the plushies as a title feels both comforting and slightly uncanny – what does that duality represent for you in this project?

I’ve always been fascinated by stuffed animals and the healing, protective power they can exert on us. Their aura is reassuring, attentive, and often fantastical. I’ve imagined so many stories with my stuffed animals, I’ve personified some of them so much that they’ve become an integral part of my own story. What’s strange and unusual is the object’s static nature, which comes to life through the imagination. It’s this duality that’s poetic.

What were the core feelings or images you kept returning to while making this EP?

I’ve watched a lot of stop-motion films, but the one that inspired me the most is Jan Švankmajer’s Alice. There’s something truly sad in Alice’s eyes and terrifying in the rabbit’s. I’m obsessed with sound effects. I think about those images all the time. There are also images of some of Lotte Pritzel’s dolls. The slender bodies and the oval faces of her dolls is my roman empire.

Visual novels. They’re the medium that has most captivated me the most in the creative process these past few months. There are certain soundtracks that make me feel good, they soothe me a lot. It’s like therapy, I really escape from the world. I always remember the images from my visual novels, probably because they’re associated with sounds.

Your sound blends electronic elements and organic textures. How do you approach striking that balance?

I come from a folk music background, and my influences are very “organic,” as I listened to a lot of Katie Jane Garside, Sibylle Baier, and Laura Marling when I was in high school. But I always want to add a hybrid element to my influences, a sample or a more electronic beat. I became more interested in experimental music, trap, and witch house as I grew up. I find it very difficult to find the right balance between electronic and organic sounds, I don’t think I’ve really found it yet.

What does your creative process look like? Did it differ from the past at all while making the plushies?

I don’t set any rules for myself and I try my best to find new ways of composing because I love experimenting with music. For this EP, I did a lot more on my own, I became a bit more independent from others. But I don’t really have a defined creative process; it’s different every time. I think I would get bored otherwise.

Your aesthetic pulls from anime, horror, and internet culture – do you see those references as nostalgic, or as a way of processing the present?

I feel connected to horror as a genre because exploring the territory of my deepest fears feels paradoxically reassuring and kind of beautiful? I think unconventional and transgressive art naturally explores uncanny strange worlds. These worlds are nostalgic by essence and I hold that nostalgic aspect close to my heart. Anime and internet culture have inspired me since I was little, it’s where I find peace.

When you’re creating your visuals, do you start from the same emotional core as the music, or do you allow yourself to explore elsewhere?

When I write music, and especially lyrics, I always see images intuitively come to me, so there’s always a visual idea that comes automatically with the song. I never have to look for a visual concept after the tracks. I always start with visual material, often fantastical scenarios, to create narratives that appeal to me. I’d like people to see these images when they listen to my music. There’s a track on the EP that simply came from an image of a wooden doll by Simon Yotsuya. I dreamt that there was a parade of all his wooden dolls, and I went from there.

Since stepping out from Agar Agar into your solo project, what feels most different about how you express yourself now?

It’s mainly about being able to express myself alone, with my own inspirations, and being on this path of exploring my musical identity. It’s very scary, but at the same time, very beautiful because I finally have the courage to show who I am without others. But it’s scary. I’m scared, honestly.

When someone finishes listening to the plushies, what part of it do you hope lingers with them?

I would like it to touch people deeply, that’s all.