yeule is among the many ranks of glitch royalty. They have lived and thrived in the complicated, oversaturated world of the post-internet, digital subgenre. And they’ve stood out for his or her considerate, articulate perspective and uniquely weak voice amongst an array of artists desperate to discover and push the boundaries of other modern sounds, typically to little avail. Though yeule is fast to confess they love the protection of their “shell,” their discography has been a approach to expose some secrets and techniques, with a sound that whispers to Courtney Love, Björk, and Pixies.
Truly a multidisciplinary, the Singapore-born, London-based artist was educated on the esteemed Central Saint Martins in wonderful artwork, and the eye to element, curiosity for taking part in with aesthetics, and talent to each see and listen to textures have performed an enormous function in their work. From one album to the following, yeule, whose identify was chosen from the solid of Final Fantasy, dives deeper into their fascination with web tradition and the avatar realm, persevering with to shed and shift skins and sounds with inevitable private and artistic development.
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Reeling from the success of 2022’s beloved avant-pop Glitch Princess, yeule is as soon as once more making adjustments — saying immediately a forthcoming album, softscars, and a single launch with an accompanying B-side, “dazies” and “fish in the pool.” As the album title might reveal, this undertaking is deeply private, an sincere ode to long-held emotional wounds. This, above all different work yeule has launched, is an effort to discover pleasure by catharsis — which, as they instructed AP, they achieved.
When did you begin making music?
I began on digital music manufacturing after I was 14. I used to be actually curious from a younger age about how music was made, like whether or not there was a band who wrote the music, who did all of the preparations and the whole lot. Then I spotted there’s like an entire workforce behind it typically. But then in most circumstances of latest electronica — I’m speaking from my period — there are individuals who have been beginning to do the whole lot on their very own, like Purity Ring, Grimes, or Salem. At 14 or 15, I noticed Grimes play, and he or she actually had all her gear in entrance of her, and I used to be like, “This fucking bitch does it all by herself.” Then I used to be like, “OK, these people are doing it, so I’m gonna try.”
My first-ever piece of kit was this actually shitty Cakewalk, secondhand. One of the keys did not work — it was sticky. Then I had a mini keyboard, and I used to be singing with a rock band mics. I began writing stuff by myself, and it took me to determine the softwares I used to be on, like Logic. I dabbled in FL, after which I slowly transitioned into Ableton. I simply used YouTube or my buddies who know the software program very well to show me about it. I used to be actually fortunate as a result of I used to be surrounded by plenty of music manufacturing nerds from a younger age. I keep in mind we might simply all hang around on the benches outdoors the music room. It was so punk. Think about it, passing round like slightly thumb drive. Like, “I have no idea whether it is malware or not, but I’m just gonna take ’cause I trust you.”
On the opposite hand, after highschool, you went to CSM. Tell me about your time there. Do you’re feeling like that have, going to artwork faculty, knowledgeable a number of what you are doing now?
Yeah. I did wonderful artwork there for 4 years, and I really feel like shifting to London and assembly all these individuals at St. Martin’s, it challenged me. It was a step that I knew was gonna be boundary pushing. As cringe as that sounds, I believe in seriousness, it actually challenges you to dictate what you’re keen on about type, or the humanities, or trend, or actually something to do with the visible. You should create one thing that is game-changing in order to face out from what everybody else is doing. Because you understand that there are such a lot of wonderful artists who at the moment are in the sport with you and also you get actually impressed, however you are additionally attempting to create one thing new. So I believe it developed and shape-shifted a number of my views. Also, I do not know whether or not you have lived in London ever, however it’s very harsh. I grew up in Singapore, so my humor and socialization abilities have been primarily based on Singaporean worldwide faculty. But after I moved to the U.Okay., I spotted out of the blue my humorousness grew to become actually dry.
When did you begin going below your artist’s identify?
I used yeule as a username on all of my social media. Then after I launched music, I needed my buddies to know that it was me. So I simply ended up utilizing yeule. But I picked that identify from a Final Fantasy XIII character. She’s not one of many important characters, however I assumed that her story was very compelling — she will be able to journey by many timelines. The entire idea of XIII is you may journey by historical past, and the aim is to change historical past by mending occasions that occurred in the timeline. Ultimately, you get to see what previous, current, and future can be like if this factor occurred. So Yeul has a curse the place she is reborn repeatedly, however she dies in each timeline as a result of the timeline’s being modified. So due to that, she all the time meets her demise. It was actually stunning to me. This concept of reincarnation and cycles and I all the time thought that patterned existence is a factor. I meet individuals in my life lots that I really feel I’ve met earlier than. It’s simply uncanny.
[Photo by Colin McIntyre]
The concept of reincarnation is fascinating. If you concentrate on being a profitable musical artist or inventive, with the ability to reinvent your self or sides of your self are among the finest artist’s qualities. Successful artists are constantly, with every album cycle, rising and altering nonetheless barely. They’re drawing from totally different inspirations and totally different influences and totally different genres, in response to the world and their viewers. I like listening to your music as a result of I can hear that. There’s a number of transformation occurring.
It’s like going with the tide of the place your thoughts’s eye takes you. What you are drawn to will all the time change. If you have a look at footage of me from 2016 all the way in which until now, you may see I’ve dabbled in so many various avenues of fashion. I used to be actually into cyber sportswear in 2020. Then [in] 2021, I received actually into cottagecore. Then [in] 2022, I used to be hanging out with lots of people from New York. Now I’m in a renaissance punk section, with actually stunning, frilly, Christian-looking attire that I’m hemming and slicing them actually quick, so my ass is displaying. I wish to discover silhouettes subsequent. Junya, Yohji, Comme, trying into shapes. Iris van Herpen could be very uncannily nature-centric. It’s all Fibonacci patterns, taken from nature. The transformation of naturalism. I believe it is a good looking factor to watch.
It appears like we got here again to that very same subject, rebirth and transformation, even by type. How do you’re feeling like all of these kinds that you simply simply outlined by the years have additionally been echoed in your music?
Well, the music you take heed to influences your perspective. What I acquired as a child from pop tradition in the rock and indie scenes has change into one thing of a nostalgic secure area for me after I wanna really feel like I’m OK. For me, it’s emo music and different rock like shoegaze and the pop/alternative-rock artists from the early 2000s. I’m speaking Avril Lavigne, Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies. I’m a child once more when I’m listening to fucking In Utero. So, through the time I wrote softscars, I used to be consuming a number of that. I would not even pay attention on Spotify. I’d do it on cassette ‘cause that was how I listened to it as a kid. It influenced my sound so much, and it influenced the way I see or pick my aesthetic and sonic direction. It was not only bleeding into my music, but I was bleeding into my fashion sense. It was bleeding into this romanticizing the callousness of being young and having less seriousness about things. So it’s really speckled with delusions, but also I have to do my taxes and this stupid shit — paying rent, utility, paying for my car lease, at the same time. It helps create this really nice zone for me to be delusional and romanticize whatever it is I’m going through so that I can get through it. I think that’s the main reason my music was so guitar-influenced — I was just playing it a lot.
How would you describe the album that’s about to come out? How do you feel this sense of self and passion has bled into it, as a project?
The title of the album is softscars, which is a play on similar thematics to Glitch Princess. The [idea of the] glitch was taken from both cybernetic theory, which is more philosophical and posthuman — using knowledge within code and electronic electronics and being terminally online — subverting the organization of those systems. I’m like a cat, a creature of habit, so when something gets thrown off, I see that as total chaos and distortion. When I was coding a lot — I wasn’t really that intensive of a coder, but I was really into it after doing a short course in it in uni — I found it was a really cool way to integrate noise and in my installations. But when I dabbled into that, I kept getting errors and glitches, and sometimes you just couldn’t fix it. Sometimes I just left it in and people thought it was intentional — and with the music I was making, there were so many times where like sound would clip or my mic wouldn’t do the perfect take, and I realized, “Why don’t I simply go away all of it in?”
I simply noticed a correlation between these “mistakes” and the way a lot I attempted to manage my life. That was the place my obsession with glitch originated. And the identical factor with scars. I all the time really feel prefer it’s so private to inform somebody or share with somebody what scars you had and the way you bought them. Whether it was self-harm, abuse, an accident, if you have been a child fooling around, falling in a rose bush, by chance stabbed by your kindergarten classmate…
There are so many moments the place I attempted to cowl up so a lot of my scars, on my face or like on my arms or my physique surgical procedure stuff. But I’ve discovered magnificence in the relics of imperfection. That was the idea of what softscars, as an album, is supposed to symbolize. Each music is a really intricate, detailed rationalization of a sure trauma or a sure factor that modified you.
[Photo by Colin McIntyre]
Do you’re feeling like your stage persona is your genuine self? Or an alter ego of kinds?
It could be a bit controversial, however I do not truly consider that I’m totally different from what I’m presenting. I used to attempt to separate my private self from my offered self, however then that creates such a drastic shift, so I simply began to change into what I used to be onstage.
I do not assume that is essentially controversial, relying on the artist and what they’re presenting. No one else can essentially dictate what the genuine self actually means, sounds, or appears to be like like.
I really feel like I’m truly extra me when I’m up there. I can actually simply be uncensored. There’s simply so many roles that it’s important to conform to if you’re dwelling everyday. But then after I stopped caring about that, I began to really feel lots happier. There’s one thing inside that is so unstable and fiery that may devour me in any other case. I believe lots of people have that— not simply artists, however individuals in totally different fields, all over the place.
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