Evolutionary Balance: SEBii Takes His Next Step

SEBii remains infuriatingly difficult to pin down in words. The New York-based, Shanghai-raised artist rips genres to shreds, taking the infinitesimally small pieces and building mosaics of sound. His debut album stared into pop’s imagined futures, while the so-called ‘primary colours’ trilogy of EPs displayed his evolutionary zeal.

Out now, new album ‘VVSS2’ finds SEBii entering his anti-hero era; a dazzling song cycle that moves from hyper-pop to trap production, skirting on the fringes of SOPHIE’s electronic maximalism while nailing down his own voice.

In a press note, SEBii says only: “VVSS+VBLUE+VVRED+VVYELLOW=VVSS2 // EVOLUTION”

CLASH tracked down this mercurial talent to see what’s what.

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Your new album ‘VVSS2’ is incredibly broad, embracing different styles and elements. What is the thread that brings it all together?

It’s definitely the production that brings it all together. For ‘VVSS2’ we really wanted to create a new, fresh sound which felt cohesive but could be explored thoroughly, that way the project has a wide range of emotions. Chromaticism is definitely a big part of that sound, also being digital, and spontaneous.

We were obsessed with doing orchestral sections in the beats with bongos, the verses usually always had trap drums, the end of a lot of songs have emotional dry vocal breakdowns, so those are some of the recurring elements that make up the ‘VVSS2’ soundscape. There was kind of this rough rubric / checklist of things that we went through when working on each song, and I think it’s those characteristics that make up the ‘VVSS2’ sound.

‘VVSS2’ is the sequel to your album ‘VVSS’ – how do the two relate to one another? And how do they differ?

‘VVSS2’ is quite literally the evolution of the sound that I was going for with the original ‘VVSS’. It’s more polished, more sophisticated and more chromatic. The consistent part is they are both all produced by vvspipes, however with ‘VVSS2’ I added Kimj to the production as well so it’s the both of them together. The first ‘VVSS’ was just about having fun and making music, ‘VVSS2’ has that same ethos. However, it was also important for ‘VVSS2’ to be an evolution of that sound so it was a balance of keeping the essence of the original ‘VVSS’ while building on it without deviating from it too much.

I think some of the songs like ‘SAPHiiRE’ (which is one of the first songs to be finished on the project) very much has that original ‘VVSS’ vibe to it. But then you have other songs like ‘BiiG+BEN’ which sounds like a donkey kong level and the production has a lot of chromatic notes. I think I took more risks on ‘VVSS2’ since we really wanted to lean into the chromaticism, which can be a bit jarring at first, but I think once you get into it you get addicted to it. 

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How did your primary colour trilogy of EPs prepare you for this new challenge?

My goal with the primary colour trilogy was to explore three very different emotions and styles. Each of those projects had a very different vision, so I think I was able to expand my sonic palette by doing those three projects.

‘VVBLUE’ was very raw and emotional, it probably has some of my most vulnerable and revealing verses. Most of that music was recorded during peak covid so it was the start of the hyperpop explosion. The production on that project is very hyperpopy yet melancholic. Picasso had this Blue Period where he did these depressing painting all in this monochrome blue, ‘VVBLUE’ is like my blue period.

Then for ‘VVRED’, I wanted to play this aggressive money hungry character so I really leaned into that in the music. The production was heavily inspired by rage music which was just becoming popular at the time because of Playboi Carti. The production also feels super grand on that project, there was lot of beats that were reworked many times to make it feel super big.

‘VVYELLOW’ was all about having fun and being playful just for the sake of being playful. Like ‘VVRED’ was playful but it was an intense playfulness and it felt like I was trying to prove something. ‘VVYELLOW’ is just pure fun. The production is super bubbly with vocal chops. I made that project when I was streaming on Twitch a lot, all the producers who worked on that project were tapped into my Twitch streams and I had found out about most of them through streaming too, so the whole process has this very fun, collective vibe to it.

I was able to learn so much about not only my music and creative process but also myself after completing the color trilogy so I think that really helped prepare me for finishing ‘VVSS2’. A good amount of VVSS2 was actually recorded when I was working on ‘VVYELLOW’ and a little during ‘VVRED’ so I think the playfulness of yellow definitely carried over into ‘VVSS2’.

I’ve read video game soundtracks were an inspiration when making this record – which ones in particular would you cite as an influence? What draws you to those tones / compositions?

I grew up playing Pokemon games on my DS so I would definitely say 4th generation, 5th generation Pokemon games. If you listen to the soundtrack of Pokemon Platinum you can totally hear the influence it has on this project. All of that music is so midi centric and a lot of single chromatic notes the same way we use it in ‘VVSS2’. I actually used a Pokeball sound effect in the first song PiiNUT when I say “like Pokemon I’m gonna catch you” so that’s a direct reference.

Actually there are a couple of Pokemon references on the project, honestly i’m such a huge fan of Pokemon that I just be doing Pokemon references all the time anyways haha. I think it’s really the nostalgia and the sense of world building that those games would create that really draws me to that sound. I was very much growing up playing Pokemon so those were like the soundtrack of my adolescent years.

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kimj and pipes return to help you – what makes them such key collaborators for your vision?

I think for me it’s really important to work with people who trust your creative vision even if they don’t fully understand it and are not afraid to take risks. But also, lowkey most importantly, people that I have fun with. When it comes to production, I’m very selective about the sound that I’m trying to create, so I like to work with producers very closely.

I’m a lot more interested in building strong creative relationships with producers and building a new distinct sound with them. That’s always the most rewarding and also locking in with producers helps bring consistency to a body of work. Vvspipes and Kimj, who executively produced ‘VVSS2’ are very close friends of mine who I can always bounce ideas off of. They also work so quickly, which I love because I work quickly too, so we feed off each other’s spontaneity.

By contrast, ‘DADADADaa’ has a mellow feel – what inspired that track?

I love ‘DADADADaa’! It has such a emotional vibe. I honestly can’t remember anything in particular that inspired that track. It was just one in the many that I had recorded one day. I think it was really the production that brought out that more mellow, melodic SEBii out. Something else that I realised after recording the song is that the melody of the hook lowkey reminds me of McDonald’s jingle haha!

I wish there was a super good story behind that song cause here would be the perfect place to talk about it, but lowkey not really I just made it. I will say though the outro to ‘DADADADaa’ it’s a funny one. Pipes and kimj had actually made a whole other beat to that loop for like some Trippie Redd placement. The beat lowkey sucked, but the outro was so funny and cheesy, it has the saxophone playing and I loved it so I added that to the outro cause it made it feel like a Drake song or something. Kimj hates the outro of ‘DADADADaa’ but I find it very endearing as it reminds me of that time.

What was the most challenging song to complete? And what made it so difficult?

Such a good question. Hmmmm lowkey ‘PiiNUT’ took me a long time to figure out how to finish it. When I had first made it, I recorded over the loop and just had the hook part and the intro. In the batch of ideas I recorded at the beginning ‘PiiNUT’ was one of our favourites because of how I do the low voice and high voice contrast on the hook. Pipes and kimj later made it into a beat and then it took me a while to figure out how to do the verses. I had a couple different versions before I finally recorded the verse that made in on the final song. I think it was tough for me to finish ‘PiiNUT’ (we called it fishsticks back then cause it was the name of the beat) because it was one of our favorite ideas so I wanted to make sure I nailed it while matching it’s carefree style.

Was there a moment when the album began to come together as a distinct project? Perhaps a session, or a song…?

At the beginning we were just making songs with no real goal in mind. Just trying to be creative and make the “next” thing. As we made more music, more of a direction started forming and we noticed certain sounds that we were gravitating to. I think it was when I discovered what chromaticism was, before I released ‘VVYELLOW’, it was at that time I knew the rough vision for ‘VVSS2’.

Before then, I would be making midis with chromatic notes just because I naturally gravitated towards chromatic notes, but I wasn’t doing it consciously, I didn’t understand the music theory of it. Once I watched this video on chromatic notes and how it is implemented in video games, something clicked and from that point on, we would all be very intentional about the use of chromatic notes. So I think that was definitely a big turning point.

It’s an extremely honest record – what prompted that? Does that level of honesty make this an intimidating project to share with fans?

I think most of my records I’m pretty honest in the sense that I don’t overthink any of the lyrics that I do record, I just say what comes to mind. What’s funny is that the more I worked on the project, I ended up finding new meaning to the songs the more life I lived and even had later lived experiences that were weirdly similar to the songs, almost like I manifested these experiences.

Some of the relationships that I wrote about on ‘VVSS2’ was inspired by either my own experiences or the experiences of people around me. But since it took me over a year to finish these songs, a lot of the songs became reality.

I talked about going to France and Japan and visiting the Big Ben in London and I ended up doing shows in all of those countries later which is so surreal to me. I do think once the project has released I have fully lived out the stories of ‘VVSS2’ and am ready to write new songs about new adventures.

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The visuals are incredibly striking – do you view your visual output, and your music, as drawing from the same creative well?

Definitely, I think it’s very important to create the right world for the music to exist in. Since this was my most ambitious project to date, it was very important for me to create the right visuals for it. Since it is a sequel to ‘VVSS’ I know that the project was gonna be an evolution of the visuals and world of that project. I had actually finished most of the music at the end of the year last year and just focused on creating the visuals and rollout for the project after. That’s what I usually like to do, I like to have a loose and flexible overarching conceptual idea first, make all the music without thinking too much about how it fits, and then finding a narrative within the music and creating a world around it. That way the idea doesn’t interfere with the creativity and experimentation.

I’ve found it’s hard for me to create when I have a very clear vision of what the end product will look like, at least on the music side. As for visuals, once I have the music finished I will have a pretty strong idea of what I want and will work towards creating that.

It often feels as though your music sits in a genre of one, evading standard descriptors. If someone asked you to describe your sound, what would you say?

This has always been a difficult question for me. I usually say to people contemporary electronic hip hop. Since a lot of my roots when it comes to songwriting is from rap and I gravitate towards digital sounds, that’s what I would say.

I guess sometimes I will say hyperpop as my music has often been labeled as that but I personally have never really associated my work with the genre. The music I make is honestly just an amalgamation of all the things I like, from contemporary hiphop to video game soundtracks to catchy vocal melodies to witty word play. Whether you like it or not, whenever you hear a SEBii song you know it’s a SEBii song.

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‘VVSS2’ is out now.

Words: Robin Murray

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