My pleasure, thanks for having me. I'm really proud of this record! Shitting myself too.

Serebii is indeed my nom de plume, I suppose it is somewhere between a portmanteau and a neologism. Serebii was inspired by similar-shaped words, but to clarify, it isn't of Japanese origin.

I know… This was completely unintentional, although I kinda like being associated with this little magic forest creature from Pokémon!

I definitely feel drawn to Japanese culture, but perhaps not as much as you think. I like the idea of trying to emulate that glistening dance of light through leaves with my sound. Nature is constantly providing inspiration if you choose to listen. I do feel slightly hypocritical as I spend a lot of time indoors making and writing music, but when I do get out into the bush here in Aotearoa (New Zealand), I feel grounded and more in tune with the universe.

Yes, I have spent the last three years working on collaborative projects with Arjuna Oakes and Skud Gambosi. Through 2016-2019, I had made a lot of my own work but could never get things to a point where I wanted to release them. In fact, I even released some music and took it down. I decided to move to Wellington, New Zealand and work with as many artists and musicians as possible over my three years there. This helped me find my voice and develop skills that have helped me finally share my solo music!

Have you ever tried Enoki mushrooms? I simply wanted to make something creamy like mushroom sauce. This song came together quickly in the space of a day. Mulu was written a few years ago and never finished. The meaning behind the word Mulu gives this song of little words a message that resonates with the feeling and emotion that I was trying to capture in the instrumentation.

I only speak English. I plan to travel and live in many places over the next decade! My family are Spanish, Welsh, and British. I would like to explore some developing countries to really put things into perspective for myself.

Vocal-driven tracks are always more personal to me; the songs on the album with my vocals are all approached in more of a singer-songwriter fashion opposed to the beat-driven tracks. This album was initially two separate EPs, with one being more upbeat and instrumental-based and the other more vocally-driven and slower in tempo. But I decided to squish them together.
To me, it lacks some cohesion because of this, although I do appreciate the space and diversity that comes with the merging of the two works. Quite often, I’ll listen to an album with a present vocalist throughout, and it tends to bore me at some point. Don’t get me wrong, there’s certainly albums that don’t, but I find myself listening to a lot of instrumental music as a result.

I generally treat the songwriting, composing, and production as one moving part; when they do work in harmony together, I find myself with something special, a reflection of a moment or emotion worth sharing. Over the last few days, I have been starting my process with a narrative, writing to a visual scene that I either come up with or watch online. I'll then begin to essentially score the visual concept. This has been helping mix up my routine, habits, and processes.

The voice to me isn't an instrument; there are too many variables and moving parts for me to consider the voice as an instrument. To me, the importance of lyrics isn't always as important as the delivery of the voice singing it. I find when someone sings with heart and soul, it doesn't always need words to convey the message. The lyrics are there to clarify. Just as our emotional response lands before the thought.

I love having total control of my work, it allows me to inherently solidify my sound across those different roles while avoiding the consumption of time it takes to find people who can help deliver your stylistic vision – mixing engineers, musicians or producers. I have been let down a lot since making music as a teenager, so I decided to learn how to do those roles on my own. Perhaps the con is that working alone doesn't always inspire as much new learning, there’s also something so broad and impactful when listening to music that has a group of people behind it, bringing it to your ears. I do love my solitude though… You need a bit of both.

At this stage I'm not entirely sure. Another album? Moving to another country? So many options.