SAILORR Talks Debut Album From Florida's Finest , Cultural Appreciation, and Being a Reformed Crashout
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Photography by Alexx Figs, courtesy image
When SAILORR put out 'Pookie's Requiem' in November of 2024, she didn't know how far the song would reach. Within weeks, the song had achieved viral status on TikTok with the streams to match. By 2025, it had entered Billboard's Hot R&B Songs and Bubbling Under Hot 100 charts. Cosigns from A-listers were also trickling in, with Summer Walker hopping on the song's remix and Halle Bailey uploading her own acoustic cover.
Born Kayla Le in Jacksonville, Florida, the 26-year-old began experimenting with music on SoundCloud under the moniker Sailor Goon, a reference to Naoko Takeuchi's seminal anime Sailor Moon and her playful personality.
She later simplified it as an homage to Vietnamese sailors who fled to America after the Vietnam War; she also pays tribute to her Vietnamese roots, specifically her paternal grandmother, by donning black grills — a modern take on Southeast Asia's teeth blackening beauty custom, known as nhuộm răng in Vietnam and ohaguro in Japan, and influenced by both her upbringing in Florida and Black American culture.
After making a splash with 'Pookie's Requiem,' SAILORR followed up the project with three singles — 'Cut Up,' 'Down Bad,' and 'Sincerity' — now all packaged into her full-length debut, From Florida's Finest, a 30-minute, 14-song meme-charged oeuvre that's SAILORR at her most vulnerable but also her most brazen.
Going from lovelorn ballads to chaotic crash out anthems, the project stands as a diaristic tirade about the mess of heartbreak and ultimately coming to terms with the pieces, where SAILORR croons her way through bubblegum pop and alt-R&B with SZA's lyrical sensibilities and Doja Cat's once-poppy magnetism, while still being unabashedly herself.
Ahead of the release of From Florida's Finest, Teen Vogue caught up with SAILORR from her new LA home, where she relocated in January after 'going back and forth' from Jacksonville for a few years, to talk about working on the album, moving on from heartbreak, soft girl summer essentials, and what she wants her legacy to be. (Spoiler alert: you're going to want to invest in a bikini and a good soap.)
SAILORR: It's a cool experience playing a festival for your first performance, because it's a 50-50 chance of whether or not you get fans in the crowd. Obviously, people at Coachella are definitely not there to see me. They're not even expecting to see me because I had no real slot there.
Someone really wise once told me that whether it's your first headlining tour, you're singing for a table of people, or you're panhandling, you should always sing the song as if nobody's ever heard it — and it could be the most well-known song. I tried to take that with me into Coachella because I knew nobody was going to f*cking know this sh*t — and if they do, fire, but I'm going to expect nobody to know it.
That put me in my mindset of really just enjoying and having fun and having some present energy when it came to just feeding off the crowd. I was like, 'This is a once in a lifetime chance especially for a new artist like me, so I definitely have to come and bring the energy and to use this opportunity to see who's out there and see who actually f*cks with the music and surprisingly a lot of people knew all the words.
SAILORR: I don't feel much pressure or constraints to create anything, thankfully, because I know that pressure does build over time for many artists. My music is definitely for me. I feel like maybe three-quarters into writing, I'll think about it and be like, 'Is this going to hit with people? Is it going to resonate with anybody?' But if it resonates with me, that's all that really matters. I don't get too heady.
SAILORR: In general, I enjoy any show that feels really immersive, almost like a play. I don't want to put on a full-length play for people on tour, but I definitely do want to integrate certain aspects of storytelling and audio cues that carry you through a narrative with the entire show like a certain arc. Of course, I still want to put on a cool show and I love to dance as well, so I want to marry all the different mediums that I'm passionate about.
This is a summer tape, so the energy will carry over really well with the crowd, and the thing that will bring it home is the writing. A lot of the lyrics are vulnerable, but in a way, it's more so just, 'Okay, I felt that.' I hope that people in the crowd yell back at me just like I'm yelling at them.
SAILORR: No. It is very much an intuition thing. I'm always going to follow my gut and what feels right… Censoring how I feel or what I say just goes against my entire ethos — of course, with limitations to not harming other people and not harming yourself. I think that, in general, you should never put any boundaries on yourself because then that's stifling a lot of solid groundwork that you could be making on getting to know yourself.
This project in itself was a huge learning opportunity for me as a certified people pleaser all my life. I was always told to just be as small as possible and not be true to what I actually want and say. It was a challenge for me to get over that and be like, 'This is my music. Nobody else is gonna write this sh*t for me.' I needed to bear how I really feel and think about what the f*ck I want to say and just say it.
SAILORR: At the end of the day, there's a multitude of ways you can cause harm to people that you may not even be aware of, and that's the root of cultural appropriation. I think that when you make music and art, it needs to be genuine to your authentic self. That's all you really know, and that's all you can really stick to.
The key is to try your best to just continue learning because there is always [so] much to f*cking know — so much history and so much future. I feel like I took a lot of time to just be a student of music in general and just the world and learn where my place [is] in it. Art makes the world go around, and you have to be aware of your place in it before you put it out there.
SAILORR: Probably a couple of years after high school. 2020 was when I really wanted to delve into it. That's when I started learning how to sample and make beats in Ableton. I actually started in Fruity [Loops or FL Studio], but that was a feat within itself. Honestly, the pandemic really set that sh*t off. You're at the crib, you literally have nothing else to do with your time, so it definitely sparked that first catalyst.
SAILORR: I feel like I have a strong basis in writing scripts for the stage and film because I'm just bored. I was helping my friend Liz at the time with her short film, and we just had a lot of aspirations and fun making really low-budget things at home. That was my basis, I suppose, is just making scripts that probably nobody would ever read and I would never ever produce, but it's for me. It's my practice.
SAILORR: I go into the studio trying to find the most niche way possible that I can relate to somebody — like 'DONE SHAVING 4 U.' It's fun to find very specific situations that most people can relate to — well, really, women. I write songs for ladies. I don't give a f*ck about the boys.
No, that's not true, but this entire project is about ingenuity and femininity and just literally having to make something out of nothing my entire life, and I think that that's what women have to do in general. We fight the good fight. So I'm going to find the most mundane ways to just hit home for people that also really exhibit a certain feeling or a memory.
SAILORR: Within my inner circle, I would say probably my grandma and my older sister, but generally speaking… [beat] I've never actually been asked this. I'm like, 'Damn.' I think Nikki Giovanni, as a person overall, has always inspired me. She's fire. There are so many women out in the world who just do great things, but that's off the top.
SAILORR: I'm like, 'Finally! Damn.' The day that we turned in the project, I was like, 'This just doesn't feel right. I'm like, what do we do?' I mean, obviously, there's so much more work to be done. But in terms of the actual music itself, I just wasn't ready to let go of it. I could sit here for another three years and think about this. But I had to force myself into the mindset of 'I'm ready to put this out.'
It's weird listening back to a lot of the music sometimes, because some of it I don't resonate with anymore. Of course, I love the music and I love all these songs, but I think that in general it was writing from a place that I'm not in anymore, so it's like opening a random page on your diary and being like, 'Damn that's what I was doing that day?'
SAILORR: Thank God. If anybody stresses me out like that again, I'm crashing out. But no, it's cool. I think it's also because healing is so nonlinear. I'll listen back to the songs and I'll be like, 'Damn girl, I know what you're talking about.'
Similar to that diary entry, when you read it back, you love that other person still — not my ex. I'm talking about me. The younger version of myself who wrote that entry. I mean, I got love for my ex, too. It is very important to the human experience to reflect back on all of that time because it does force you to see the imperfections and makes you have grace for yourself and for that other person.
Hearing the songs, I wish I could go to my younger self and tell her it was going to be okay, because it's great now! I can still feel those things. They will never go away. But I definitely don't resonate with trying to go fight somebody's mom. I'm definitely not going to do that.
SAILORR: I wish I could say I was more calculated about things, especially when it comes to my rollout, but honestly, I literally was just like, "This feels good. Put it out." Boom. I really like [Martin] Scorsese, you know what I mean? It wasn't super calculated to where I knew what the next five singles were, but it definitely felt like I was tracing a bit of a world, and I knew that I wanted to open up the project with at least the five pillars of what makes the music me.
I wanted people to hear the writing. I wanted people to just feel the production, because I feel in general Zach [Ezzy] and Adam [Krevlin] are so crazy. Two geniuses, bro. I love them so much. We just all crafted such a unique sound, so I really wanted to spend my time with the singles sharing that.
SAILORR: So, we were at a farmers market. I didn't know them at the time, but there was only one tomato left on the stand, and we were all looking at it, and we fought to the death. No, I'm just kidding. Literally, it was just through my manager, who also manages Zach, and Zach and Adam have known each other for literally years. They go way back to college because they both interned at the same studio in New York before moving to LA.
I was actually here [in LA] for another writing session at the time for Nascent when he was working on his album Don't Grow Up Too Soon. That was like maybe the first time I had really dipped my feet in any sort of writing sessions, because prior to that, of course, I'm just recording everything in my room — and fun fact, 'Mangosteen' for that project was recorded in my room. But my manager was like, "Hey, I think you should do a session with Zach, get to know each other, and see what happens." And literally from that first session, we were like, "Yeah, we're locked in." I just felt it immediately.
SAILORR: I had the most fun finishing 'GRRL'S GRRL.' I wrote that song so long ago. It's just such a silly ass production. But I think personally, my favorite song off the project is probably 'BELLY.' One of the lines in that song is something that I recently really felt.
The second verse: 'You know what it is if hе on Co-Star he ran through / He knows what his moon sign is, he's co-signеd every girl I know.' And literally, no shade to my new man, because I love him, but I remember that moment when we were just watching stupid videos on his phone and I saw Co-Star and I was like, 'Ugh. You're for the streets. But I still love you, though.'
SAILORR: Those are real conversations that I had with my friend. I told her, "We're going to improv. This is the premise for the skit, and just talk with me.' So, we both got in the car, and we pulled up Voice Memos on two phones. I was just like, "Your tire is flat. We're going out for the night." That's all I told her. And then it just went from there. So that was 'LUG NUT.' And then 'MSG,' I don't know. I just be talking sh*t.
SAILORR: There are layers to this, many layers. Layer one: Of course, it's a reference to the Animorphs book series. I haven't read all of them, but I know that it's like a group of kids and they basically turn into animals and… they fight aliens? I'm going to be so real with you, I can't speak much on the writing because I only read one book as a child, but the graphics really speak to me.
Metamorphosis by Kafka is about existentialism and [the question of], 'what is human connection after I become this thing?'
Super heady, but I was definitely feeling a lot of those feelings when I was making this project because this project is about growing pains and certain transitions that you go through when you're healing, especially through becoming an adult. I wanted to do a little nod to Kafka, like, 'Hehe. I do read, b*tch.'
Also, roaches are rampant in Florida. I wanted to think about some sort of theme that was specific to Florida that only people who really live there would know. We have flying roaches there, and it doesn't matter how beautiful or big the house is, you're going to have roaches. They are everywhere. That's also a theme within the album overall, that no matter where I am, I'm always going to be me.
And I also — double entendre — love smoking roaches, so it doesn't matter how much money I make, I'm always going to smoke my roaches. That's just me as a person.
SAILORR: A little, I suppose. I mean, my Roblox character has always been a roach with a tiara on it. It's just always been a thing.
SAILORR: Yeah, for sure. It needs to be yassified. It needs to be c*nt.
SAILORR: In general, my existing in the music space is a huge grain against the norm, especially within my family. When I first started making music, everybody thought I was insane. They were just like, "Okay, what are you actually going to do with your life, though?"
I feel like this project is such a strong representation of what my writing is, and I never strayed away from that. I think that's a message within itself: I still stayed true to what I wanted despite everybody trying to make me feel small and trying to tell me to do otherwise.
In general, everybody wants to make this weird fake sense of healing. It's always supposed to be breathwork, and you're supposed to really reflect and feel good all the time. But no, that's not what it is. I don't care what healing looks like to anybody else, and I don't care what sort of expectations my family or a white conservative man from the South thinks that I should be doing.
This is kind of off the path of what we're talking about, but I think it's so funny when I read in my comments, and it's an angry man, because I'm like, 'I don't make music for you. Why are you here, girl? Get out of here. You're not supposed to be here right now. This is not for you. This is for the girls, the gays, and the thems.'
SAILORR: I think I'm just a girl first. I don't know. Obviously, people can see that I'm Asian. I can't wipe that off. You know what I mean? I can't be like, "Okay, I'm not Vietnamese anymore." So, a lot of the different Easter eggs or different customs or traditions that I choose to highlight will often be something that I want to juxtapose.
So, for example, the Genius performance of 'CUT UP' where I was wearing the ao dai. Women in Vietnam wear that dress to celebrate either getting married, having a baby, or during New Year's. I wanted to juxtapose that because I'm celebrating myself right now. I'm celebrating the fact that this music is successfully getting to a mainstream scale and other people are really resonating with it, and I want to be celebrated for more than being a mom, for something more than just what they think women contribute to society.
A lot of the things that I do to exhibit or celebrate my heritage are often just spun on their heads because I think that it's really cool when people take traditions and just put their own spin on them. There are a lot of different things that make me who I am in terms of the music that I'm into, the clothes that I like to wear, and the food that I like to eat. Growing up in America, you get a lot of influence from multiple people and different cultures, and I think that without that, I would not be who I am today.
SAILORR: Damn, she smells good. That's all I want.
SAILORR: I'm gatekeeping. I can't say. No, okay, so it starts from the shower. It's not just a perfume thing. I use specifically Dr. Bronner's Lavender, Rose, or Almond. You've got to scrub it down. You've got to feel it. If I'm using almond, I have to leave the shower feeling like a f*cking almond, okay? When I get out of the shower and I'm still damp, I go in with body oil. As of recently, I've been really obsessed with the NEST Madagascar Vanilla Oil. It's a super good one to layer with.
After that, I go in with lotion or some sort of butter. I have this body butter that I literally will never switch up. There's this one Jamaican man at the flea market in Jacksonville, Florida. Hopefully, I don't blow up my spot — I mean, I hope everybody goes and supports him, but genuinely, he makes the best body butters ever. He has an Egyptian Musk. I personally like the Coconut Mango one. I layer that on, and then I probably end with some sort of perfume. But it needs to complement everything that's going on. I just think that it's all layering. It's like a good cake.
SAILORR: Soft girl summer can mean anything to anybody. If that means you got to set some sh*t off, go do that. If that means you are literally just petting a bunch of bunnies, do that. Whatever that means to you, go set fire to your ex's house. I don't know! I think that it's such a broad thing. For me, my soft girl summer essentials are sunscreen and a bikini. You always need a bikini on hand. You never know when you'll need it.
SAILORR: That I smell good. That's all.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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