Populus
Red

Red is Populus' first solo single, and it barely counts as solo. Bagheadddd is on it, so it's really a Sugar Cones song with one name on the cover. That's how those two work.

Populus made the beat himself. He was fifteen or sixteen and deep into hyperpop, so that's the kind of type beats he was chasing, and that's what Red sounds like: bright, fast and a little broken. He made what he was listening to. He cringes at Red now, but he still thinks the beat goes hard as fuck. There's a lot of bass in this song. When he performed it at the Reverb Lounge in Omaha, the room shook.

If you only know Populus from the darker Sugar Cones records, this is the other side of him. Same kid who writes the violent stuff on Swimming, just with the synths turned up and the brakes off. It came out the same year as Swinging.

I tracked, mixed and mastered it at The Fields here in Lincoln. Released October 6, 2023.

He cringes at it now. I get it. Every artist has an early song that sounds like somebody they are not anymore.

I am not taking it down. Red is where Populus started in public, his own beat, hyperpop in his headphones. Same kid who made Swimming. Different lane then.

And Bagheadddd is on it. Of course he is.

More from Populus and the rest of the roster in the Discography.