Whitelen Interview: Yamaha

This interview was done on discord, December 5th. Rest In Peace, Yamaha.

This was translated to english, don't blame me for grammer.

Whitelen: First of all, it's nice being able to talk to you, I'm a huge fan of yours, SICK DIGITAL music in particular. I can see that you fusion a bunch of different genres in your music, for example: Breakcore, Vaporwave, and you even are in a emoviolence band. Can you tell me, what got you started making music? Electronic or Emoviolence, it doesn't matter.

Yamaha: Well, thanks for having me. I first started making music in 2021, when I was 12, isn't that crazy? I think I found FL studio free online. That's what started my music journey, though, I was simply sampling my friends talk and making those said voices distorted until 2022. I wouldn't call that music, so, actually, I started making music in 2022, I started making whatever started cool. I didn't know any genres, I just listened to whatever was popular. I don't take any inspiration for my music, I'm not a sewerslvt clone, not a Aphex Twin clone. I'm not a clone of nobody, it may seem like my music is similar to those said artists, but why does that matter? If you think I sound like sewerslvt, go listen to her music. She's 1000% better than me, why listen to a worst "clone" of hers? 

Whitelen: That's super cool, any chance I can get a tape of those 2022 files? Just joking. Anyways. How do you upload music so fast, from what I seen, you made your Vol series in one day. How do you do it?

Yamaha: I normally make the songs weeks before I release them. I think Vol. 1 was made in March, Vol. 2 And 3 were made in april, also, I immediately delete the songs I made after uploading them. So, I don't remember the days I made the songs. I probably deleted thousands of songs, If it doesnt sound good, I'm going to delete it. 

Whitelen: Can you remember how and when SICK DIGITAL was started? 

Yamaha: I grew up around the punk scene, going to shows with my dad, sometimes my brother. I think I met Akira at a punk show, actually. I don't remember the band I went to see. But, I met Akira at that show, and we immediately started hitting it off. Akira was the one who said we should start a punk together, I was already playing the drums at the time, he was a guitarist, and a good vocalist, so I was like "Sure, why not?" We couldn't find a bassist, so, I bought my first friend, "Yuki" into the band, she already knew bass, so, that was good. I think I was the one to named the band "SICK DIGITAL," it doesn't have any meaning, really. I think I was going for, uhhh.. "Listen to this, SICK band that's DIGITAL," we started recording many demos to sent to labels, we immediately scraped that idea, we wanted to be free, be as aggressive as we wanted. Though, there is probably emoviolence record labels, but, we didn't want to get bossed around. Our first demo we released on bandcamp is probably our sixth demo we made. The demos vary from emoviolence to dream pop, they aren't worth releasing. Just listen to emoviolence aesthetic. Reading off the list was our first attempt at making actual music. It turned out amazing. I don't think I could ever recreate it.

Whitelen: Any reason your first album, or, EP, was Post-Rock? why choose to add the emoviolence at the end? That probably lost you fans.

Yamaha: I think I added Post-Rock at the start to have it be more mainstream? I felt like just a emoviolence record would immediately make us off the map. Though, after I saw people online talking about how good the emoviolence was, I decided to release reading off the list. We permanently decided to lean into emoviolence after that.

Whitelen: I know you mentioned how you don't take inspiration from anyone, but what about inspiration in your band?

Yamaha: Oh, we took inspiration in moreru, boris, corea, and the 90s skramz scene. If you don't punch the air to SICK DIGITAL, don't listen, I'm sorry.

Whitelen: This is my last question, any future plans with your new band, "despera" or, any future electronic music plans?

Yamaha: We already have a new EP ready for release, uh, it might come out on the 7th. And, for my electronic music, I haven't made anything worthy of putting out. After all, I'm known for SICK DIGITAL, why listen to my electronic music? People tend to stop listening to my electronic music after 15 seconds.

Whitelen: Can't wait! Anywho, thanks for taking the interview.

Yamaha: You're welcome.