Zak Arogundade Gaterud (born 1994 or 1995), known professionally as Ecco2K, is a Swedish designer, visual artist, singer, songwriter, record producer and rapper. Arogundade founded the band Krossad with Bladee, his then-classmate, in 2004. Three years later, he founded his first fashion brand, Alaska, and later joined the Swedish shoe brand Eytys as a designer. He founded Drain Gang with childhood friends Bladee, Thaiboy Digital and Whitearmor in 2013. Ecco2K appeared on albums with Drain Gang and directed music videos before releasing his debut solo studio album, E, in 2019. He released the EP PXE in 2021, and the collaborative studio album Crest in 2022. Arogundade is a private and secretive person who has incorporated queer themes in his work.
Biography
1994–2012: Early life and career
Zak Arogundade Gaterud[2] was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1994 or 1995.[1] His mother is a Swedish makeup artist, while his father is a British graphic designer, writer, and architect of Nigerian heritage.[3] For a short time, he lived with his father in London; he spent most of his childhood with his mother in the Hornstull area of Stockholm.[4][3]
Benjamin Reichwald (Bladee, pictured in 2016), a frequent collaborator of Arogundade
Arogundade had his first experiences with visual art at age five, when his father gifted him a graphics software program and taught him how to use it; Arogundade created album covers and logos for imaginary bands.[3] In 2004, he became classmates with Benjamin Reichwald (Bladee) and founded the punk-oriented project Krossad ("crushed" in Swedish) the same year.[1][3] They released a demo CD in 2007.[5] That same year, Ecco2K created a fashion label, Alaska, a streetwear brand. Although he was only 16 years old, he managed to develop the brand through online communication with Chinese factory managers who were unaware of his age.[1][3] This experience led him to join the Swedish sneaker brand Eytys.[3]
2013–present: Drain Gang
In 2013, Arogundade founded the Drain Gang collective, first called Gravity Boys, with childhood friends Bladee, Thaiboy Digital, and Whitearmor,[4] adopting the alias Ecco2K.[1] The four had been a part of the musical group Smög Boys.[6] The name "Ecco2K" was inspired by the titular character of the Ecco the Dolphin video game series.[7] Drain Gang signed with Year0001[6] and began regularly collaborating with the group Sad Boys and their labelmate Yung Lean.[4][1][6] That same year, Arogundade became Lean's creative director.[1] Still in 2013, Arogundade started his music career by releasing singles "Bleach", "Hold Me Down Like Gravity", and "Mirage";[2] "Hold Me Down Like Gravity" received a music video directed by Arogundade himself.[8] In 2015, he released an instrumental EP, Crush Resist.[5] He later appeared on the Drain Gang compilation albums D&G (2017) and Trash Island (2019).[2] Arogundade also founded the fashion brand g'LOSS, under which he designed Drain Gang merchandise.[1]
Cover for E (2019)
In 2017, Arogundade began to perform solo live sets for the first time.[1] The following year, he modelled at Paris Fashion Week for Alyx Studio; he also appeared at London Fashion Week's "Challenge the Fabric" competition as a panelist.[1] On 27 November 2019, Arogundade released his debut solo studio album, which was also a surprise album, E. To record it, Arogundade had to leave his day job as a designer and photo retoucher at Eytys.[1][4] It was recorded in Stockholm, Berlin, Los Angeles, London, Falun, and Bangkok,[9] and preceded by singles "AAA Powerline" and "Fruit Bleed Juice", with the latter receiving a music video.[1] The next year, Arogundade toured Europe[10] and released more music videos for E songs: "Peroxide" on 29 January[10] and "Security!" on 30 July.[11] That year, he also released singles "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" with Bladee on 24 February[12] and "Pollen" on 17 September, in which Arogundade sings in Swedish.[13]
On 31 March 2021, Arogundade released a surprise EP, PXE, fully accompanied by a video from artist and animator Freddy Carrasco.[14] Unlike E, PXE was entirely produced by Arogundade.[15] On 19 January 2022, he released the standalone single "Amygdala" with Bladee.[16] On 17 March, they released a collaborative studio album, Crest,[17] which was recorded in the Swedish countryside.[18]The Fader staff considered it the 22nd best album of 2022,[19] while Pitchfork included it in their list of best progressive pop music of the year.[20] After the album's release, Arogundade toured worldwide with Drain Gang in their first world tour as a collective.[21] He left Year0001 in 2023.[22]
On 19 April 2024, Arogundade released a collaborative single with Bladee and Thaiboy Digital, "TL;DR".[23] He played at the Sydney Opera House on 1 June.[24]
Musical style and public image
Arogundade is part of Drain Gang, a group of electronic and cloud rap musicians.[3] Although Drain Gang's music is intimate, their lyrics often reflect universal human experiences, rather than specifically their own.[25] Arogundade has maintained a separation between himself and his music, explaining that he does not see Ecco2K as representative of who he is as a person.[1] Jayson Greene wrote to Pitchfork that Arogundade produced "dissociation music" with "numb disorientation, but with flutey, high, fairy-like voices flitting about the mix", and that he "sounds less like a human and more like a pixelated sprite". Greene added: "The immersion in smoother and more hospitable worlds than the real one is everywhere".[7] Writing for the same website, Nadine Smith noted Ecco2K's "fluttering, almost angelic falsetto".[26] David Crone of AllMusic said that, in 2013, Arogundade's style was "rough yet original, combining distant, hollowed-out vocals with cloudy instrumentals and emotive lyricism". He added that over the decade, Arogundade "embraced technological, forward-thinking sounds taking influence from the rising hyper-pop and hyper-rap subgenres", consolidating his futuristic style with E in 2019.[2]
Like other members of Drain Gang, Arogundade is a self-taught musician.[25] As a designer and editor, Arogundade directs and edits most of his own music videos, and has directed and edited multiple music videos for other artists,[1][3] including Yves Tumor.[6] Commenting on his video work, he said he attempts to "express that there is beauty and magic here, but without putting special effects on it".[27] According to Cassidy George of 032c, Arogundade has increasingly incorporated queer themes into his work, citing Arogundade's feminine presentation in the "Amygdala" music video. George said that the inclusion of these themes increased Drain Gang's LGBT listenership and helped nonbinary, queer, and trans people embrace their own identities.[25]
Initially, Arogundade attempted to maintain privacy and secrecy regarding his personal life;[3][4] until 2018, he kept his Instagram account private,[4] as he dislikes making his personal information public.[3] Although he has attempted to distance himself from Drain Gang's "obsessive fanbase", in the past, his fans have hacked his cellphone and social media accounts, leaked his music, and contacted his relatives.[1] He commented that he found it "strange... to be such a big part of other people's lives".[3] He has been impersonated on Facebook at least twice.[3]
