Yeule belongs to the ranks of failure royalty. They survive and thrive in the complex, oversaturated world of post-internet, electronic sub-genres. With their thoughtful, clear vision and uniquely vulnerable sound, they stand out among the many artists eager to explore and push the boundaries of alternative contemporary sounds, often with little success. While yeule are quick to admit they like the security of “Shell,” their record is a way of letting some secrets out, their voices whispering to Courtney Love, Björk and the Pixies.
A true multidisciplinary artist, the Singapore-born, London-based artist was educated in fine art at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art, with an eye for detail, an aesthetic curiosity and a knack for seeing and hearing texture. Competence played a huge role in their work.From one album to the next, yeule, his name is chosen from the cast final fantasydelving deeper into their fascination with internet culture and the realm of avatars, continuing to shed and alter skin and voice for inevitable personal and creative growth.
Read more: 100 gecs invade the earth
The success of beloved progressive pop in 2022 is astounding glitch princessyeule is making a change again – announcing an upcoming album today, soft scar, and the singles “dazies” and “fish in the pool” with accompanying B-sides. As the album title reveals, the project is deeply personal, an honest ode to long-term emotional trauma. More than anything else Yeule has released, it was an effort to find joy through catharsis — and, as they told the AP, they did.
When did you start making music?
I’ve been making electronic music since I was 14 years old. I grew up curious about how music was made, like if there was a band that wrote the music, did all the arrangements, etc. Then I realized that sometimes there is a whole team behind it.but Then In most cases in contemporary electronic music – and I’m talking about my time – there are guys who start doing everything themselves, like Purity Ring, Grimes or Salem. When I was 14 or 15, I saw Grimes play and she literally had all the equipment in front of her and I was like, “This damn bitch made it all herself”.“ And then I thought, “Well, these people are doing it, so I’m going to try.“
My first piece of equipment was this really bad used Cakewalk. One of the keys is broken – it’s stuck. Then I have a mini keyboard and I sing into a rock band mic. I started writing things myself and it took me a lot of time to figure out which software I used, like Logic. I dabbled in FL and slowly transitioned to Ableton. I just use YouTube or my friends who know the software very well to teach me. I was really lucky because I grew up surrounded by a lot of music production fans. I remember we would all hang out on the benches outside the music room. Too punk. Think of it like passing around like a little thumb drive. Like, “I don’t know if this is malware, but I’m just going to accept it because I trust you.”
On the other hand, after high school, you go to CSM. Tell me about your time there. Do you feel that going to art school has inspired a lot in what you do now?
Yes. I did fine art there for four years and it was a challenge for me to move to London and meet all these people at St Martins. I knew this step would push boundaries. While this might sound daunting, I seriously think it does challenge you to decide what style, art, fashion, or anything visually related you like. You have to create something game-changing to stand out from what everyone else is doing. Because you realize there are a lot of great artists working with you on the game right now, and you’re really inspired, but you’re also trying to create something new. So I think it evolved and changed a lot of my perspective. Also, I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in London, but it’s pretty harsh there. I grew up in Singapore, so my sense of humor and social skills are based on Singapore International School. But when I moved to the UK, I suddenly realized that my sense of humor had become very dry.
When did you start using your artist name?
I use yeule as my username on all social media. Then when I release music, I want my friends to know that’s me. So I ended up using yeule.but i get from a final fantasy 13 features. She’s not one of the main characters, but I think her story is very compelling – she can travel through many timelines.whole concept Thirteen yes you can travel through history, the goal is Change Go through history by fixing events that happened in the timeline. Ultimately, you’ll see what the past, present and future would look like if this happened. So Yeul is cursed and she is reborn again and again but she dies in each timeline because the timeline is being changed. Therefore, she always met death. It’s really beautiful to me. This idea of reincarnation and circulation, I have always thought that the existence of patterns is one thing. I meet a lot of people in my life that I feel like I’ve met before. It’s incredible.
[Photo by Colin McIntyre]
The idea of reincarnation is interesting. Being able to reinvent yourself or aspects of yourself is one of the best artist qualities if you want to be a successful music artist or creative. Successful artists continue to grow and change with each album cycle, no matter how small. They draw from different inspirations, different influences and different genres to respond to the world and audience. I love listening to your music because I can hear it. There are many transformations taking place.
It’s like following trends at will. What you attract will always change. If you look at my photos from 2016 until now, you can see that I have dabbled in a lot of different styles. In 2020 I’m really into cyber sportswear.Then [in] In 2021, I am really obsessed with Shanzhai nuclear.Then [in] In 2022, I’m hanging out with a lot of guys from New York. Right now I’m in the renaissance punk phase and I’m wearing really nice, frilly, Christian style clothes that I hem and cut really short so my ass is showing. Next I wanted to explore silhouettes. Junya, Yohji, Comme, working on shapes. Iris van Herpen was very nature-centric. These are all Fibonacci patterns, taken from nature. naturalistic shift. I think it’s a beautiful thing to observe.
It felt like we were coming back to the same theme of rebirth and transformation, even through style. Do you feel like all the styles you just outlined echoed in your music over the years?
Well, the music you listen to can affect your perspective. What I got from pop culture in the rock and indie scene as a kid has become my nostalgic safe space when I wanted to feel okay. For me it’s emo and alternative rock, like Shoegaze and pop/alternative rock artists of the early 2000s. I’m talking about Avril Lavigne, Smash the Pumpkins, Pixie.I’m a kid again when I listen to the fucking song in the womb.So, during the time I wrote soft scar, I consume a lot. I don’t even listen to it on Spotify. I would record on tape because that’s how I listened to it as a kid. It has a huge impact on my sound and the way I look at or choose my aesthetic and sound direction. Not only does it flow into my music, but also into my fashion sense. It permeates this romanticized youthful ruthlessness and less serious approach to things. So it’s really delusional, but I also have to pay taxes and do these stupid things – pay rent, utilities, pay my car lease at the same time. It helped me create a really good zone for me to be delusional and romanticize what I was going through so that I could get through it. I think that’s the main reason my music is so guitar-influenced – I just play it a lot.
How would you describe the upcoming album? As a project, how do you feel this self-awareness and enthusiasm comes into play?
the title of the album is soft scarwhich is a similarly themed game glitch princess.this [idea of the] Glitch is taken from cybernetics, which is more philosophical and post-human – using knowledge in code and electronics and ultimately online – to subvert the organization of these systems. I’m like a cat, a creature of habit, so when something gets thrown around, I think it’s total confusion and distortion. When I do a lot of coding – I’m not really a coder, but I really liked it after taking a short course at university – I find this a really cool way of integrating noise in my setup . But when I dabbled in the field, I kept running into bugs and glitches, and sometimes you just can’t fix it. Sometimes I just leave it in, and people think it’s intentional—there are so many times in the music I make that the sound will get cut, or my mic won’t capture it perfectly, and I realize, “Why not? “Do I leave it all in there?
I just saw a correlation between these “mistakes” and how much I tried to control my life. This is where my obsession with glitches originated.and the same thing scar. I always feel like it’s very personal to tell someone or share with someone which scars you have and how you got them. Whether it’s self-harm, abuse, accidents, being silly as a child, falling into a rosebush, accidentally being stabbed by a kindergarten classmate…
There have been times when I have tried to cover up scars on my face, arms, or body surgery. But I found beauty in the ruins of imperfection.the basis of what this is soft scar, as an album, is meant to represent. Each song is a very complex, detailed explanation of some kind of trauma or something that changed you.
[Photo by Colin McIntyre]
Do you feel that your stage persona is your true self? Or some kind of alter ego?
This might be a bit controversial, but I actually don’t believe I am any different than what I’m presented with. I used to try to separate my personal self from my presented self, but it caused such a huge shift that I started becoming who I was on stage.
I don’t think it’s necessarily controversial, depending on the artist and what they’re showing. No one can determine what, what, or how your authentic self really means, sounds, or looks.
i feel i actually more when I’m on it. I really can live without scrutiny. In everyday life, there are so many roles that you have to fit into. But when I stopped caring about that, I started feeling a lot happier. There’s something in it that’s so unstable and hot that it would otherwise consume me. I think a lot of people have that mentality – not just artists, but people in different fields all over the world.
