yeule is among the many ranks of glitch royalty. They’ve lived and thrived within the complicated, oversaturated world of the post-internet, digital subgenre. They usually have 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 different modern sounds, usually to little avail. Although yeule is fast to confess they love the security of their “shell,” their discography has been a solution to expose some secrets and techniques, with a sound that whispers to Courtney Love, Björk, and Pixies.
Really a multidisciplinary, the Singapore-born, London-based artist was educated on the esteemed Central Saint Martins in positive artwork, and the eye to element, curiosity for enjoying with aesthetics, and skill to each see and listen to textures have performed an enormous function of their work. From one album to the following, yeule, whose title was chosen from the solid of Ultimate 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 inventive 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 modifications — asserting right now a forthcoming album, softscars, and a single launch with an accompanying B-side, “dazies” and “fish within the pool.” Because the album title could reveal, this challenge is deeply private, an trustworthy ode to long-held emotional wounds. This, above all different work yeule has launched, is an effort to discover pleasure by way of 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 all the pieces. Then I noticed there’s like a complete staff behind it generally. However then typically of latest electronica — I am speaking from my period — there are individuals who have been beginning to do all the pieces 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 tools in entrance of her, and I used to be like, “This fucking bitch does all of it by herself.” Then I used to be like, “OK, these individuals are doing it, so I am gonna attempt.”
My first-ever piece of kit was this actually shitty Cakewalk, secondhand. One of many 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 associates who know the software program rather well to show me about it. I used to be actually fortunate as a result of I used to be surrounded by a number of music manufacturing nerds from a younger age. I bear in mind we might simply all hang around on the benches exterior the music room. It was so punk. Give it some thought, passing round like somewhat thumb drive. Like, “I do not know whether or not it’s malware or not, however I am simply gonna take ’trigger I belief you.”
Alternatively, after highschool, you went to CSM. Inform me about your time there. Do you’re feeling like that have, going to artwork college, knowledgeable a variety of what you are doing now?
Yeah. I did positive 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 fashion, or the humanities, or trend, or actually something to do with the visible. It’s a must to create one thing that is game-changing as a way to stand out from what everybody else is doing. Since you notice that there are such a lot of wonderful artists who are actually within 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 variety of my views. Additionally, I do not know whether or not you have lived in London ever, but it surely’s very harsh. I grew up in Singapore, so my humor and socialization expertise have been based mostly on Singaporean worldwide college. However after I moved to the U.Okay., I noticed immediately my humorousness turned actually dry.
When did you begin going below your artist’s title?
I used yeule as a username on all of my social media. Then after I launched music, I wished my associates to know that it was me. So I simply ended up utilizing yeule. However I picked that title from a Ultimate Fantasy XIII character. She’s not one of many principal characters, however I assumed that her story was very compelling — she will be able to journey by way of many timelines. The entire idea of XIII is you possibly can journey by way of historical past, and the aim is to change historical past by mending occasions that occurred within the timeline. Finally, 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 lovely 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 quite a bit that I really feel I’ve met earlier than. It is simply uncanny.
[Photo by Colin McIntyre]
The concept of reincarnation is attention-grabbing. If you concentrate on being a profitable musical artist or inventive, with the ability to reinvent your self or aspects of your self are among the greatest artist’s qualities. Profitable artists are constantly, with every album cycle, rising and altering nevertheless 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 variety 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. In case you take a look at footage of me from 2016 all the way in which until now, you possibly can see I’ve dabbled in so many alternative avenues of favor. I used to be actually into cyber sportswear in 2020. Then [in] 2021, I obtained actually into cottagecore. Then [in] 2022, I used to be hanging out with lots of people from New York. Now I am in a renaissance punk section, with actually lovely, frilly, Christian-looking attire that I’m hemming and reducing them actually quick, so my ass is displaying. I need to discover silhouettes subsequent. Junya, Yohji, Comme, trying into shapes. Iris van Herpen may be very uncannily nature-centric. It is all Fibonacci patterns, taken from nature. The transformation of naturalism. I believe it is an attractive factor to look at.
It seems like we got here again to that very same matter, rebirth and transformation, even by way of fashion. How do you’re feeling like all of these kinds that you simply simply outlined by way of the years have additionally been echoed in your music?
Properly, the music you hearken to influences your perspective. What I obtained as a child from popular culture within the rock and indie scenes has turn out to be one thing of a nostalgic secure house for me after I wanna really feel like I am OK. For me, it’s emo music and different rock like shoegaze and the pop/alternative-rock artists from the early 2000s. I am speaking Avril Lavigne, Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies. I am a child once more after I’m listening to fucking In Utero. So, throughout the time I wrote softscars, I used to be consuming a variety of that. I would not even hear on Spotify. I’d do it on cassette ‘trigger that was how I listened to it as a child. It influenced my sound a lot, and it influenced the way in which I see or choose my aesthetic and sonic course. It was not solely bleeding into my music, however I used to be bleeding into my trend sense. It was bleeding into this romanticizing the callousness of being younger and having much less seriousness about issues. So it is actually speckled with delusions, but in addition I’ve to do my taxes and this silly shit — paying lease, utility, paying for my automobile lease, on the similar time. It helps create this very nice zone for me to be delusional and romanticize no matter it’s I am going by way of in order that I can get by way of it. I believe that is the primary cause my music was so guitar-influenced — I used to be simply taking part in it quite a bit.
How would you describe the album that is about to return out? How do you’re feeling this sense of self and keenness has bled into it, as a challenge?
The title of the album is softscars, which is a play on comparable thematics to Glitch Princess. The [idea of the] glitch was taken from each cybernetic idea, which is extra philosophical and posthuman — utilizing data inside code and digital electronics and being terminally on-line — subverting the group of these methods. I am like a cat, a creature of behavior, so when one thing will get thrown off, I see that as whole chaos and distortion. After I was coding quite a bit — I wasn’t actually that intensive of a coder, however I used to be actually into it after doing a brief course in it in uni — I discovered it was a very cool solution to combine noise and in my installations. However after I dabbled into that, I stored getting errors and glitches, and generally you simply could not repair it. Generally I simply left it in and other people thought it was intentional — and with the music I used to be making, there have been so many instances the place like sound would clip or my mic would not do the proper take, and I noticed, “Why don’t I simply depart all of it in?”
I simply noticed a correlation between these “errors” and the way a lot I attempted to regulate 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 or not it was self-harm, abuse, an accident, once you have been a child fooling around, falling in a rose bush, unintentionally stabbed by your kindergarten classmate…
There are such a lot of moments the place I attempted to cowl up so lots of my scars, on my face or like on my arms or my physique surgical procedure stuff. However I’ve discovered magnificence within the relics of imperfection. That was the premise of what softscars, as an album, is supposed to symbolize. Every tune is a really intricate, detailed clarification 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 is likely to be a bit controversial, however I do not really imagine that I’m totally different from what I am 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 turn out to be what I used to be onstage.
I do not assume that is essentially controversial, relying on the artist and what they’re presenting. Nobody else can essentially dictate what the genuine self actually means, sounds, or seems like.
I really feel like I’m really extra me after I’m up there. I can actually simply be uncensored. There’s simply so many roles that you need to conform to once you’re residing everyday. However then after I stopped caring about that, I began to really feel quite a bit happier. There’s one thing inside that is so risky and fiery that might devour me in any other case. I believe lots of people have that— not simply artists, however individuals in numerous fields, in every single place.
