bunii.
Noah Neko.
bunii has only been playing guitar for a little more than a year, but the stripped-back Midwest emo of his major label debut VIRGILIO has a confidence and songcraft that belies his youth. The 18-year-old is one of the biggest stars in SoundCloud’s fast-rising “indie scene,” which exists at the intersection of the hyper-collaborative, Discord-based structures of underground rap and the raw, boots-on-the-ground ethos of traditional indie rock.
Often self-producing his math-y emo-pop tracks in single sittings on the fly, bunii is a post-digicore parallel to ‘90s home-tapers like Guided By Voices and Sebadoh, releasing intimate, fragmented work that crisply snapshots the moment of its recording. The raw, lo-fi sound of his January 2025 EP 8:30 is too early and last July’s excellent Bastard is the product of frenetic pacing and intricate collagework, rather than a cassette filter slapped on the master track for #vibes. At least some of that comes from his emo and J-rock influences: when asked to name 3 albums to help newcomers understand his taste better, he lists In This World by Susquatch, American Football by American Football, and Macseal EP by Macseal.
VIRGILIO, released a week ago on Warner, closely adheres to the straightforward, uncluttered songcraft of his past work, but buffs out some of the distortion, emphasizing the vibrancy of his intricate riffs and tastefully processed vocals.
That newfound clarity carries over into VIRGILIO’s lyricsheet. While Bastard’s introspective scope could feel confined to the bedroom, the new material looks outward: barreling down highways, assuming the perspective of family members, and confessing the fear bunii feels about committing to life as a professional musician. “Really, it’s my first time, too,” he admits on “My Bad.”
The FADER spoke with bunii over Zoom on Wednesday, April 1, to discuss his love of jazz standards and Japanese math rock, maintaining a DIY-ethos while signed to a major label, and that time he met the Liver King.
The FADER: You played your first-ever show in December. What was it like playing with a band for the first time, well after you had already built a fanbase?
bunii: I didn't really know how to feel about it at first, just because I hadn’t really even been to shows like that, like as a fan. So I got out there, and people already knew all of my songs. I think my team and the venue owners were kind of floored at the fact that it was my first-ever show and people already knew the lyrics to my songs. I was kind of taken aback.
It’s pretty bold to open VIRGILIO with a cover of “The Great Pretender,” a classic 50s song that has a famous rendition by Freddie Mercury. What made you want to start the album with a cover?
Virgilio is named after my grandpa and my uncle. And for my grandpa, that was a really important song. Anybody that knew him knew that was his song. It was a way to pay homage to him, really.
Throughout the album, there are so many references to your family, especially at the end on tracks like “Joey” and “Nanay,” which you wrote from the perspective of your sister and mom, respectively.
I think my previous albums [like] Bastard were talking a lot about the situations that I was in, and my emotions that I was experiencing in those situations. And I wanted to use this album as a way to explain how I got into those situations.
What was life like for you growing up? You reference a move to Wisconsin on “Blizzard.”
My family has always been really musical, playing instruments and just really loving the music that they listen to. And that's on both of my parents' sides. I was born in LA, but moving to Wisconsin had a lot to do with my own love for music, just because my dad was the one actually playing the instruments. That was where his family was, so I was constantly just surrounded by all of that.
Coming up online at a time when the whole “Soundcloud indie” scene was starting to emerge, how did you land on the specific style of Midwest emo that you're making? There are people that kind of sound similar to you, but the blend of influences you’re drawing from feels really specific to bunii.
I mean, it was all music that I had just grown up on. I didn't wake up one day randomly and think, "I want to make Midwest emo music." But it was more so just that it’s what I had always been listening to, and I felt it just sounded the most appropriate for what I was trying to express through my music.
What kind of music did your parents listen to?
My dad, he was big into a lot more classic rock. Stuff like Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and then a lot of jazz stuff like Mingus, Coltrane, Miles Davis. All that stuff. And my mom was more so into Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Michael Jackson. More pop-forward. I’m kind of a combination of both.
What kind of emo music got you into this sound specifically? You’ve mentioned the Japanese band Susquatch in the past, and I totally see the connection.
I feel like the main entry point for a lot of people's Midwest emo experience is usually American Football. And then from there I would doomscroll on Spotify. Just clicking on "Artists You May Like" or "Fans Also Like," and I would just go down these rabbit holes until I was eventually on Japanese math rock. I kind of curated my taste that way.
How did you learn to start playing guitar like that?
I actually started learning guitar in late 2024.
That’s crazy.
I was actually trying to learn a lot of jazz standards. Just stuff that I was doing in high school on trumpet. I just really like the chord progressions of jazz, but I love the sound of rock.
You’ve said that you usually try to write and record your tracks in one sitting. What does your process look like?
I always have my guitar in my hand. I'm always building it around that. I'll finish the whole beat all at once, just so I get an idea. I've got to get it out as soon as I can. From there, I'll come up with the whole vocal melody, and then put lyrics to it afterwards. I'm never thinking, "I need to make a song about this specific thing,” y’know? It kind of just flows out naturally, and whatever happens, happens.
When did you start working on VIRGILIO?
Really, right after Bastard, my previous album. I thought it was something I wanted to do with a lot of intention and plan it out for a very long time, considering the topics on the album and what I'm dedicating it to.
With this being your major label debut, did you approach things any differently from a songwriting standpoint?
I mean, in terms of making the album, everything was pretty much the same. I think I got to where I'm at because I'm independent. I do everything myself, and I wouldn't want to change that as soon as I signed to a label.
What sort of opportunities has signing opened up for you? The new music videos, for example, are nice-looking, and even the mix of the album feels a bit cleaner than usual.
I think it was really just building on what I had already been doing before. There wasn't too much of a change, really. Just now, everything has to go through specific departments and whatnot. Everything has to get approved. But it doesn’t take the fun out of it. I love what I'm doing.
Are you still recording most of this stuff in your room?
Oh, yeah. I hate using studios. I'm not gonna lie. It just feels so much more natural in my room.
What does an average day look like for you?
I mean, if I don't have any meetings or anywhere I need to be in particular, I'll really just wake up and brush my teeth, do my morning routine, clean around my house a bit, and then for the rest of the day, I'm in my home studio or in my room, playing guitar, trying to come up with new stuff. It’s my only hobby, pretty much.
I feel like it’s a different path now for you, where you don't have to do the typical rock band circuit of playing shows and doing this IRL stuff. Discord seemed like a really big part of your come-up, from what I can tell.
Yeah. Like you said, the scene isn't as much about DIY shows and forming in-person connections with your fans. So, I think things like Discord and other social media platforms, they really helped make up for what I couldn't do because it was all online.
Are there any themes that you came out in this album that you felt like you hadn't been able to touch on before?
I think in general, I was able to be a lot more vulnerable. I was definitely vulnerable in my past work, but it was kind of general, like, here's what I'm going through. But with this, I was able to talk about my struggles with like, trying to stop smoking weed so much. Or to come up with creative ways to display how I'm doing something I love, but how my family members, like my sister, are affected by that.
Is there a sound you’d like to explore more in the future?
I think just the incorporation of more instruments, really. Like, I play all the stuff that you hear on the songs, but I play even more beyond that. I played jazz trumpet in high school, and I want to pick up more stuff eventually.
As your presence has gotten more established and is moving into the real world, you've been able to do things like January’s Campfire collective show in New York with artists like crayon and ankle. How has the scene come together? And who do you feel like you're closely aligned with artistically?
You mentioned two big ones, crayon and ankle, and people like Kid Moon, and the rest of the people in [the] Campfire collective. When we all came together for the show, it was such a big energy, because we had only ever seen each other through Discord calls.
What was the most memorable moment of that show?
Liver King showed up.
No way. For real?
I was kind of scared. He DM’ed me before, because apparently his son is a fan of our music. He showed up backstage with no shirt on, like “Where’s bunii?” But he was surprisingly pretty chill.
Which track on VIRGILIO are you the most proud of?
I'm torn between “Joey” and “Nanay.” They're both direct letters to people that are still very prevalent in my life.
It seems like putting your heritage and your family in this album was pretty important to you.
I really wanted to showcase myself as a person more, because there's a lot of, “You’ve got to have aura and you’ve got to be mysterious,” and I wanted to break through that.
