FEATURE:
Spotlight
PHOTO CREDIT: Tray Nguyen
to discuss the unique and truly brilliant SAILORR. I am new to her music though there are some interesting interviews out there that shed more light on a wonderful artist who is going to go very far. Her debut album, FROM FLORIDA’S FINEST, is one I am digging into at the moment. I will end this feature with a review of that album (or whether she would call it a mixtape). To begin, I want to explore a few interviews with SAILORR from earlier in the year. I am starting out with an interview from FADER. They spoke with SAILORR about her upbringing and the crash-out anthem, Pookie’s Requiem. I want to source the opening of the interview:
“The thing about SAILORR is that she’s Florida through and through. The 26-year-old Vietnamese-American singer from Jacksonville curves her words slightly when she speaks, especially prominent when she peppers in words like “hella” and “vibe.” It shapes the way she croons “To whatever bitch you got in Bushwiiick” on “Pookie’s Requiem,” the November 2024 song that introduced the world to her lovelorn R&B. The single that followed, “Cut Up,” takes its title from slang used widely across Florida and the South (to cut up: to start acting up over something). SAILORR is built different, and her music’s approach to love — finding it, losing it, and crashing out — reflects her distinct structure.
“Growing up [in Jacksonville], I feel like I didn't really adhere to any social norms or whatever boundaries and binaries people tried to put on me,” SAILORR says on a recent March morning. We’re talking over a video call and she’s still in bed, dressed in a slouchy black tee and out of her usual uniform of pink, frills, and bows. “The South, it’s very traditional and almost conservative there. When you find your little pockets in communities that you do resonate with, it's a very beautiful thing.”
She’s speaking to me from her new home in Los Angeles, where she moved in January as her life began to change. In the five months since “Pookie’s Requiem” became ubiquitous on TikTok, SAILORR skyrocketed from being a virtual unknown to an artist covered by Halle Bailey, posted by Justin Bieber, and remixed by Summer Walker. In March, news broke that her label BuVision, run by Akon’s brother Abou Thiam, would be merging with Atlantic Music Group, sending her further into the big leagues. All the attention has brought countless new eyes, and she’s feeling it.
Growing up in a large, traditional Vietnamese family to blue collar immigrant parents, SAILORR found refuge watching music videos on MTV during family functions and stealing her sister’s iPod to put herself on: “André 3000 and Erykah Badu,” she lists. “I have a very deep love for neo soul.” An avid journaler and performer, she took up the musical theater track at a local performing arts high school. But after realizing she didn’t enjoy “telling other people's narratives,” she pivoted to teaching herself how to make her own beats: first on a SP-404 digital sampler, then D.A.Ws like Fruity Loops and Ableton. From there, she integrated herself in a community of music-making friends.
Before she was SAILORR, she released music under the name Sailor Goon, a moniker inspired by the Japanese anime Sailor Moon that nodded to the “soft but also hard” style of her personality. “I have gone through a lot of shit in my life and had to grow up to be a super, hyper-independent person,” she says, declining to go into detail. Her early sample-driven songs showcased her fluid runs and deep, resonant voice (most, if not all, of these songs have since been taken down). But it was in “Pookie’s Requiem,” her first major release under the abbreviated name SAILORR, where she found her pocket”.
The next interview I am sourcing is Teen Vogue. Published in May, SAILORR discussed FROM FLORIDA’S FINEST, cultural appropriation and being a reformed crashout. If you have not heard SAILORR and are fresh to her music then do make sure that you spend some time with her. Someone who is very much carving her own path through the music scene:
“TV: When you're creating music, do you think about how people are going to receive it, or do you just do it for yourself, and then whatever comes next is up to fate?
SAILORR: I don't feel much pressure or constraints to create anything, thankfully, because I know that pressure does build over time for many artists. My music is definitely for me. I feel like maybe three-quarters into writing, I'll think about it and be like, “Is this going to hit with people? Is it going to resonate with anybody?” But if it resonates with me, that's all that really matters. I don't get too heady.
TV: You previously said that music has always been an intimate thing for you, and you didn't expect people to see what you were creating. Has that changed since “Pookie's Requiem”? Has it changed your approach to making music?
SAILORR: No. It is very much an intuition thing. I'm always going to follow my gut and what feels right… Censoring how I feel or what I say just goes against my entire ethos — of course, with limitations to not harming other people and not harming yourself. I think that, in general, you should never put any boundaries on yourself because then that's stifling a lot of solid groundwork that you could be making on getting to know yourself.
This project in itself was a huge learning opportunity for me as a certified people pleaser all my life. I was always told to just be as small as possible and not be true to what I actually want and say. It was a challenge for me to get over that and be like, “This is my music. Nobody else is gonna write this sh*t for me.” I needed to bear how I really feel and think about what the f*ck I want to say and just say it.
TV: When you released “Pookie's Requiem,” you got a lot of attention but a lot of detractors and critics. Speaking to The Fader, you said that you always try to pay homage to the artists that came before you, but also show respect and not piss people off. How do you toe that line? I would love to get your thoughts on how artists as a whole can approach the whole cultural appropriation versus appreciation conversation thoughtfully.
SAILORR: At the end of the day, there's a multitude of ways you can cause harm to people that you may not even be aware of, and that's the root of cultural appropriation. I think that when you make music and art, it needs to be genuine to your authentic self. That's all you really know, and that's all you can really stick to.
The key is to try your best to just continue learning because there is always [so] much to f*cking know — so much history and so much future. I feel like I took a lot of time to just be a student of music in general and just the world and learn where my place [is] in it. Art makes the world go around, and you have to be aware of your place in it before you put it out there.
PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Figs
TV: When did you realize that art made your world go around?
SAILORR: Probably a couple of years after high school. 2020 was when I really wanted to delve into it. That's when I started learning how to sample and make beats in Ableton. I actually started in Fruity [Loops or FL Studio], but that was a feat within itself. Honestly, the pandemic really set that sh*t off. You're at the crib, you literally have nothing else to do with your time, so it definitely sparked that first catalyst.
TV: I feel like you mention your pen a lot. Did you do any writing before you started playing around with sampling?
SAILORR: I feel like I have a strong basis in writing scripts for the stage and film because I’m just bored. I was helping my friend Liz at the time with her short film, and we just had a lot of aspirations and fun making really low-budget things at home. That was my basis, I suppose, is just making scripts that probably nobody would ever read and I would never ever produce, but it’s for me. It's my practice.
TV: What's your main goal when you're making music?
SAILORR: I go into the studio trying to find the most niche way possible that I can relate to somebody — like “DONE SHAVING 4 U.” It's fun to find very specific situations that most people can relate to — well, really, women. I write songs for ladies. I don't give a f*ck about the boys.
No, that's not true, but this entire project is about ingenuity and femininity and just literally having to make something out of nothing my entire life, and I think that that's what women have to do in general. We fight the good fight. So I'm going to find the most mundane ways to just hit home for people that also really exhibit a certain feeling or a memory.
TV: It's funny that you said you make music for women, because I've read another quote from you where you said everything you do is inspired by women. Who are the most influential women in your life?
SAILORR: Within my inner circle, I would say probably my grandma and my older sister, but generally speaking… [beat] I've never actually been asked this. I'm like, “Damn.” I think Nikki Giovanni, as a person overall, has always inspired me. She's fire. There are so many women out in the world who just do great things, but that's off the top.
TV: Right now, while we're speaking, the album is days away. What's going through your mind at the moment?
SAILORR: I'm like, “Finally! Damn.” The day that we turned in the project, I was like, “This just doesn't feel right. I'm like, what do we do?” I mean, obviously, there's so much more work to be done. But in terms of the actual music itself, I just wasn't ready to let go of it. I could sit here for another three years and think about this. But I had to force myself into the mindset of “I'm ready to put this out.”
It's weird listening back to a lot of the music sometimes, because some of it I don't resonate with anymore. Of course, I love the music and I love all these songs, but I think that in general it was writing from a place that I'm not in anymore, so it's like opening a random page on your diary and being like, “Damn that's what I was doing that day?”
TV: How does it feel to see your thoughts from that time period? Because there are a lot of breakup-inspired songs, and speaking to Apple, you said you're in a happy relationship now…
SAILORR: Thank God. If anybody stresses me out like that again, I'm crashing out. But no, it's cool. I think it's also because healing is so nonlinear. I'll listen back to the songs and I'll be like, “Damn girl, I know what you're talking about.”
Similar to that diary entry, when you read it back, you love that other person still — not my ex. I'm talking about me. The younger version of myself who wrote that entry. I mean, I got love for my ex, too. It is very important to the human experience to reflect back on all of that time because it does force you to see the imperfections and makes you have grace for yourself and for that other person.
Hearing the songs, I wish I could go to my younger self and tell her it was going to be okay, because it's great now! I can still feel those things. They will never go away. But I definitely don't resonate with trying to go fight somebody's mom. I'm definitely not going to do that.
TV: How did you go about selecting the singles? What made them stand out to you to be like, "Yeah, this needs to be out before the album"?
SAILORR: I wish I could say I was more calculated about things, especially when it comes to my rollout, but honestly, I literally was just like, "This feels good. Put it out." Boom. I really like [Martin] Scorsese, you know what I mean? It wasn't super calculated to where I knew what the next five singles were, but it definitely felt like I was tracing a bit of a world, and I knew that I wanted to open up the project with at least the five pillars of what makes the music me.
I wanted people to hear the writing. I wanted people to just feel the production, because I feel in general Zach [Ezzy] and Adam [Krevlin] are so crazy. Two geniuses, bro. I love them so much. We just all crafted such a unique sound, so I really wanted to spend my time with the singles sharing that”.
The final interview I want to highlight is from NME from earlier in the year. There are other interviews I want to direct people towards. This UPROXX interview is well worth a read. You need to go and follow SAILORR now. She is an exceptional talent. I am excited that SAILORR is coming to the U.K. She plays London’s Jazz Club on 2nd July. That is going to be a very special gig. She has a lot of fans here, though I feel she will pick up plenty of new ones that night:
“What inspires you?
“It can be anything: a feeling, a colour, or a scene out of a movie. Honestly, I pull a lot from memes. I’ll find a funny ass one and take a one-liner from it and build around that. That’s pretty much how I’ve been making all of my music for the past year. The only way for you to cut through to people is by balancing honesty and vulnerability with humour and wit.
“[When I was in sixth grade,] I finally got my own means to listen to music and dove into stuff like Lana Del Rey, Modest Mouse, and, of course, Odd Future. Tyler, The Creator made me feel like, ‘Damn, you can be alternative and people will fuck with you.’”
“When I made ‘Pookie’s Requiem’, I was really talking shit in the studio. I was really on one”
You sing a lot about love…
“Being a recovered people-pleaser, I have had to unlearn a lot of shit about love growing up. Without all these relationships and experiences, though, I wouldn’t have a very clear view of what I want and what I stand for. When you have intimate relationships with people, even friendships, it’s a huge teller of what your boundaries are. So, yeah, what can I say – I love love!”
What moment made you realise music was for you?
“I don’t think I ever felt that. I never knew it was going to work. I just did it because it was the only thing that made sense to me.
“That feeling of your music falling on deaf ears is one of the fucking worst feelings ever because this is your art and it’s so personal, so I’ve conditioned myself to [say], ‘Look: you don’t do this for the listeners, you don’t do this for anybody else but you!’ Once I tapped into that, that’s when shit started working.’”
Is it important to bring your Vietnamese heritage into your artistry?
“With everything I do, I want to give proper respect to those who came before me: whether that’s R&B and Black culture in general – like, all music is Black art, let’s be for real – or, of course, my own heritage. Having grown up in an immigrant family, that already bleeds into who I am. So, it’s not a conscious thing for me to be like, ‘Oh, I want to do a fan dance [for From The Block] because it’s going to highlight me as a Vietnamese person. That’s a product of my environment.”
What do you hope your music does for years to come?
“I do music to open myself and those I love up to opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have. In the world of art – we all mesh them together to make the world a better place. With my music, I want to make people feel like, ‘Yeah, I can and I will do what I want’”.
I will finish with another piece from NME. This is a review of FROM FLORIDA’S FINEST. It is one of the best albums of the year. I do hope that SAILORR has more gigs planned for the U.K. I am not sure if I have heard her music played on the radio here. She does deserve for more stations to feature her stuff. It is wonderful and needs to be heard by as wide an audience as possible:
“That ability to cry one moment and crack up the next defines ‘From Florida’s Finest’. Between emotional verses and tender melodies, Sailorr peppers the tape with unhinged skits that feel lifted from her camera roll. There’s the snot-nosed outro on ‘Pookie’s Requiem’, her hyping up a friend’s freestyle on ‘MSG’, and trying to wrangle her delusional “male-centred” friend after she hits the curb on ‘Gimme Dat Lug Nut’. These aren’t throwaway moments – they’re windows into her world, blurring the line between heartbreak and voicemail, pop and parody.
She blurs the lines well. ‘Down Bad’ and ‘Grrl’s Grrl’ are moreish servings of fluttery vocals, trampoline-like 808s and comedic storytelling. But ‘Done Shaving 4 U’ and ‘Itadakimasu’ are the funniest tracks on the mixtape. The former calls out all the “bums” who’ve played with Sailorr’s heart, delivering an earnest track about cutting ties with a man who can’t make an effort, all wrapped in a signature Sailorr-ism: “Couldn’t get me no drink from the corner store / On the bed, no frame, straight on the floor / Boy, you a waste, so I ain’t shaving my legs for you no more.”
Meanwhile, ‘Itadakimasu’ sparkles with twinkling chimes and lush organ chords, evoking a nostalgic 2010s minimalism found in Tumblr-era hits. Lyrically, it’s one of her funniest, commanding a potential suitor to “come bless this (meow) for you” and joking, “I like my men soft-spoken, but real loud with their pockets.” That cheek, paired with her silky tones, places her squarely in the orbit of SZA, Doja Cat, and Summer Walker – and on ‘From Florida’s Finest’, she belongs right alongside them.
However, that comparison doesn’t always work in her favour. ‘Cut Up’ – although a sultry and soulful toxic tale of unrequited love – does feel like a watered-down version of a SZA song. ‘Bitches Brew’ is twinkly and slick while dripping with baddie energy, but its overly glitzy production and sugar-coated chorus veer dangerously close to ‘Planet Her’-era Doja Cat. Although the ethos of letting chaos boil and getting your lick back works well in theory, the song’s syrupy, subdued style weakens her usual bite and stops it from becoming the empowering anthem it could be.
When Sailorr doesn’t compromise her artistry, she strikes gold. Yes, she sometimes slips unknowingly into repetitive pop formulas, but her headstrong flair and inimitable pen game elevate her beyond just another viral sensation. She’s not quite gunning for a spot next to Doja, SZA or Summer Walker, but she’s circling the same orbit, carving out a lane with just as much attitude. ‘From Florida’s Finest’ is more than an introduction – it’s a love-soaked, meme-sprinkled dispatch from the generation of oversharers”.
Do make sure that you seek out SAILORR. This is an artist that I really know is going to enjoy this very long career. Even though I am new to her music, it made an instant impression on me! I am determined to follow her career and see where she goes from here. This is an artist that you…
CAN’T miss out on.
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