Marketing & Branding Portfolio- SHR5E020P~00

Drain Gang

By Luke Gilmour- GIL23086109

Drain Gang are a Swedish music collective from Stockholm; the group consists of the artists, Bladee, Ecco2K, Thaiboy Digital and producer Whitearmour. Drain Gang formed officially in 2013, but trace their roots back to Bladee’s and Ecco2k’s school days, with their first band, a punk duet called Krossad under which they put out one tape and played a handful of small live shows at local Stockholm venues towards the end of the noughties. Over their time together growing up in Stockholm, becoming close friends and expanding their circle with other prominent members such as Thaiboy Digital and producer Whitearmor joining drawing gang later in 2013, and frequently collaborating with long time school friends, artist Yung Lean with producer Yung Gud from sister collective sadboys. This small group of Swedish teenagers pioneered an entirely new genre of digital production and melodic rapping over trancelike instrumentals with mysterious esoteric lyrics – often cryptically relating to their drug-fuelled adolescent lifestyle, this wider soundcloud scene became known as Cloud rap, however the group never labelled themselves into this genre, preferring to stay more cryptic with their style and music. Piggybacking off the budding success of soundcloud as a digital haven to

have their music heard all over the world straight from their studio bedrooms. Garnering a steady cult following in Stockholm and online in their former years.Their loyalty to their particular niche was responsible for early success. The music was nothing like anybody had heard before. And this was very appealing to other such young social outcasts. It gave them figureheads to idolise within their lifestyle. Their whole ecosphere; fashion; videos; sound and image gave people something to connect to. Before 2020, they were never trying to be a worldwide sensation, having already completed multiple world tours hopping between intimate, mid-sized venues catering to their often already-connected groups of young fans between major cities. They were able to remain successful in their own world for nearly an entire decade without having to appeal to a wider market. Only the covid-10 pandemic, with people flooding into these digital circles where they were being discussed more than ever before due to social restrictions, did they get the push into worldwide and commercialised stardom.

Over the last decade, Drain Gang have refined and innovated their audiovisual aesthetic whilst staying loyal to their core identities both individually and as a group. Their style and sound revolves around a handful of central themes and aesthetics, namely the more typical pillars of wider hip-hop lyricism such as boasts of wealth and escapades, whilst also having a honed introspective touch. Often focusing on self-detrimental themes of identity and relationships with substance abuse. Visually the group pioneered a raw and expressive style, whilst highlighting a sort of attainable appeal to their videos. Many of their early music videos consist largely of candid footage of their early international trips as a group with standouts such as ‘Obedient’ and ‘Victim’ being filmed during their 2018/19 trip to Thaiboy’s native Bangkok.

In relation to Kapferer’s branding identity prism, Drain Gang are able to connect with their fans through self- image, with the group being seen as a figurehead for many teenagers and young adults who can idolise and see themselves in the group. They accomplish this by staying very down to earth, with their social media presence and art style often not revealing more intimate details of their life staying more mysterious, which allows their fans to fill in the gaps and imprint their own lifestyle into theirs making them feel more connected. 

This method of connecting with fans also relates to the personality and physique aspect of the brand identity prism, Drain Gang are able to convey this personality to their fans with instantly recognisable art, text, imagery and designs. Followers of the group are able to connect with this aesthetic choice, especially with fans own clothing style, often extremely unique and expressive, a Drain Gang fan can recognise another fan based on their style. This allows for the group’s followers to connect with one another at shows or in public, creating a sense of family & belonging within the fanbase. 

Drain Gang stay true to their culture within their music and stylistic choices, with the majority of the group being from Stockholm they shed light into the Swedish way of life, with a lot of their rapping and singing being in Swedish and touching on different subjects on their years growing up in Stockholm, the group is able to stay close to their roots which is attractive to swedish natives who can connect on a more personal level with the group. 

Relating to reflection in the brand identity prism, the group portrays their fans as very self expressive with their aesthetic and style, as i touched on previously, members of their fanbase would be able to identify another fan from their style, this is due to unique colour pallets and designs that the groups use. Much like in the groups collaboration with the brand Gant, they chose to use very bright neons, this was also to pay homage to Bladee’s father who was a fire fighter, Bladee wanted to use the bright neons often seen on firetrucks and fire fighting outfits in this collaboration.  

The relationship that Drain Gang maintains with their fans is quite intimate yet elusive, especially with their online presence, the mystery of the members lives outside of music only draws fans in more with wanting to know more and feel closer to the group. The fanbase also known as ‘Drainers’ have formed an almost cult following of the group, with merchandise drops like vinyls and clothing selling out almost instantly and becoming extremely sought after and highly valued by fans. 

Drain Gang’s written aesthetic is also extremely unique, with their word choices in interviews, captions and artists statements. Drain Gang often relate heavily to themes revolving around medieval and fantasy topics, lyrics from Bladee’s song ‘Reality Surf’ from his album ‘333’ which was released in 2020 convey these themes of a fantasy world and learning to let go and express yourself how you want to,

“Cinderella, Cinderella, wear it if it suits

Build it just to watch it fall apart

Looking for the arrow when you shoot

You take yourself seriously, just stop

Listen to your heart

Mirror, mirror, the reflection of the law

I just wanna show you something new (New)

Everything is funny when you see it

(DVD) DVD, my life is a cartoon” Genius (2020)

With lyrics such as these mixed with Whitearmor’s innovative production style consisting of ambient melodies and robotic drums and 808 basses, the group’s songs are able to convey feeling through the music, enabling the listener to escape into a fantasy world of their own. The Blue ocean marketing strategy directly relates to Drain Gangs uniqueness, which allowed them to tap into a musical niche that no other artists had explored yet, making them the only group to make music of this style, meaning once they had fans interested, they would forever follow the group to continue hearing their music and seeing their art. Post 2020, after the group had started to gain more mainstream attention, more and more artists began using this unique sound, meaning that Drain Gang no longer controlled that whole market niche. However, long term fans will always continue to follow and engage with them as they have loyalty to the group and admire them for being the first to innovate this aesthetic and style. A quote from Drain Gang in their 032c magazine interview conveys this message of uniqueness and their use of the blue ocean strategy very well,  “We just want to make something that you haven’t seen or heard before. Otherwise, there’s no point in doing it all.” George, C. (2025). 

Drain Gang are able to keep appealing to their target audience by constant innovation whilst still staying relevant to their core themes and aesthetics. They do this by evolving their sound on new album drops and by collaborating with various other artists outside of the group. Much like Bladee and Skrillex’s release in 2023 ‘Real Spring’, which was able to bring an EDM influence into Drain Gang’s music, keeping the fanbase engaged and possibly showing them new artists and genres. This innovation allows the group to stay fresh and relevant in the current music scene and also appeal to new listeners who may stay to engage with the group’s past projects and become a fan themself. The group has also collaborated with a variety of fashion brands such as Gant & Heavn by Marc Jacobs, releasing capsule collections that reflect their wider visual aesthetic. Bladee & Ecco2k are also known to make an appearance at many fashion shows, frequently walking the runway as models for brands like 1017 Alyx 9SM and Acne Studios. These collaborations allow fans to engage with the group by buying into exclusive merchandise drops and keeping up with fashion show news. The group continues to do tours, shows and appear at festivals across the world allowing fans to go and see them live, which is a major aspect of keeping engaged and in contact with fans and Drain Gang do this do this very well, with exclusive merchandise and unreleased tracks at shows, fans can feel closer and more connected with the group. 

Drain Gang are able to cement themselves in the wider music market by filling in a musical niche, in the golden age of digital production where new genres and subgenres are being created almost daily, Drain Gang are able to stay true to what they initially created and keep their fan base engaged and coming back every time they release something new. Again relating to the blue ocean strategy that the group is able to effectively utilise, instead of trend hopping with current overcrowded music markets, the group creates their own way of staying relevant, sometimes even unintentionally. When Drain Gang was building its foundations in the early 2010’s another group/ record label called Goth Money Records also started in 2012 and became somewhat of a rival group creating similar sounding music. They were also heavily prevalent on soundcloud at the same time as Drain Gang, however, due to Goth Money records creating more emo/ goth rap and Drain Gang making brighter more ethereal music, both the groups were able to stay true to both their sonical niches and grow together. As of current, Drain Gang’s biggest competitors are other groups such as Shed Theory, Surf Gang or Haunted Mound. With all of these groups making music for people feeling somewhat alienated by the world, again all these groups are able to stay true to the kind of music they create with Shed Theory often being darker, more glitchy in production and Haunted Mound making witchhouse and more horror themed music. 

In conclusion, Drain Gang are able to keep to their own musical niche by innovating inside of their own sonical world, creating new sounds that still feel like you’re listening to them for the first time again and staying true to what they had originally created in the beginning of their soundcloud days. They do this by utilising the blue ocean marketing strategy extremely effectively by making music sometimes so outside the mainstream that it is impossible for other artists to compete in that market space. They are able to keep relevant and up to date with fans well by using many different factors of Kapferers brand identity prism, with things like live shows, exclusive merch drops, and public appearances. After a steady career since the 2010’s and 5 years so far in the mainstream lime light, the group shows no signs of stopping what they are creating, they show that you don’t have to fit in with what everyone else is doing to generate success with your art, be true to yourself and create what you want to create and the people that find meaning in your art will soon follow.

Reference list

Genius (2020). Bladee – Reality Surf. [online] Genius. Available at: https://genius.com/Bladee-reality-surf-lyrics [Accessed 20 Nov. 2025].

George, C. (2025). Drain Gang. [online] 032c.com. Available at: https://magazine.032c.com/magazine/drain-gang [Accessed 21 Nov. 2025].