SAILORR Speaks on the Divine Timing of Life, Unapologetically Being Herself, and Creating Music that Bad B*tches Can Cry To

Meet SAILORR, a star in the making with floating vocals cutting through the noise. With captivating sonics as smooth as butter, SAILORR wants to show you that she can be gritty and relatable whilst remaining sweet and soft she dives deep into her feelings on life, talking about the unsettling thoughts and situations she's had in terrible relationships. Amongst wanting to be honest and vulnerable through her song writing, SAILORR refrains from putting herself in a box that would define her to just one genre or label. Although she is heavily influenced by R&B, soul and hip-hop, her pink, satin box that's encrusted with diamonds, loosely tied up with a lace bow and allowing benjamins to peep out through the cracks, is one that's bursting at the seems, full of ambition and rawness.

Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, SAILORR initially attended art school to pursue a career in theatre but quickly found that this wasn't really her true calling. Trading scripts for songwriting, she began producing her own music and juggled a series of jobs for years whilst honing her sound and experimenting with beats that would soon define her style. Sharing a couple mixes on SoundCloud that showcase her vast musical tastes as well as a few singles, her music began to resonate with listeners and she found herself diving deeper into the creative community, forging connections that would change the trajectory of her career. It wasn’t long before she caught the attention of her now dedicated management team who saw her potential and helped spur her big move across the country to Los Angeles. Her breakout single, ‘POOKIES REQUIEM,’ became a viral sensation, catapulting her into the spotlight early in her career. Whilst the track began to soar, it caught the attention of none other than R&B icon Summer Walker, who jumped on a remix, much to the excitement of her fellow pookies. But SAILORR continues to stay grounded, expressing gratitude of her position. Her latest single 'CUT UP' released today, on Valentines Day, via BuVision/10K Projects is a lush, nostalgic-sounding 2000s ballad that reflects SAILORR's candidness and wit whilst remaining vulnerable with her yearning.

With uncharted momentum on her side, a growing fanbase and on track for even greater heights, we sat down with her to uncover what’s on the cards for 2025.

Credits: Alondra Buccio

Hi SAILORR! How's your day going? How's life been treating you?

I just moved out to LA, so that's been pretty much occupying a lot of my time and energy. But it's been really nice. I'm very happy to be out here and I'm feeling good. I'm happy to be out here with the team now because I feel like the past year, it’s been me going back and forth from Florida to LA trying to get things done but now we're here.

That’s great. Do you feel like you have many more connections out in LA as well? Like it's easier to just do things in the music world?

Absolutely. All my homies are out here, the whole community is out here… So, not that it was impossible to get things done before, but it’s less pressure and we can just chill and make music at any time we want. Before it was very much ‘we gotta get this done’.

The pressure might be on a little now since your breakout single ‘POOKIES REQUIEM’; I bet everyone is waiting for new music. But going back to the beginning, when did you think that music was something you wanted to pursue?

After I graduated high school, I didn’t go to college. I just went straight to hustling like, I was bartending and doing a bunch of sh*t and random jobs to make ends meet. And at that time, I had just had a super tumultuous senior year of high school so, the years after that was just me literally trying to survive from those moments. I feel like that’s what led me to make music because I always knew I wanted to do something with writing and music in general so during the pandemic was when I really tried to home in on that.

There was a moment when I looked in the mirror and was like ‘yeah, music is what I’m pursuing now’. That’s the only thing that made sense for me at the time and I used it as a form of coping. It was something that happened naturally and I was blessed to fall in the same rooms as people I regard today as my team. They’re my favourite collaborators, they’re my rocks. I wouldn’t be anywhere without my producers, my managers and I feel like everything that happened, happened for a reason. I was going through a lot of sh*t in my life, so I feel like it was a cause-and-effect situation. The timing of it just needed to happen in that way.

Now that's divine timing! Whilst you were out hustling and doing all sorts of jobs, how did you balance your time between making and writing music, going to the studio and working all at the same time?

It’s a lot. I feel like if I didn’t do it then I wasn’t in it for the right reasons, and we wouldn’t be here. I feel like you really, really do have to love your craft and love what you do in order to make those sacrifices. With working and a having a full schedule, you have to sacrifice a lot, whether that be relationships or whatever but now I feel like I had to do all those things. It really taught me about what was important to me and even who was in my life. Every ounce of time that you get is so precious, so I think about when I was going through those times of really hustling and I had to do a personal inventory of things that were going to serve me in my emotional needs or my overall health and what I really love to do. 

So, we know you grew up in Florida from your handle ‘fromfloridasfinest’, what are some things you loved about Florida and being raised in the area and the culture?

For sure. I grew up in a Vietnamese family, both my parents are Vietnamese and they’re immigrants. They came over to America on some ‘I want to make a better life for my family’ type sh*t. My dad, Vietnamese people in general, and most of my family, they’re all fisherman. That’s where I think my name comes from as well. But back then, there was just this mass exodus of Vietnamese immigrants that came over to America especially after the war with pretty much nothing. Those are the roots I came from, and I watched my parents go through life working hard as f*ck everyday just trying to make a life for all of us. So, my dad owns a seafood restaurant, and my mum has nail salons, so I feel like in general I always had to hustle and that was my entire life. Now that I’m here in LA, I finally get to enjoy and be present and focused on the stuff I love and in part that’s thanks to my family coming over here and working as hard as they did to give me a better life.

Aside from that, being raised in Florida, especially south Florida, I don’t want to generalise it but it’s a southern state, so you grow up around a super diverse community but it’s also weird because you’re in the south. It’s a weird push and pull because you do grow up around a lot of conservatives. But my entire existence was like a subculture and a fight to survive growing up, trying to come into yourself, your identity, and having that space and freedom to explore that. That wasn’t really a thing in Florida. I was blessed to be able to go to an art school, a place where I was able to flourish but I think growing up in Florida made me tough. It made me take a look at myself and be like ‘okay, this is who you are and you’re not gonna deny yourself of anything, no matter what people think about you’.

Attending an art school and being surrounded by so many different people from all walks of life must have influenced your taste and gave you a direction as well. What were some of the influences that you had growing up, when you were at school or even today that you have that’s within your music?

I think that at an early age, I was always influenced by Hip-Hop and R&B because of my cousins and my older sister. But as I started to grow up and gain a conscience, and growing up in the age of the internet, my interest became deeper because I just had a lot of access to a lot of things online. Especially during that time when everybody was obsessed with Odd Future, Tyler, The Creator was a huge influence for me because he was unapologetically himself. Watching that growing up gave me hope that I can be whoever the f*ck I want to be and you should just be yourself and that’s what is going to propel you forward.

With musical influences I love, of course, Erykah Badu, André Three Stacks (André 3000) and a lot of the staples and legends of R&B and neo-soul. That’s what drove me to make music. I had a lot of different influences when I was in middle school like Homeshake and I really, really f*cked with Lana Del Rey for some reason. It was a constant feeling of that there’s just so much f*cking music out there and there are no rules to it.

I love how you talk about being unapologetically yourself. One of the things we love is how you incorporate elements of Vietnamese heritage in your craft like the black grills and fan dancing on your Instagram. Is this something that will continue to influence your music or do you just want people to understand its part of your identity?

The latter. I think that it was never a conscious decision for me to show people that I’m Vietnamese, it just naturally bleeds into everything I do. Of course, things I do are intentional but when people think about me, I don’t want them to be like ‘she’s a Vietnamese artist’. I’m just an artist that happens to be Vietnamese.

When it comes to your style, everyone seems to love it. It’s very pink, bows, soft, Harajuku girl vibes. How would you personally describe your aesthetic?

Overall, with my identity, I’ve always resonated with being the softest hard that you can be. I love the juxtaposition of being a woman, and that goes hand in hand as a woman that you have to present yourself in a way where it’s soft enough to be palatable but at the end of the day you’re literally in the grit. That’s just what it is. I’ve always had to survive like, I’m hard. I’m not actually saying that I’m f*cking harder than everyone, but I think that in general, as a woman of colour in America, you really have to learn to just really f*cking stick up for yourself in a way that’s palatable to people.

When I was growing up, I didn’t all the way identify with being a girly girl, it’s a balance of being feminine and masculine. That even goes with my sexuality in general, it’s a great balance. I always thought that it was funny when people would throw bows on really crazy ass things like cigarettes or something and be like ‘this is literally me in a photo’ and it’s a burnt up cigarette with a lace bow around it and I’m like ‘no, that’s what I identity with. That.’ [laughs]

I wanted to talk a little bit about your On The Radar performance. I really enjoyed it, and I love that you were upside down for it. I don't know if anyone on the show has done that before but the whole time I was wondering how you didn’t pass out with the blood rushing to your head.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s been done before either. I think to a certain degree, I’m not going to say it was for the shock factor but with every performance that I do, I don’t ever want it to feel like ‘oh, yeah, this is just another On The Radar performance.’ In anything I do, I just want to be overboard and be extra because you’re giving me an opportunity to come onto your platform and perform a song. Anybody can have a beautiful voice; anybody can tell a story but I used that opportunity to be like ‘I’m finna go overboard’ in a very literal sense. So, when we came up with that concept, I’m docking the boat and the anchor got stuck to my leg and I’m upside down and stuck in the air, and I’m performing for you. It was definitely very camp, and I do love that but I’m excited to do more performances where I get to show people my voice.

When it comes to the production side of things, do you find it challenging being a producer and musician and do you ever find yourself being too critical?

I think that especially with the last few singles we put out, it was mostly collaborative work with Zach Ezzy, Adam Krevlin and Jack Dine. I think in general, having that community that’s willing to check me on sh*t, that’s the most important part. When we’re in the studio, that's safe space for us to really just turn everything else off in the world and just focus on the music and I think that’s the most beautiful thing. Music is the only reason why I’m here in the first place. When I’m able to really just focus on that and when it’s just me and the bros and we’re in the studio, having a good time, we can fully explore it to the end.

With ‘W1LL U L13?’, that single took us eight months to finally be happy with it.  It started out remotely, one of the homies sent me a sample. We chopped it and redid all the instruments and lived with the writing a little more and then a few more months passed. Some songs take way longer than others and you have to be willing to see it through no matter how hard or easy it is. You have to be willing to see all the sounds through and give it its time to live. I feel like because we cultivated such a safe space for the music to live, it’s been such a fun process because it’s just me and the boys making music and it doesn’t feel like anything more than that. It doesn’t feel like I’m going to the studio where I have to turn a song in tomorrow or it has to be on the Billboard charts. When I made ‘POOKIES REQUIEM’, I didn’t think anybody was going to hear that song so, it’s cool.

With ‘POOKIES REQUIEM’ becoming a big breakout moment for you, how did you process that sudden spike in attention when you realised it was gaining traction?

Of course, when all those eyes are on you at once, I didn’t know how I was being perceived. I was like ‘yo, what the hell? Why are so many people hitting me up right now?’ it was crazy. It was a lot to take in, but I think in the coming weeks afterwards, I just really came into my own and realised that this is life now and I have to hit em’ with the next one. I feel like it’s so important to really remind myself why I do this. And then also, how can I take care of myself in a way where I can show up and be fully present with people no matter where I’m at and who I’m with? That’s the biggest thing I had to learn. Of course, all the new eyes being on you is a crazy aspect but that was my time learn how to take care of myself, think about what’s important and how to stay present.

The Summer Walker collaboration is a big moment! How did that come together?

We met each other in a studio, and I’m blessed enough to be in these rooms because for the past year I’ve really, really put myself out there as a writer. Even when ‘POOKIES REQUIEM’ came out, I made it clear to everybody that I wanted to work. I didn’t expect so many people to resonate with the feelings that I was feeling. And I’m blessed that Summer had something to say. She was perfect for this, and she ended up agreeing and hopping on the track because she resonated with it. I just feel so grateful that this song and specifically how it gave me the avenue to connect with people that I really respect and love.

How do you protect your space or mental health now that you're becoming a bit more known?

Definitely keeping a very tight schedule and routine where I allot time to do things. I really haven’t opened up my socials at all since we dropped this song because I literally can’t. With social media, I just can’t. Of course, I’ll get on there and interact and do my thing but I think it’s important to really focus your time on yourself. Like, going to the gym I have to do that, or I’ll lose my mind. I have to make sure I eat and just check these boxes because it’s also an accountability thing where you start taking care of yourself. It just feels good and it really doesn’t matter what else is going on in the world at that time, it’s just like, ‘ok, at least I know I’m still showing up for myself’.

That's such good advice. Just show up for yourself.

Yeah. That's all you can do.

So, you’re working on new music which is very exciting. What sorts of themes can we expect to carry out the rest of 2025 for you?

Honesty, vulnerability, humour, and wit. This is the music that bad b*tches cry to, this is the music that bad b*tches feel pretty to like. This is the sh*t that is just fully transparent material for all bad b*tches to relate to. The next single to come out is called ‘Cut Up’ and that’s on Valentines Day. I think that in general, if you’re a person that loves to love, you’ll love my music. That’s just what it is.

Keep up to date with SAILORR on Instagram and Spotify