Pop music is often our first love. We grow up listening to its catchy lyrics and sugary-sweet vocals broadcast from our local radio stations. Then we get older and rebellious and denounce pop for more ‘mature’ music, obsessed with angst and “artistry” – whatever that means. We thoughtlessly assign guilt to something as innocent and joyful as a music genre. Fortunately for us, SASAMI refuses to be a victim of this guilt.

Today, her latest song “Just Be Friends” is out, and it is everything a sad pop song should be: chantable, relatable, and endlessly catchy. The latest single from her upcoming third album Blood On the Silver Screen, it is a bittersweet reflection on a relationship gone awry. “Stealing sad kisses and leave me in the rain, I promised myself I’d never end up here again” she admits, before adding that she’ll be quick to forget if only for only a few moments in her lover’s arms. Following the alt-rock “Honeycrash” and dance-pop “Slugger” released earlier this year, “Just Be Friends” is simply another example of SASAMI’s fascination with bending genres to her will.

After releasing the nu-metal-inspired Squeeze in 2022, the artist relocated to rural Northern California from LA to have more time alone with her thoughts. Now she has returned from her coastal contemplation with a new offering: the first SASAMI pop record, Blood On the Silver Screen, out March 7, 2025 via Domino. Ahead of the release, FLAUNT questioned the artist about her thoughts on Los Angeles, loneliness, and live shows.

Many people associate pop music with this sort of "guiltless pleasure" that you speak of-- in what ways has guilt informed your journey as a musician, and how do you let it go?

There is shame, which I think is a self-awareness metric for our behavior as humans and not causing harm, and then there is guilt which maybe is more tied into our relationships with man-made, profit or power driven value systems. I just kind of don’t fuck with guilt anymore. I was raised in a very conservative environment where guilt and fear were woven so deeply into the fabric of my existence that I didn’t even realize until recently how crippled I was by it in my day to day life. If you’re not harming anyone or thing I think our pleasures are all valid and don’t deserve guilt placed on them.

There is a unique loneliness that arrives with being a Los Angeles resident, as well as being a songwriter/creative. "Just Be Friends" touches on the way that companionship can ease this pain, at least temporarily. How was loneliness productive to the process of Blood on the Silver Screen?

I actually moved to a coastal/rural town in Northern California right when I started to write all of the songs for B.O.S.S., and I was definitely very isolated and alone with my feelings during that process. I think sometimes when we are feeling loneliness there is this urgency to fill the void with whatever we are familiar with or know to be comforting, even if deep down we know it’s shallow or temporary. We all just want to be loved and seen and held so a lot of the time it feels like a battle between the immediate need for those desires to be met and the long game of finding love/healthy partnership. Sometimes that feeling of loneliness isn’t even a need for companionship and rather a need for us to grow more comfortable being alone and let me tell you as a Cancer that is a lifelong struggle for me!

What kind of crowd do you most look forward to on tour?

I LIVE for an all ages crowd. I remember going to shows when I was a teen and how they literally changed my life. When I am introducing metal sounds to a young crowd, watching kids in their first mosh pit or just connecting emotionally with anyone of any age it sets my heart aflame. At the end of the day we’re in a precious, magical space at a live show and it’s an opportunity to fully let go and I love when people do.

Your music exists at the confluence of genre-- whether it be country, pop, or indie rock. Do you think genre-based thinking is still a useful framework by which people create stories surrounding music?

I really feel like music genres are like languages, so I have a deep respect for learning the nuances and vocabulary of those languages, but also using that collection of expressions to make your own individual language as an artist.

How has your relationship with intimacy changed as a product of being an artist/public figure?

I have always been a very IRL-centric person, but now having to be perceived SO much (and it seems like more and more every day, the public wants to know personal information about artists in a way that they didn’t in the past) I really value the grounding of IRL experiences and maintaining a few very intimate relationships as opposed to many shallow relationships. Hence leaving LA.

‍How does Blood on the Silver Screen divorce itself from Squeeze? In what ways is the record a continuation of the last?

In a very literal sense, performing Squeeze was very taxing on my vocal cords, so I was very intentional about writing an album that was all about singing and songs. However, the theatrical, dramatic elements that fueled the creation of Squeeze is definitely still deeply imbued in B.O.S.S.. It might just be a different fabric, but the way that I design is basically the same.

How do you strike a balance between vulnerability and grit?

It requires a lot of self-regulation for me! When I was younger I slammed the gas and the brakes back and forth as hard as I could. I tried to balance touring so hard by hiking and being in nature, but that kind of aggressive oscillation has its wear and tear too. I’m trying to get better about meditation and DAILY mental/physical health and regulation. It means saying no a lot tbh and everyone loves to fight me on it but at the end of the day and after lots of experience I generally know what I want and need and it’s just about the universe giving it to me or not.