An Updated Interview with Sayuri Pastel, July 2025
It's been a while since we've done an interview!! How do you feel your sound has changed since we last talked (around February 2024)? What new ways of working/outlooks/inspirations have you gained that influence your music?
It's nice to be back! I feel like my sound has definitely changed over the years from starting with Lofi Instrumentals and Trip Hop. I'm really happy I started to embrace more of my emotions on my music, making it more raw and aggressive or even sad and hurt while visualizing my mental illness.
Describe your creative process! Is your music made in a more organized, blocked out manner or is it more on the go/improvisational? How do you see the process shine through in the finished product?
My creative process is very improvisational, it's very based on my emotions, what i'm feeling or what i'm struggling with at the time. The process can take between 3 days to a week depending on the project I'm working on, while larger projects usually take me a whole month to release. It is really nice to see when a project finally all comes together and it looks and sounds how I'm feeling, the more obscure expressionism the better the outcome.
Tell me about the process behind Girlfailure! What were some general themes/messages you wanted to portray through it? What does it mean to you? Did the songs come together more chronologically or were different ideas meshed together over time?
Getting older now, i feel like i'm behind on life a lot - especially since I'm disabled and struggle with agoraphobia. Girlfailure was a representation of that and the trauma a girl can have in her life growing up with mental health issues. When me and my sister, Bundrip, created the album we both shared these issues and wanted to put those emotions into something that showed how much pain we were facing in everyday life. Looking back these songs were definitely mashed together because while making these songs it was very painful going back on certain memories that we had repressed or were currently dealing with.
You perform primarily virtually and have established yourself as an online artist! What does that look like compared to the more traditional artist route? What does the online music scene look like? (essentially what is it like to have your audience be online rather than IRL, what is it like performing shows virtually?)
I feel like working mostly visually and online has definitely been an interesting ride, a lot of my connections are virtual so it feels like once you get your foot in the water it becomes overwhelming very easily. Since it's online a sleep schedule is practically non existent and the need to constantly perform because your online is definitely different compared to traditional artists. The longest I had to DJ in VR was 4 hours once and my feet were on fire.
Performing visually online is rather funny, in the beginning while being in a VR headset i was peeping thru my tiny nose hole in my headset to DJ! But now there are overlays you can run while being in the headset to cast your DJ program inside while gaming, and since I've been DJing a good bit on my controller I've memorized the buttons so its a lot easier on me. From there we use a streaming service along with OBS called VRCDN that connects to the video player inside of a world while simultaneously streaming it to twitch as well. Or when I'm not in VR I use my VTUBER model to DJ while playing the visuals I created. I do this for Final Fantasy XIV and VRCHAT! There are so many online games with DJing communities!!
But for me doing this virtually has been really easy on my disabilities and mental health, i feel a lot safer and comfortable creating in my own space and being my own boss, i feel like me struggling with these issues makes it really hard for me doing this outside and i would rather not make myself more uncomfortable than i already am in life.
I feel like every artist has a different outlook on the music industry (and art as a whole) in the digital world. The internet is quickly evolving and more creatives are focusing more on digital means to host their work! I would love to hear your thoughts on it - what led you to embrace the internet so heavily in your work? Do you think it's important for artists to establish an online presence with the same motivation as an IRL presence? What do you think the future of online creatives looks like?
With the internet growing, i think it's really important to be apart of it now as the years go on. i want to make my digital footprint as large as possible, so even when I'm long gone people can find my music and art and share the connection with these emotions - to know that they are not alone and that expressing your symptoms and talking about your mental health isn't bad and shouldn't be stigmatized or put away in a hospital for it. I also heavily believe in preserving old media and games for future generation to play and watch!
It is still important to make connections online and IRL, making friends and establishing networks that will host you or even show your work is very important in both worlds. I feel like the future of online creatives is going to expand quite a lot once it becomes more known and used like a phone. It would be nice to see where VR will evolve in 10 years.
What's been your favorite moment/biggest achievement as a DJ so far?
What are your current big goals or projects? What does the future hold/what are you working towards right now?
Right now my biggest project has been learning Touch Designer and learning all the unique and interesting aspects it can make visually with digital nodes. I'm currently working on a music video that puts these aspects into something beautifully. Future-wise I'm looking to eventually apply for a meet and greet or a booth at a convention, but with my issues it might be awhile before I can achieve that but one day I will!
Do you have any advice for someone looking to become a primarily-online artist/Vtuber?
DONT GIVE UP! Never second guess yourself! My art teacher once told me if your unsure of your art, put it to the side and come back 30 mins or hell 2 hours later and see if you like it then or want to change it. That has helped a lot with my work and i still use that till this day.
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