Vapor Talks #17: 秋 (Autumn)

A conversation with vaporwave's most prolific prodigy

秋 (Autumn) is the vaporwave project of a prolific 21-year old DIY artist from Virginia that also goes by Guinevere Laurent, Gwen Diamond, The Lampreys and a myriad of other aliases.

She’s just released her most recent album Music (2026) – a longform project consisting of sample-free, original tracks, dedicated to two of her late musical heroes: vaporwave pioneer Lindsheaven Virtual Plaza and hyperpop trailblazer SOPHIE.

Since starting to release music at age 14, she’s created so many albums that it’s hard to keep track, even for herself. Just the 秋 (Autumn) catalogue alone contains around 100 albums by now. Among those, you’ll find the mallsoft marathon 繁華街 (Hankagai) (2020) which garnered some attention in the scene. Since then, she’s been very active mainly in slushwave, but also produced everything from dark ambient and drone to glitch pop and slowcore.

This interview request was a long shot, as the young musician is rather protective of her public image and information about her personal life, so I was pleasantly surprised when she agreed to a Zoom conversation.

Join me on this journey into the mind of a hyperactive vaporwave prodigy.

all images courtesy of the artist

When we exchanged emails before this interview, you mentioned wanting to keep a certain mystery around your persona. It’s not unusual in vaporwave, but what’s the reason?

It’s just something I’ve done for a long time. Every time I’ve attributed my face to my music, I’ve always regretted it and gone back and deleted it at some point. It is definitely a vaporwave thing, especially a slushwave thing. None of these slushwave people show their faces at all, except for some of the biggest people. Back in 2018/19 when I started, people didn’t show their face at all, no matter what. So I guess specifically for my vaporwave projects, I’m trying to keep myself as separate from it as possible, because the aesthetic of the music is kind of its own thing.

That focus on anonymity is decreasing a bit in the current scene though.

I would agree. It’s that post-ElectronICON vibe. More vaporwave artists are playing shows in person than before. In slushwave, desert sand [feels warm at night] was the first one probably who went out there and showed his face, and then some were just following his lead. I’m not judging anybody for going either way. It’s just the specific thing that I feel like I need to do with my music.

You’re incredibly prolific. Are you doing anything else aside from making music?

(laughs) I do have a life. I work a job. But all my music’s made on my laptop, and there’s not a lot of outside instruments or parts I need recorded from other people or anything like that, so I could just kind of sit down and lock in. It’s been my main hobby for a decade now, so if I’m not working or spending time with my partner or something, I am always making music.

There’s not much more public information about you out there except for your birth year, which is 2004. What else can you tell me about your upbringing?

I grew up in a tiny town called Winchester, Virginia. That’s probably another reason why I had so much time to make so much music, because there’s nothing to do there at all besides become a hermit. I’ve moved to Richmond since then, which is the city in Virginia that everybody wants to move to eventually at some point. It’s like the L.A. of Virginia.

That’s about it. Not much else is relevant to my music that I haven’t openly stated in my songs. Specifically in regards to 秋 (Autumn) music, I don’t know how relevant that even is.

Did you get any musical training and learn any instruments growing up?

The only instrument I’m trained at good enough is drums. I was in a marching band at school for a while. That’s how I got into music at first. It was just band class for probably eight years. I’m certainly not the best drummer around, but it is helpful, and I think music classes are important. All kids should be taking art classes. They helped me a lot as a kid.

What kind of music were you into growing up?

My dad was into the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers and stuff like that. And my mom was into general pop music of the late 2000s, early 2010s – Lady Gaga, Sia, Bruno Mars, whatever. I definitely got more from my dad, but I think my mom’s taste has influenced me a little bit more than I have realized growing up.

I started finding electronic music through popular stuff that my dad would listen to, like Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk. Deadmau5 was a really big one for me. Eventually I just stumbled upon vaporwave by coincidence, just being a child on YouTube who is into electronic music. Around 2015 or 2016, I’d find Saint Pepsi’s music videos, which blew my mind. As old as they are now, and as simple as some of those songs are, I still think they’re great.

On one of your Bandcamp pages, I found an album called Sketches and Demos 2014-2018, released under the alias Guinevere Priscilla. You would have been 10 to 14 at that point?

Yeah, this is all things I found on my very old laptop at some point, mostly just shit that I was making with whatever free software I had. That’s when I was first starting to get into making something resembling music.

You started producing music at age 10?

Big quotation marks, but yeah. (laughs)

“I have a really overactive mind, creatively and musically. I have ideas all the time, so I’m making a lot of music.”

Can you try to describe what it was about Saint Pepsi and vaporwave that drew you in? What did you like about it?

It was doing something that I’d never really seen electronic music do before, which was be pastiche and just unabashedly be dedicated to an aesthetic or capturing a time. I just never heard electronic music set in a time like that. That was very interesting to me, and it’s still one of my favorite things about vaporwave. I’d also never heard slowed down music before. The first time I ever heard Telepath, I was like, “What am I listening to right now?” It was just unique and kind of shocking.

Aside from Saint Pepsi and Telepath, who else influenced you in that early period?

I found Internet Club pretty early, who is somebody that I generally resonate with a lot, because I think they started making vaporwave when they were 12 or 13 years old. I definitely saw something really magical in the way that they looked at 2000s nostalgia, way before anybody else was doing that type of thing. Redefining The Workplace was the big one for me. That’s a genius album, I love it very much.

You started the 秋 (Autumn) project in 2019. What was the general idea behind it?

I was going to release a project every month. That’s what I wanted to do. It lasted until 2023 when life got too busy and I couldn’t keep up with it.

I had vaporwave projects before 秋 (Autumn), but never one that I fully dedicated myself to. I just wanted to skip school and spend all day working on albums. The first thing was this EP that I can’t remember the English translation of. It’s a noisier album, and I still like it quite a lot, even though it’s pretty lazy. I was just leaning into plunderphonics. I had tried making more original music, but I was 14 and it sounded horrible.

In 2020, you released the album 繁華街 (Hankagai), which translates to ‘bustling high street’. It became quite popular in online circles, even though it contains 90 tracks of 20 to 40 minute length, so it’s 40 hours long in total.

Well, it started off as a regular 10 track album, but I wasn’t satisfied with it. So I just kept adding at least one new song every single day for two or three months. It definitely got a bit egregious at points with the sample choices or how they were implemented. If I remember correctly, there’s one song on the album that’s literally just a song that Telepath sampled for a VDP [Virtual Dream Plaza] project, stretched out for the entire time.

It was this weird feedback cycle, because I saw people start taking notice of the album growing, and more people started buying it and leaving comments. It was a bizarre and weird time, but it was a fun process. I was 16 and just had nothing else to do with my time. I remember vividly going home from school and just working on that album every night for months. It looms over my head now a little bit though. There’s some very hardly edited samples on that album. I’m just waiting for the day that I get the email. But I’m prepared, I have the Google Drive set up.

Somebody on Bandcamp called it the Sunflower Image of mallsoft, referring to this cult album by the signalwave producer Asutenki, which was made over the course of one year and contains 362 songs. Was that an inspiration?

Absolutely. Asutenki as a person in general is somebody that I was probably thinking of at the time while I was making that.

Another 秋 (Autumn) album that I personally really loved was フーガ (fugue). This one has a very different vibe than many of the other albums, it’s much more of a dark ambient and drone album.

Yeah, I made フーガ (fugue) when I first heard desert sand feels warm at night’s sample-free stuff. I was like, “This seems easy, I could do that.” (laughs) I don’t really remember anything about making it, but it’s a pretty album. Listening back to it, I really like all those MIDI strings. They sound nice. I’m happy it’s on tape now. I’m happy these old albums are getting tapes. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and eventually it’s gonna catch up.

That whole album is sample-free?

Some of the field recordings might be from freesound.com or something, but everything else should be totally sample-free. フーガ (fugue) is definitely an outlier. If we’re talking about 秋 (Autumn) specifically, probably 95% of the music is samples. I’m trying to think of what else is original entirely, and I can’t really think of anything else, as far as the 秋 (Autumn) name goes.

You work mostly with software – no hardware involved at all?

None for 秋 (Autumn) stuff. I make pop music as The Lampreys, and that does have guitars and my voice in it. But as far as 秋 (Autumn) goes, that’s pretty much all FL Studio stuff so far, and Audacity on some of the old stuff. Sometimes I would go back to Audacity because I wanted to challenge myself a little.

What does your album-making process look like?

It really depends on the record. I think some records take me a lot longer than others. Obviously, for something like 繁華街 (Hankagai), I would just be scouring YouTube and archive.org for samples, looking for stuff that matches the vibe and flows together well. For slushwave, that’s me listening to either YouTube playlists or CDs I have or whatever, and just looking for something that has an interesting sound in it that I could loop over and over again. I’m just looking for grooves and sounds. Sometimes they hit you at work or somewhere random.

I’ve been working on a new album, which is very much a Keith Rankin/death’s dynamic shroud rip-off record. Well, ideally, not too much of a rip-off. (laughs) I have those songs saved to my hard drive and I work on them for nights at a time. So I guess it depends, because a slushwave song is usually one sitting, and other times it’s definitely more of a process.

There are so many different styles of music in your catalogue, even just within vaporwave subgenres. Do you still feel you’re part of the slushwave community more than anything else?

I don’t know. I’m kind of conflicted on that. A couple years ago, back when I was doing Slushwave live events and stuff, 秋 (Autumn) was a name that maybe somebody would say when they were talking about modern slushwave. But I might be a little bit too all over the place. I think I’m just generally vaporwave at this point. It’s pretty hard to label myself as anything, but I will say I’m still a huge slushwave fan. If I’m listening to any kind of vaporwave, 80% of the time it’s gonna be slush. I’m very tapped into the new people right now, they’re making some very interesting music. I’m absolutely a part of the community as a fan. 100%.

Drop some names. Who’s inspiring you right now?

I could do the obvious plug and say Lover’s Dream and Psicadence, but everybody knows about them at this point. 18 Days, who’s also a friend of mine, but I’m not biased – that’s just great slushwave. These people have been around for a little while now, but I would say Nether and Illusionary are still two of my absolute favorites. Nether was one of my favorite new names to come around in a good while, so definitely shout out to them too.

When we started this conversation, I mentioned AI in a half-sentence, and you were like, “Oh, no.”

Yeah, I do not partake. I am not personally a fan. It doesn’t really like fit my vibe or anything at all. I don’t have a ton to say about it. It’s just not something I am into at all. I’m a lazy musician, but I’m not that lazy.

If someone would want to start into the 秋 (Autumn) discography, where would you send them as an entry point?

A lot of people start with 繁華街 (Hankagai) because they see it on Rate Your Music with a ton of good ratings. I think that’s an awful place to start. It’s actually the worst possible place to start! It sounds nothing like anything else I’ve ever made. It’s horrible, it’s long, and it’s not a good time. (laughs) I think the 秋 (Autumn) album I’m the most proud of is Running Out Of Love.

You mentioned The Lampreys, but you have many other projects. Rate Your Music lists over 30 aliases.

Yeah, I changed my name a lot and have a lot of aliases. I have many anonymous aliases and one-off things too. It just reflects my workflow. I’m a really all over the place person. I have an overactive mind, creatively and musically. I have ideas all the time, so I’m making a lot of music.

The Lampreys is my more genuine attempt at pop music. I had made some pop records as Guinevere Laurent for a little bit. I wouldn’t say check them out, but it’s definitely a continuation from that project to The Lampreys. It’s very sample-based, raw indietronica.

You’re 21 now. Do you see music as a career option at this point?

Good question. I don’t know. I would immediately throw away everything if I had the opportunity to do this full time and quit my job, but just looking at the state of the music world right now, it’s out of my hands and I don’t see it as a huge possibility.

As a slightly avant-garde musician of any kind, I think it’s next to impossible to make money, especially in America. I’m certainly not opposed to it though. I’ve been playing more shows lately. I’ve been making more money off of my music than I ever have, but it’s still nowhere near enough to quit my job.

What are your future plans right now for 秋 (Autumn)?

Well, I have a few things in the works. They’re all pretty lengthy. We’re going back to long 秋 (Autumn) records again. The album that I was talking about earlier is called Music, and it is three hours long. It’s like if death’s dynamic shroud had kept doing what they were doing in 2016 – the glitch pop stuff, you know? Everyone I sent it to so far really liked it. I hope I’m not being narcissistic when I say that it’s the best 秋 (Autumn) project in a good while. It’s certainly the most awake project in a while.

I have another thing planned called Scaffolding. It’s a post-rock record, which is going to be interesting. Which is why I said earlier there’s no instruments in 秋 (Autumn) music yet, because this record does actually have a good amount of instruments on it. It is going to be unreasonably long for no reason at all, but it’ll be fun. I enjoy making long music, because it can achieve emotions that short music just cannot.

Listen to 秋 (Autumn) on Bandcamp

秋 (Autumn)’s Top 10 Vaporwave Albums

1. t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 – ｉｎｔｅｒｓｔｅｌｌａｒ ｌｏｖｅ (Dream Catalogue, 2014)

2. Daniel Lopatin – Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1 (The Curatorial Club, 2010)

3. Saint Pepsi – Winner’s Circle (Fortune 500, 2013)

4. death’s dynamic shroud – Faith in Persona (self-released, 2021)

5. 18 Carat Affair – Spent Passions (2005-2009) (self-released, 2009)

6. t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 – 一緒に別の夜 (Dream Catalogue, 2016)

7. 18 Carat Affair – The Life Of Vice (self-released, 2011)

8. 仮想夢プラザ [Virtual Dream Plaza] – ここに彼女が来ます [Here She Comes] (TKX, 2015)

9. desert sand feels warm at night – 夢の砂漠 [Dream Desert] (Geometric Lullaby, 2022)

10. death’s dynamic shroud – 失われた時REGRET (self-released, 2014)