Photo taken by Marley Chaney
“The song is a lot about looking at yourself, almost not while in yourself, and realizing how you might look externally to people. Other people’s perception plays into how you think of yourself, so I think there are times that we’re all gonna feel like that.”
When delving into the world of “Bug Machine,” listeners are shown a peek into the mind of Sub DeVillain, where they’re met with an abstract and unique sound brought forth when surrealist and natural elements blend. “Bug Machine” feels like an invitation to consider your own outward perception through the honest and metaphorical lyricism, as well as the familiarity of the feelings being conveyed.
death of a rabbit had the pleasure of speaking with Sub DeVillain about the evolution of her sound and process, experimentation and upcoming projects, and how it feels to have your mind be a “Bug Machine” when encountering new people and situations.
DEATH OF A RABBIT: How are you today?
SUB DEVILLAIN: Great, I’m excited!
DOAR: I saw that you did a recent show in Mill Valley. How’d that go?
SUB DEVILLAIN: It was really fun; All of my friends, we drove up the same day of the show, then we played. We stayed at my friend’s house afterwards and made ice cream sundaes. Then we went to my other friend’s house in Santa Clara and had a pool party, then we came back to LA. So it was a super great time. It was with all my friends, the whole lineup was also just friends. It was a great night.
DOAR: That’s so fun, and such a vibe! I heard it’s beautiful up there.
SUB DEVILLAIN: It is beautiful. I’ve never been to Marin area before, and the house we were staying in was a family friend’s, and it was on the bay. We woke up, and the water was right there. I’ve never experienced a part of California like that.
DOAR: Yeah, it sounds unreal. You’ve also now released your first single, how exciting! How does it feel, are you satisfied with the reception so far?
SUB DEVILLAIN: I’m actually so excited. I feel like I’ve been waiting for so long. I released two songs in middle school, but I like that this is a completely different thing. And since then, I’ve always been wanting to do this project. It feels really satisfying to be able to start putting stuff out for this. It’s just really, really exciting, and it’s all music made with friends and people I’m really excited about working with.
DOAR: I’m sure it’s quite rewarding to start to see it all come to fruition, and it’s really cool to see how it’s all starting up. I saw you mention in a previous interview that “Bug Machine” is a representation of your own self criticism and your mind at the time of writing it. Would you say that your mind still does feel like a “bug machine” at times, or has the songwriting process helped you come to terms with your own self perception and those emotions?
SUB DEVILLAIN: I think the song is a lot about looking at yourself, almost not while in yourself, and realizing how you might look externally to people. Other people’s perception plays into how you think of yourself, so I think there are times that we’re all gonna feel like that. At least I hope that everyone feels like that, because I always feel like that. You’re gonna make up stuff in your mind about what people are thinking about you, so I feel like definitely that still applies, for sure.
DOAR: Absolutely. I’d say that that’s definitely a shared experience and quite universal. You also said that you usually start with a lyric or a concept. Would you be able to describe the songwriting process? Do you keep a journal? How does it look for you?
SUB DEVILLAIN: Yeah, I keep a journal. I keep a few different journals. I have this one, it’s the one I write in every morning. I just got it, and I actually love it so much.
DOAR: It’s so cute, I love the sparkles!
SUB DEVILLAIN: It was one dollar from the grocery store, and every morning I write down my dreams or my stream of consciousness in there. Then I keep other journals that are random things. But I think most of my songwriting comes from little lines I’ll write in my notes app or in a journal, and I usually start with that or a concept. A lot of it starts from poetry or visual art too, because I really resonate with that. I think there’s a lot of different streams they come from, but I think once I have that is when I sit down and try to make it more cohesive in my head. My mind is literally all over the place at all times. I feel like for a while my songs would have fifteen different topics within one song, and so recently I’ve been trying to dive more into one topic, and then have fifteen different songs that are a little bit more detailed and specific than one song that’s just a brain dump of everything from the last week. So, I think that’s kind of been more of my process recently, and I’ve been liking it a lot more.
DOAR: Yeah, I love the idea of taking all the concepts you have and working it out throughout your process. And speaking of loving things, I really love the visual that you have for the single on Spotify. And I was curious, if “Bug Machine” were to exist in the physical world, what do you think it would be? Do you think it’d be like a feeling, an object, moment in time, atmosphere, anything?
SUB DEVILLAIN: I’m so glad you asked this question! I actually haven’t shown this to anyone, but I’m making a music video right now. I’m making a bug machine, and then I have little metal bugs that are inside of it. I’m adding a pond with fake water and then it’s done, I was working on it all night. I was so tired, I hyperfixate so hard, and if something looks slightly off, I will work on it until it’s done. I wanted to share this with someone since it’s almost done, but this is how I feel it exists in a physical realm.
DOAR: Wow, that’s so cool that you’ve made it actually exist. Also, is “Bug Machine” an ode to your own mind or to yourself? It seems to pose as a stream of consciousness, which I remember you mentioning earlier is one of the ways you like to work. It feels like a string of connected thoughts to me. Are you addressing yourself, someone, or something through the lyrics?
SUB DEVILLAIN: I’ll tell you the backstory of the song; It’s definitely about myself, but it’s specifically about the first day I talked to my boyfriend. I started talking to him as we were leaving class, and he was trying to introduce himself, and I actually freaked the fuck out. Something went awry in my mind. I got so scared, and I was like, “Good to meet you,” and I sprinted out of class. At the time, I was living in the dorms on campus. I don’t know what came over me. I had so much energy in my body that I literally ran away from him, back to my dorm. I wrote and produced the whole song that night, so it’s very much only from that moment. That’s what makes the song so special to me; Every aspect of the song, whether it be the production or the lyricism came from the specific feelings of that one event and one night, which doesn’t usually happen for me. So yeah, it’s definitely about myself, but also about my fear of how he would perceive me in that moment and how he would go on to perceive me later on. In my head, I was like, “Is he always gonna not know? Am I not gonna be able to be vulnerable with him or open up?” I was going super far in the future and spiraling out when I had barely talked to this man.
DOAR: Yeah, I can definitely feel the vulnerability in the lyrics. I think it’s really cool that it’s really just from that one moment in time, yet it’s something that so many people experience and feel those feelings. I really like how you conveyed this concept. With that being said, how would you describe your current sound and vibe? Do you have any idea or goal as to how it may evolve over time, or are you more inclined to let it come naturally?
SUB DEVILLAIN: I’d say I’m always inclined to have it come naturally, I definitely want to! A lot of the music I’m working on right now I would describe more like electronic folk, and then some of the music I’m gonna put out pretty soon is more folk-oriented. So definitely a mix of that. I like blending those two, kind of like what I have with “Bug Machine,” blending the metal or surrealist with the natural. I think it’s always cool for me to start with what I know, which is folk music, and then being able to take things and add onto it in a way that makes it feel more abstract. I also like my music to reflect how my mind feels, because my mind doesn’t feel fully like one track all the time.
DOAR: I agree that it’s definitely multifaceted! I admire that you go down all of these different avenues that lead to the creation of something so beautiful. And what’s next for you now? I’ve been really enjoying all the snippets you’ve posted on your Instagram, and I’d love to know if you could give us any insight on any future endeavors!
SUB DEVILLAIN: Yes, I’m gonna be releasing a song in a few weeks. It’s a live recording that I did with my friend, Nico, on tape in one take. We recorded in my room, he’s playing his synthesizer to mimic natural sounds, and I’m playing guitar and singing all at the same time. It was super cool, very spiritual in a way. How that recording came to be, we were sat there, we literally breathed in, looked at each other, and said, “This is the take.” Then we did it, and afterward we were like, “Wow, that was so cool.” My friend Julian is also playing French horn on top of it. It’s called Sumo Orange, I’m really excited to share it.
DOAR: I think it’s really cool that you did it all in one take. That reminds me of Third Man Records, if you’re familiar. When artists do performances there, it goes straight onto vinyl, etched in real time. I think it adds such an organic feel to the song, and it makes it so much more special. I’m looking forward to hearing it!
At death of a rabbit, we focus on lyricism and poetry, and are there any lyrics that you’ve been resonating with recently, or that you wish you had written?
SUB DEVILLAIN: I’ve been listening to a ton of quinnie recently. I love her so much. Her lyricism and musicality on the last album she just released is actually insane. I feel like way more people need to know about her. There’s so many of her lyrics that I could pick from.
Her song “absence of” is so well thought out. There’s one lyric, “and I realized I’ve heard laughter at the neighbor’s house while I cried.” That’s so cool because that makes you think about yourself in different situations, how you resonate with different things, how mundane life is, and how small you are in comparison. It feels like she’s putting her own issues into perspective, and “absence of” is just such a cool line to me. So I definitely think that song, and so many others by quinnie. I’ve very rarely heard artists who can be so metaphorical yet clear at the same time, she’ll have an entire song that’s a metaphor, and then it’s still so clear what she’s trying to convey, and I just think that’s insane. The production on all of those songs are crazy, everything about her is so cool.
Listen to “bug machine” and Sub Devillain’s discography below!
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