404 Guild are Bathwater, Devenny, Eliot and Sonny. The collective of UK-based rappers assembles a wide range of influences from industrial electronica, hip-hop, punk and soul – to name but a few. Since their emergence in 2019, the collective has been putting out critically acclaimed releases, while remaining one of the best-kept secrets of the UK-underground scene. This summer Eliot and Sonny released ‘Pebbledash’ their first side-project and Devenny and Bathwater are currently preparing their brand new release ‘Paradise Drive’.

What are the areas of knowledge Elison Research Group specializes in?

Sonny: Emotional archiving.

Eliot: Paranormal activities, UFO-ology.

Sonny: The study of ghosts.

Eliot: The study of the pocket.

 

Your most recent work Pebbledash was super well received by the critics, could you describe the research process prior to the release of the album?

Eliot: Listen to lots of music and watch lots of telly.

Devenny: What telly did you watch?

Eliot: Lots of X-Files and… were we watching Taxi at that point?

Sonny: No we weren’t watching Taxi we were watching lots of X-Files.

Eliot: Goldeneye.

Sonny: Goldeneye! And Final Fantasy 10 was part of that. A big part of it was Metal Gear Solid.

Devenny: Which one?

Eliot: Metal Gear Solid 2.

Sonny: And I think archiving bits of old songs and reworking them, was part of that process too. Realizing there’s something forming just by process of organizing stuff.

 

Some members of 404 Guild share computers, what is the importance of sharing technology?

Devenny: Work. Work. It just….. works.

Bathwater: Cheaper.

Devenny: And it’s cheaper.

Sonny: Avoid the cloud.

Bathwater: Mmm Hmm.

Devenny: If I could afford for someone to ride around the city with scrolls and send USBs to different people I would. But I can’t.

Sonny: We’re gonna boycott the web.

Bathwater: Yeah. No more web.

Devenny: Guild offline. Forever. Nah, Computers they just… I think it’s one of the things. It’s just an easy process to just share stuff around so, if I make something, Eliot makes something. We can just… it’s quite interchangeable that way, ya know? But it works.

Sonny: Yeah. That’s it.

Eliot: The system works.

 

What is the guild working on right now?

Bathwater: Paradise Drive

Devenny: That drops August 28th. That’s me and Bathwater. Lots of singles.

Eliot: G3.

Devenny: And then yeah working on an album as well but that’s super shtoom at the moment. Lots of stuff!

Sonny: Working on our living situation!

Devenny: Oh yes! Working on ourselves, spiritually!

Eliot: Working on this body.

Devenny: He’s working on his body.

Sonny: Building a grand HQ for the Guild.

Bathwater: Everyone needs to come over.

Devenny: Big party.

 

I heard you’re working on a biological preserve project in Costa Rica. How’s that going?

Devenny: How is that going?

Bathwater: That’s you guys, right? (Points at Eliot & Sonny).

Eliot: So yeah, we initially had some trouble with funding but that’s all sorted out.

Sonny: And the contact out there is back online?

Eliot: Yeah. We’ve had some problems with tropical storms and the phone lines going down.

Devenny: Has he still got the shirt I sent him?

Eliot: What?

Devenny: The contact! The nice Hawaiian shirt I sent him?

Eliot: Oh yeah. He’s got it. He loves it. He never takes it off.

Sonny: Nice nice nice

Eliot: But yeah we’ve had some internet connectivity issues

Sonny: Things are moving, things are moving.

Eliot: It’s good!

Devenny: Forward! Up. Up!

 

Watch the latest release from Devenny and Bathwater upcoming project ‘Paradise Drive’ below: