He elaborates, “I feel like my perspective on music has always been honing in on specific parts of songs and then reimagining a lot of stuff. In 2010, he began downloading mixtapes online and listening to a lot of Waka Flock and Atlanta rap, which he describes as his “biggest music-related internet experiences”. He began playing drums as a teenager, spending time in an indie-rock band before heading down the electronic noise and experimental route. But the algorithm has made it even harder to find stuff on your own.” Back then, you had to actively search for stuff. “But now everything is being fed to you through the algorithm. A lot of clicking I like clicking stuff.” He pauses. Knowing the sources and knowing which blogs were similar. Music blogs that would just put up music you would find one blog that was good and then you’d find other blogs. “The blogspot era was my biggest thing, where you could just pirate music. “I started listening to a lot of Bob Marley and rap music and Slipknot,” he explains. Growing up at the height of the early internet, Rosenberg credits many of his early formative music experiences to MTV and the digital music revolution, spending hours trawling Napster, where he would spend hours downloading music with his dad, a computer enthusiast. Occasionally, he’ll break into a sly grin as if quietly amused, while at other times, exudes the quiet confidence of someone who (plainly) knows their shit. Camera on, a rarity among reclusive internet artists, he answers questions in a low Swedish drawl. He’s calling in from Barcelona, where Drain Gang have just performed as part of a Year0001 showcase at the city’s Razzmatazz. Our fans are very respectful in general,” he tells me over Zoom. It’s not that I mind it, I just don’t really enjoy it – and fans know that. “I’m probably the one that says no to most things. This is one of the first interviews he’s agreed to in the decade since the group’s formation. He’s notoriously silent on social media (“I never understood Instagram”) except to post the occasional Drain promo or reshare – and rarely takes photographs with fans. “I’m probably the least famous out of all of us,” he says, with a grin. Perhaps the most elusive member of the group, the Stockholm-based producer has managed to keep a mysterious online presence, despite the collective’s deeply obsessive fanbase, which has spawned countless fan accounts, meme pages and a highly active subreddit. As the group’s master beatmaker, Rosenberg is responsible for their mercurial and terminally online sound, which has garnered a prolific reputation among countless baby-faced Soundcloud producers who aspire to follow in his footsteps. The 29-year-old is the producer behind Swedish collective Drain Gang, a group of friends – consisting of artists Ecco2k, Thaiboy Digital and Bladee – who formed in 2013, gaining prominence in the cloud-rap scene alongside friend and collaborator Yung Lean. Whitearmor – real name Ludwig Rosenberg – has shaped the sound of an entire online generation.
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