Practically since his debut with Holostars English Armis, Vtuber Octavio’s released tons of tracks. Since his November 2023 launch, we’ve seen karaoke streams, official covers, and original songs. This is both alone and with other members of Holostars, Hololive, and even other companies like Nijisanji. Siliconera caught up with him again after some of his recent releases to go over his latest projects and what he has planned for the future.
Jenni Lada: You’ve worked on so much music since our last interview with you! What does your schedule even look like for an average week considering you’re managing standard streams for things like Resident Evil Requiem and Dispatch in addition to these types of releases?
Octavio: I’ve been very hard at work on the music side for sure! My schedule is actually pretty sustainable, if a bit weird to some! I start my day at 4AM and end at 12PM. That means no more thinking about content creation from 12PM onwards. Then I sleep at around 8PM! So during my workday, I get as much music and homework done, and tasks my managers need me to complete like any recordings, progress on projects and whatnot, then stream for around 4 hours. If I’m not able to finish whatever it is I’m working on, then so be it. I continue on to the next day. Since the start of this year, I’ve adopted a music and events-first approach. So in addition to my releases and big events, I make sure to at least do 3 to 4 variety streams a week as I consider that fanservice, rather than the lifeblood of my brand.
One of the biggest debuts of yours in April is the “Jane Doe” duet with Enna Alouette. Did you encounter any challenges when working on the cover, especially since you belong to different agencies?
Octavio: I was expecting all sorts of challenges to get this thing off the ground but working with Enna Alouette and Nijisanji EN has been extremely smooth and Enna’s manager was also very supportive of our project. I was expecting all sorts of barriers maybe with permissions or song rights, but it felt like there were none at all. The only barrier was me mustering the courage to invite Enna to sing!
You also put out a call for a duel challenge with the song on social media. Did any of the quote retweets especially surprise you?
Octavio: Yes! One of the things I noted that my poppets enjoy doing is recording their voices singing with me whenever I do these challenges and many of them always wanted to sing, and so I consider this as me encouraging them! In my post, I made sure to tell them to sing absolutely any way they want. A lot of people become hesitant when they need to put their voice out there so I tried my best to nip that in the bud and tell them, wherever they are in their singing journey, they may sing with me in these duet challenges! There are many that totally went off script and did complex adlibs and harmonies, even more complex than the original and all of them added so much more to the song that I ever could have imagined. In that moment, the songs became theirs.
You officially launched the song “Cold Blue” last month, following its initial debut as a Gavis Bettel love song and 3D showcase performance of it. What was it like doing this release and preparing the music video for it?
Octavio: Let me tell you the experience of going back and forth between the mastering engineer at Cover with regards to any fixes I needed to do to the arrangement and to the mix was nerve wracking. This is my very first fully arranged song, and I was equipped with only the little bit of music theory I learned when I did piano lessons when I was a kid. They were very respectful with their comments and because of that I felt safe experimenting with settings and trying my best to figure out how to carry out the fixes the music team required. As for the music video, I wanted it to not be very anime or vtuber-y because the song itself is a pop song inspired by OPM. I wanted it to have as wide an appeal as possible. Not saying that anime isn’t cool but understandably, people in our space have a certain liking to JPOP/Rock, Vocaloid and anime music with complex arrangements which is quite different from the song I made. I also know that a lot of people who potentially are into the sound that I made are not in the space that I’m in, so I wanted to reach them! So I made a video without anime, and instead a man with a TV for a head in a trench coat. That’ll get them for sure!
One of the other huge projects recently is a Chinese version of “String Theology.” What made you decide to even work on this release, and how much extra effort needed to go into the Chinese localization?
Octavio: When we debuted on Bilibili they gave me an opportunity to work on any project I wanted. First was the collab with Serafina which was a 3D Music Video. After that, I had an opportunity to pursue something smaller. Initially I was thinking of just getting a new background or Starting Soon screen, then I realized we could have a lyricist translate my original song into Chinese! The translation actually also came with a vocal guide so it was surprisingly easy to follow along and sing. Sure it took a million retakes, but I got there in the end. After that, I just wanted it to release alongside a simple MV, but the Bilibili team volunteered to create something a bit more complex out of it, and of course I couldn’t say no. The whole thing turned out to be bigger and more complex than I initially expected and the response to it was amazing!
You mentioned you also worked on the mix for that take on your song. What led to that decision?
Octavio: There was no real strategy to it. The only reason is that I was very self conscious about my pronunciation of it and admittedly, a lot of lines are chopped up to create one full take because I couldn’t sing many of the lines in one full breath. And so I told the managers that I wanted to mix it myself to save me the embarrassment of having someone listen to my lines and exclaim what the hell is this HAHA.
Right now, the game you’re streaming is Resident Evil Requiem. Any thoughts on what you’d like to pick up and play next?
Octavio: PRAGMATA is the next big release on my list of games to stream! But in the lead up to that a certain other game caught my attention, and that’s Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. I’ve never played any of those games before (I actually don’t play my Switch much aside from Xenoblade) but I saw that I can make the HOLOSTARS as characters in that game, so I’ll start streaming that soon!
Do you have any other performances or projects you’re preparing right now?
Octavio: A LOT! One thing’s for sure is that this year is the year of Original Music! Music that is made from the ground up, from the instrumental to the final mix by me! One project that I can talk about that’s being worked on right now is a collaboration between me, Ruze and Altare. It’s an original song that I’m making completely from scratch every 4AM. I did a stream with members to determine certain aspects of the song so that my poppets can feel like this song is also theirs. All I can say right now is it’s going to be a song about yearning, as apparently that’s what I’m good at writing! It’s actually already done and I’m just waiting for their vocal recordings so I can start mixing and doing the final embellishments so to speak. Like I said, earlier I’ve adopted a music-first approach, so aside from original music, I’m expecting to release a cover song every 2 to 3 weeks!
What do you think you’re most looking forward to on the horizon for 2026, and what would you like to see happen in 2027?
Octavio: There is a REALLY BIG GIGANTIC THING COMING this 2026 that I can’t talk about, but that’s what I’m looking forward to the most! I hate that I can’t talk about it yet, but whatever it is, I know the fans will love it! Aside from that, I wish to collaborate more with amazing singers like Enna and get truly unique music out there for the rest of this year and beyond!
You can find Octavio on YouTube, Bilibili, and Twitch, and he’s also on social media.