{"id":4752,"date":"2025-06-13T15:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T15:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/?p=4752"},"modified":"2025-06-17T06:41:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T06:41:57","slug":"guccihighwaters-and-toopoor-talk-death-by-desire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/13\/guccihighwaters-and-toopoor-talk-death-by-desire\/","title":{"rendered":"Guccihighwaters and TOOPOOR Talk \u2018DEATH BY DESIRE\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters<\/a>, the artistic alias of super producer and songwriter Morgan Murphy, reemerges from the shadows for his third LP, DEATH BY DESIRE. <\/em><\/em>Though he\u2019s retired late-2010s SoundCloud emo trap sounds for the new project, the darkness in his aesthetic remains.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been three years since the singer\u2019s sophomore release, joke\u2019s on you, <\/em><\/span><\/em>which first marked his exploration of genres outside the hip-hop sphere, bringing in piano and guitars to back his signature hooks rather than 808s and hi-hats. <\/p>\n

This time around, his integral shadow fuels seductive R&B tracks with synthwave production inspired by Mike Dean and Gesaffelstein. And though these influences are apparent on tracks like \u201cDESIRE\u201d and \u201cDON\u2019T TALK ABOUT LOVE,\u201d Guccihighwaters\u2019 biggest inspiration and collaborator for this record is TOOPOOR, the electronic mastermind behind viral cuts like \u201cCRAZY GIRLS,\u201d a song that permanently changed the TikTok landscape for e-girls and their Vinne Hacker lookalike boyfriends. She\u2019s featured on the new album, not only as main confidant and muse, but also on single \u201cIF LOOKS COULD KILL,\u201d where the duo vocally tiptoe around one another, hesitating to admit feelings of lust with the words: \u201cThat body\u2019s lethal, if looks could kill.\u201d <\/p>\n

The new LP, which was released on May 30 via Epitaph, includes guccihighwaters\u2019 deepest lyrical exploration to date. He\u2019s shed back layers of self, writing about the darker parts of being an artist and the dangers that lurk in the creative epicenters, like Los Angeles, that foster these passions. <\/p>\n

In addition to these darker, exploratory tracks, the album also hits peaks of levity which are also new creative grounds for Gucci. On \u201cHIGH,\u201d he compares his love for someone close to him to \u201cthe best drug you could think of.\u201d From the album\u2019s most compelling lows to its brightest peaks, Guccihighwaters displays his most mature artistry to date. <\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters and TOOPOOR sat down with PAPER <\/em><\/em>to talk DEATH BY DESIRE, <\/em><\/em>LA living and PC gaming.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

How did you guys meet? How\u2019d you get in touch?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TOOPOOR: <\/strong>We met at a store. I had a store off Melrose and Morgan had some mutual friends that were involved in the store. Basically he just came by and that’s where I met him. But this isn’t our first track together. Over the last three years, Morgan has been producing my music for me as well as his music, and then we’ve done one other song together that we’ve put out.<\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters:<\/strong> Yeah, and Layla (TOOPOOR) was a big part of the DEATH BY DESIRE <\/em>album. A lot of stuff was written with her too. We both did a lot of songwriting on it, so it only made sense that we got on a track together. And we had made this demo that we played on tour a few times. I was on tour, and Layla was with me doing photo and video content. We wanted to perform it one night to see how it felt. And we just felt like it was slow and like boring. So when we got back home from tour, I wanted to make something that was energetic and just a little more \u201cout there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Talk about where your artistic influences collide? What have you found in common and what do you find different with collaborating?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TOOPOOR:<\/strong> We both love The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey and they have some songs together, so we just love those and that’s a big influence for us. Our favorite artists, when they collab, is inspo for us in general. I told Morgan that if I got on the album, because the first track we did was slow, that I wanted to have the best song on the album. Like I was really trying to get crazy. I wanted a song where we were just having a lot of fun, going crazy, saying silly stuff.<\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters: <\/strong>The influences for me was The Weeknd and Gesaffelstein and Mike Dean. Kind of weird synthy, 80s-inspired stuff. And then Layla is into more electronic stuff. And she has an idea for her own project where she wants it to be a little more electronic. So when I was making the instrumental for our song, I added more electronic elements. The way it came about was I had to infuse some electronic stuff and mix it with the ’80s vibes I was going for.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk more about \u201cIF LOOKS COULD KILL.\u201d What does that song mean to the both of you? I\u2019m curious about what it was like working on that song together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

TOOPOOR: <\/span><\/strong>We came back from tour and we wanted to do a more upbeat, faster, fun track, dark and sexy, and you worked on a few beats, right?<\/p>\n

GHW: Yeah. So I had probably like three instrumental ideas, and I always look for Layla\u2019s opinion on certain things, because sometimes I don’t know what to use, I don’t know what an instrumental can become. She\u2019s kind of better at seeing the potential of an instrumental. And when I played, what now is, \u201cIF LOOKS COULD KILL,\u201d the instrumental, I was kind of uncertain about it. I had this weird, like, arpeggiator type of thing, and she was sold on it. As soon as she heard it, she was just like, \u201clet’s work on this one, let’s do it.\u201d And, yeah, I kind of just started fleshing it out.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>TOOPOOR: <\/strong>And from there we started writing.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

So you both live in LA, right? For how long?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters: <\/strong>I lived in New York, where I\u2019m from, during the pandemic, but I had previously lived in LA for a year, so I’ve basically been back here for three years now.<\/p>\n

TOOPOOR: <\/strong>I\u2019ve been here … not to show my age, over 10 years. <\/p>\n

Word. Talk about what you guys love and don\u2019t love about living in LA.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters: <\/strong> I think there’s no escape from your work sometimes. Most people I meet as friends are working in music, and it’s all about work. When you only have friends that you know through work I find it hard to to meet people that live a normal life. I can’t really find people out here that do different things other than music and art all the time. Also the weather’s always perfect and the seasons don’t really change. There\u2019s no sense of time. <\/p>\n

TOOPOOR:<\/strong> I’m from Cali [I’ve been here] my whole life, so I love it here. But we are thinking about moving back to New York well back for Morgan and new for me. Morgan and I are working more than anyone I know. We have offices in our house and we\u2019re just working from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed. So we don’t have many friends out here. We’re pretty isolated. We love to work, really.<\/p>\n

What do you guys do in your downtime? How do you blow off steam? <\/strong><\/p>\n

TOOPOOR:<\/strong> Video games.<\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters: <\/strong>Yeah, we recently – I mean, not for me – but I’ve been really into computers since I was young because my dad owned a computer repair shop, so he was always bringing back computers and he would give them to me and be like, \u201cMess around with this.\u201d I got pretty computer savvy when I was a kid, which ultimately spawned all of this music production. But for Layla, I introduced her to PC gaming and I built her, well we both built, a computer this Christmas. We’re really into playing video games. So that’s been really fun.<\/p>\n

What have you guys been playing? <\/strong><\/p>\n

TOOPOOR:<\/strong> Sea of Thieves. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters: <\/strong>Yeah, we just started playing Sea of Thieves<\/em><\/em>. <\/p>\n

TOOPOOR:<\/strong> Fortnite<\/em><\/em>, Marvel Rivals.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Guccihighwaters: <\/strong>Layla\u2019s into Marvel Rivals<\/em><\/em>. I feel like we’re both artistic, so like, downtime is always weird. If I have downtime, I can’t really relax. But we did just re-watch Breaking Bad <\/em><\/em>again, which was fucking awesome.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Photography: Max Durante<\/a>, Jeff Weber<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guccihighwaters, the artistic alias of super producer and songwriter Morgan Murphy, reemerges from the shadows for his third LP, DEATH BY DESIRE. Though he\u2019s retired late-2010s SoundCloud emo trap sounds for the new project, the darkness in his aesthetic remains. It\u2019s been three years since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4760,"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752\/revisions\/4760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nichesitetool.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}