded in reality. He invites fans on road trips, hosts exclusive listening parties before networking industry types can get their foot through the door. “As a new artist, going the extra mile and doing stuff like that is really necessary. They need to know you, they need to feel you,” he says.

Read the full interview in DIY’s November issue, out tomorrow (6th November) - pre-order a copy here.