lunamaryllis

How have you been lately luna?

Hmm... sonically I've been feeling pretty good. My mental is on a decline but I'll get through it.

That's good that you're getting through it. Have you been coping by making music lately? Or are you just moving through the waves?

I've been trying to make more music to cope, but most of the time I'm quite demotivated so I'll just sit and listen to music or watch something. But when I am motivated, I lock in on music.

What drove you to start your discography? Was it an influence on where you grew up or was it primarily inspiration?

Primarily inspiration. Honestly, my discography started because I was listening to ambient DnB—Sewerslvt clones—and I was watching a bunch of tutorials and it looked easy. But I figured out that's not what I wanted to do.

So when I started taking music seriously I really leaned into inspirations like lexycat. lexycat is really my main inspiration. But this new album is heavily inspired by ch2rms, nerves by ch2rms in particular. Funnily enough, lexycat has like 4 placements and a feature on that album.

Well, that shouldn't be surprising, considering you are a member of WoundedHeart (lexy's collective/group), and you two hit it off quickly! It's amazing how open-minded she can be, noting how much of an influence she is in the music space. Would you be willing to name the project you're speaking of?

Yea sure. "metaphysical ☆ decay". Cause like... I'm lowkey falling apart. I'm nearly done with it, I just need to make one more song, but this song is gonna be pretty ambitious.

Is this project solo or will it have collabs?

Mostly solo. Like almost all of it is solo. saivyn sent me a pad though and I used it in the intro song. Shoutout to saivyn.

A solo project does sound pretty special! How about your other album in the works, "digital Angel", what do people need to know about it right now?

digital Angel is paused at the moment, but it will come out. Even if it takes years. It might need a 3rd version because I want this album to be great, and when I look at it for a long time I think I can do better. But that's for future me to think about. Maybe I'll drop some of V2 as a prologue.

Woah, how long have you been working on it?

Technically since April of last year. It was originally supposed to be kind of a DnB Angelicide-inspired type album, but it changed direction when I started using my voice. V2 has been in the works since July.

digital Angel definitely sounds like your magnum opus!! How extreme do you think beginning to use your vocals has changed the path to your catalog?

VERY extreme. If I never used my vocals there's a big possibility I could've gotten bored of music and quit.

Woww, your production game was already insane but you leveled your music up even more by achieving the status as a self-prod artist. Were you nervous at all before you began using your vocals?

Yea, a little bit. Autotune saved my life though. I don't think I could ever do vox on a song without autotune. It's not because I don't wanna improve in singing, it's just that minor pitch imperfections hurt my soul and hearing those over and over again while recording would kill me. So thanks to Antares.

Since joining RAINOUT in late July, you had a role in executively producing ZOMBIEBOY. You bloomed on the collective even more when you dropped let's have some fun and since then, you have been working on these albums. You and V0CALYST and shinrei have set a name for the collective intensely. Do you look forward to working with the collective some more these coming years?

Yes absolutely. There will definitely be more luna exec-prod albums and collab tapes with members, and of course solo albums (with features) under RAINOUT. And I can't wait to go on tour too ^_^

ME TOO I can't wait until we grow big enough to fund concerts, that's the dream. Let's move onto another topic, your project with SVPACYBERIA, "a letter 2 my past". What was your reaction when Ayu (SVPACYBERIA's owner) greenlit giving this grail album a CD release?

I was quite happy ^_^ and honestly I wouldn't have made the project if she didn't offer to put it under SVPA. I'm glad I made the project because it was something I needed to get out for myself, going back to my DnB roots. SVPA is moving on to other things that aren't DnB right now... so a luna instrumental (dariacore or hardcore) album under SVPA might not be too far away...

There's also another thing I want to talk about, which I also think has influenced your journey: Your name change. You were moving swiftly through the scene under "sai" then decided to lock in on "lunamaryllis", what snapped inside of you to decide this?

Sai is a very common name. And I mean VERY common. So it didn't feel uniquely my own, and Sai doesn't have any real significant meaning. It's just a shortened version of my Geometry Dash username translated into Japanese. I'm actually surprised I stuck with it for so long.

lunamaryllis at least has some meaning. It's a combination of luna and amaryllis. I think the amaryllis is a pretty flower, and I feel like I've been associated with the moon for a large part of my life. When coming up with this name I thought about moonflower, lexycat's debut EP, and I feel like the name moonflower really resonated with me, so I basically put my own spin on it and Boom. lunamaryllis.

Also my grandpa calls all of his grandkids "_-light" and I happen to be moonlight.

Oh yeah, I also lowkey wanted to disassociate with that game. Not like entirely because I still have friends who play it and I hop on from time to time, but a lot of the community is toxic and there's too much drama to keep up with a lot of the time.

You have such an interesting history and I'm glad you went in-depth for it. Thank you for talking with me today.