ROE KAPARA RELEASES DEBUT EP ‘I HOPE HELL ISN’T REAL’ OUT NOW VIA EPITAPH RECORDS
Today, St. Louis born, Los Angeles based musician, Roe Kapara shares his debut EP ‘I Hope Hell Isn’t Real’ out now via Epitaph Records. Following his first successful string of shows spanning Chicago, NYC and Los Angeles, he’s been able to bring the project alive to adoring fans across the country. In the past year Roe has seen his fanbase grow to over 273K followers, 5.1M likes and 32.1M views on TikTok - in part due to his endearingly unpretentious personality, but also with his irresistibly modern swirl of alternative indie, psych and dream pop.
Inspired by the surrealist plots of 90’s movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, ‘I Hope Hell Isn’t Real’ follows a similar formula. Centered around a cinematic storyline, Roe conceptualized a miserable fictional character who lives in a dystopian world full of nothing but apathy. While everything around him is crumbling he ends up dying, but in a twist of events he’s brought back to life. Post-mortem he gains a new perspective and outlook on life, realizing that there’s more meaning to it than he originally thought.
“In the 90’s there was a level of freedom to push the envelope in that era of filmmaking, and my approach to creating music is similar: ‘What’s some crazy shit we can talk about or do?’ I just want to say crazy shit, but stuff I also really care about. It’s gotta be both.”
Dwelling on the death of his own past has been a common theme through Kapara’s music, throughout a catalog of DIY singles like “Everyone’s Dying” and “Past Grow” that helped boost his Spotify listeners into the 400,000s. While willing to expose vulnerable parts of himself in his songs, he’s also quick to shine the mirror outward to address the creeping dread of modern life: consumerism, corporate greed, climate change, the general feelings of the younger generation in 21st-century America. Deeply relatable yet unafraid to stand up and ask life’s big questions, Roe’s musical journey may be a little off kilter yet all the better and more interesting in the end.