ME: firstly, I have to commend your song I don’t where I’m going but that’s okay, it’s beautiful. What was the inspiration behind that song?
SARYA: In 2018, I was roaming around Edinburgh, feeling kind of flat about life because I was working part-time in a cafe, wondering if I should fully dedicate myself to my music, and I went to a electronic music festival in Vienna with a friend to see Tami T, and in the morning after the party, I couldn't sleep since I was so inspired after seeing her play live, smacking her synthesizer dildo, making such emotional heart-thumping electronic music...so I wrote the intro and chorus instrumental at about 6am in the morning, and spent the rest of my trip in singing while walking places, trying to find the right lyrics, and the song sort of came together. It's centered around feeling okay about where you are, even if you're in a shitty job that you hate, because eventually you'll get where you need to go as long as you're always trying to be better. I think most people, especially myself, are really guilty about not being where they want, feeling disappointed about not doing enough, then burning out, and having this vicious cycle of self-critique perpetuate a very pessimistic outlook on present life. I wanted to write a song that was like a little cheerleader telling the inner critic to shut up, because you're doing you're best.
M: the aesthetic for your covers are so unique - did you come up with all of them yourself?
S: I've been lucky enough to be blessed with friendships with very talented people, and so a lot of the album artwork is from friends. The first few covers are by Glasgow-based artist Tess Glen, whose ethereal and dreamy paintings have always been such a perfect match for my reverb-heavy ballads. I reach out to sweet Tess, look through her work, and it just syncs. (please link tess's work here https://www.tessglen.com/ @teddglen and instagram all the other people ) Other artists including Kara Bell @avrilravine, Maebh Kosuta @rhubarb.witch, Ben Ambrozevich (@benambrozevich) Joel Suganth (https://www.joelsuganth.com/) @joelsuganth. I always want to platform my fellow artists, so it's my own way of supporting my community. There are some I've done myself, and although I am no visual artist, it's very fun to try and convey my music with my own visuals.
M: when making music do you write from experience?
S: It's embarrassing, but my friends have told me that when we aren't speaking much, they just listen to my music to see how I'm feeling. Every song I write is hugely based on my own experiences, but I pray to God that people aren't thinking of me when they listen to it. I want to be able to create a song that leaves a space for the listener to insert themselves. I'm hugely inspired by video game music, and a part of me wants people who are hearing my music to be able to project themselves into the emotion and content of the song.
M: a lot of artists release music they wrote years ago, and others more recently. Do you write music and immediately go to release it? Or have songs you wrote from perhaps a younger age come up?
S: I usually try to write songs almost every day, if I have the time, so my releases are constantly staggered. There's usually a year delay from writing a song to having it made into a demo, produced, mixed and mastered...music takes SUCH a lot time, especially when you want to get it right. Due to this, by the time the song comes out, I must have listened to it hundreds of times, and I have no desire to listen to it anymore, haha! I must have about 50 songs in the vault (that will probably never see official release), but I occasionally go back and revisit some songs to get feedback from my fellow musicians and producers to use as material to jumpstart a new project. If I happen to write a song that I think is REALLY GOOD, then it jumps the queue and I try to get it out there ASAP.
M: when did you start writing / making music?
S: I wrote my first song in 2016, when I was starting to learn ukulele. I come from a spoken word background, so naturally I just started writing lyrics without really realising it. I would say I truly became more of a musician in 2017, spending a lot of time learning how to play guitar and use Ableton, after having spent a year hosting open mics in The Forest Cafe, and returned to Taipei being able to perform gigs with a lot of original songs. It's hard for me to call myself a musician sometimes, because I started so late, but I am happy to feel comfortable enough to call myself one now.
M: your first release on Spotify was 2018. How do you feel you and your music has changed since there?
S: I look back on my old music and can see how much it's developed. I think I used to stick to indie folk songs, but now I dabble in a lot of different genres. Getting into the world of electronic music production has been life changing, and I'm always learning ways to make new kinds of sounds. Now, there is a strong element of electronic noises and vocal variance in my music, and you can hear the difference if you listen to "insomnia song" then "WHY DO I CRY", back to back. My starting points were Death Cab For Cutie and Daniel Johnston, but now I look up to artists like Katie Dey, Mitski, Tami T, JFDR, SASAMI, and FKA twigs. And I will forever look to Icelandic band mùm for everything.
M: a lot of your 2020 music is becoming pretty popular at the moment - did you expect that bunch of music to be the bunch launching you forward?
S: I was so damn stupid and didn't even see that Spotify had a playlisting feature. "i don't know where i'm going but that's okay" was the first song I pitched, and when it got really popular, I was really shocked! In truth, it wasn't even my favourite song on that EP, but I knew it was a banger. My producer Calum Cummins at North Edinburgh Arts told me that before it all happened, and I didn't really think much of it until I was getting thousands of listens on Spotify suddenly.
M: you have over 30k monthly listeners at the moment; is that number overwhelming to you?
S: I feel pretty lucky to even have a few hundred listens, so the fact it's over 30K at times is like a constant loving hug. However, I am well-aware that listens on Spotify are not everything, and it propels me to stay humble and try to work harder on cultivating a following and making even more music that might be embraced by the world.
M: did you ever see yourself taking up music to this extent and reaching these numbers?
S: I guess as a DIY musician, I never saw that for me. I always thought I was going to have a very modest profile and have much bigger local followings and intimate gigs. But with the pandemic and all that has happened, the opposite occurred. I am very honoured to be digitally noticed and be put on this path though. I think it makes me focus more on constantly releasing music rather than performing, which given that COVID is still quite prevalent, especially in Taiwan, is not the worst series of events.
M: i like to end on a fun one; you’ve recently collaborated with bird fish. if you could collaborate with anyone in the world who would it be and why?
S: birdfish is a masterful producer and a wonderful guy. I'm so lucky to have been able to work with him. We have a few more tunes together coming out, so watch out for those! If I could work with anyone, I think either Tami T or múm, but to be honest, I'm sure I'd get to the recording studio and immediately faint and/or fawn over them the entire time. I would love to work with more trans/non-binary/QTPOC artists in general. At the moment I am based in Taipei, and would love nothing more than to return to Scotland to collaborate with my dear friend Callie Rose AKA lonely carp (@lonely_carp) so we can complete our unfinished musical project SHE//THEY, featuring us using heavily auto-tuned baby-voices harmonies and distorted cute noises to make 8-bitty music about trans solidarity in creation. I miss her a lot.
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