MANILA, Philippines — American singer-songwriter vaultboy has a thing for the word “everything,” to the point that he named his forthcoming album after it and incorporated the term into five out of the 12-track titles. He previously featured this word in his viral debut hit everything sucks.
The record entitled everything and nothing is due to come out in May and is composed of the ditties, everything hits me at once, everything is getting better, everything is falling apart again, everything, everywhere (feat. eaJ) and everything is nothing.
The album also includes take the hit, closer (feat. Salem Ilese), where tf have you been?, you’re my moon, hello, goodbye, petals, and this is heaven, this is hell.
“After a certain point, yes I did (intentionally),” confirmed vaultboy to The STAR in an exclusive Zoom interview when queried about the multiple mentions of “everything” in his music. “Everything sucks just happened. And then I wrote a song everything hits me at once. It came out last year. When I wrote that song, I was like, ‘Is it weird to have another song that starts with everything?’
“And then I was like, ‘Maybe it’s not only not weird but maybe I wanna do it more.’ So I started thinking what other songs could I write that could be cool and that spawned me to thinking everything, everywhere ‘cause I love the movie ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’ And so we wanted to kinda take the idea of ‘Everything, Everywhere’ and that’s just the song we got.
“On the album, there’s everything is falling apart again, there’s everything is getting better, and there’s everything is nothing as well. I found it really, for some reason, simple and easy for me to express myself when I had a title like that for a song. And yeah, the songs are great, it worked out. I’m happy being the everything (guy).”
Beyond “everything,” his upcoming album was inspired by the concept of duality as expressed in hello, goodbye and this is heaven, this is hell. The first half of the songs in the album is “lighter, happier sounding” and more similar to what a lot of people have known vaultboy for, like his earlier tracks everything sucks and rocket science.
“The second half transitions into the section, which is a lot darker and not just sad, some sad and some kind of dark and some mental health songs but yeah, I really just like the idea of having this juxtaposition between being sad. And so that’s kinda the theme of the album,” he added.
The alt-pop artist described it as a “cool album” that “goes really well together.” “No one song sounds like the other (and) I’m very proud of it.”
One of vaultboy’s favorite off the album is the somber love song, you’re my moon, which is “calling out to the lover in the song as a basically the light in the darkness, which is the moon.”
The track is “loosely” based on his personal experience. As he shared, “I was inspired by some stuff that I’ve gone through. But when I was writing it at that time, I was single. I’d like to think that when I write songs, I’m manifesting my future and I’m gonna have someone like that.”
For closer, he reunited with Salem following their don’t shop when ur hungry!! collaboration. “It’s about the beginning stage of a relationship and we’ve both been there many times and so it was pretty easy to write I think. But yeah, it was such a good day in the studio. It was fun. Both of us relate to the song (closer) in different ways, for sure.”
Born Jeremiah Daly in Jacksonville, Florida, vaultboy started posting social media content in 2021, including his viral everything sucks on TikTok. The single subsequently entered the Spotify Global Chart at No. 1 and Spotify’s Viral Charts in 37 countries across the world.
He got his stage name vaultboy from a videogame-turned-TV show called “Fallout.” He was dubbed by Rolling Stone as the “King of Sad Songs.”
The singer will stage his Manila show on June 13 at the Podium Hall in Ortigas to be presented by Wilbros Live.
Prior to coming here, vaultboy has been hearing good stuff about the Philippines. “Someone recently told me that the beaches were great. So, I must go to the beaches, I guess. And I just heard that the people are great to be around. The people are really nice. There’s a good vibe, good energy from the people.”
With that being said, he is thrilled to come to the country for the first time, saying, “I can’t wait to meet all my fans out there, eat some good food and just have a good time. I think it will be the thing that makes it really feel real like come out there, and do and play some shows so yeah, I’m excited.”
He hoped to meet his Filipino fans in June and left this message of gratitude to them, “I love you guys. Thank you so much for your support all these years. And I hope that I’ll see you in June.”