Belgium-based queer indie-pop artist ROIL is turning personal experience into powerful storytelling with the release of his new album, Living Outside the Closet. The project sees singer-songwriter Ryo Sakai explore themes of identity, masculinity, heartbreak, healing, and self-acceptance through a blend of indie-pop melodies, alternative textures, and candid lyricism.
Born in 1991 and raised in Asia, Sakai draws from his experiences as a half-Thai, half-Japanese queer artist navigating the challenges of coming out, relationships, family expectations, and finding his place in the world. Across Living Outside the Closet, he balances emotional honesty with sharp wit and moments of warmth, creating songs that feel deeply personal while remaining universally relatable.
Influenced by contemporary artists such as Conan Gray, Troye Sivan, Phoebe Bridgers, Chappell Roan, and Rex Orange County, alongside classics like Supertramp, The Smiths, Snow Patrol, Alanis Morissette, and The Cranberries, ROIL has crafted a sound that places storytelling at its centre. As he continues to redefine authenticity on his own terms, Living Outside the Closet stands as both a personal milestone and an invitation for listeners to embrace their own journeys.
We caught up with ROIL to discuss the making of the album, growing up queer in the 2000s, the evolution of his sound, and how music became a tool for connection, resilience, and self-discovery.
How would you describe the sonic world of Living Outside the Closet to someone hearing it for the first time?
This album is mainly about coming out of the closet, accepting yourself and expressing yourself genuinely without fear of confronting how other people will treat you. And of course there were consequences coming right after, either being in a secretive situationship, being misunderstood, leaving the place where you don’t belong, but at least you are growing the way that is truthful for you. It’s a bittersweet journey album.
What came first in your writing process for this album — melody, lyric, or emotion?
I have some melodies and sound ideas that I keep. But to start writing songs from scratch, it mostly comes from emotions in my memories as a theme. And then I put them into lyrics to describe these feelings. Sometimes it ends up with some new melodies from a keyboard or my own singing, or it can be those chosen melodies that I kept from previous ideas. But the song “manhood” I started writing purely from lyrics before emotions or melodies.
Were there any production choices you made specifically to make the record feel more intimate or exposed?
It came mainly from storytelling. I tried to scope my stories of each track into the same direction of how it feels to live your life after coming out. Because things don’t just end happily by coming out once, ok! period!. Life continues. We’re still growing and learning. Musically, the sounds follow these stories. Because when I was younger, back in 2009 – 2019, I listened a lot to British rock, indie-pop on my old cassette tape player. It also reflects the feeling of being disregarded, a bit underground, but wanting to be heard. So I amplify this genre the most to nostalgically bring back the period where we could come out publicly, but there were still a lot of misunderstood views and stereotypes about being queer. You can also hear the cassette tape noises, ambiences of people yelling, shouting or talking in some songs.
Which track pushed you the most sonically outside your comfort zone?
I think “Straight Guy” was the song that I wrote purely from a situationship that I think it was quite exposed and personal. And that was something I didn’t push through before. I felt liberating and I found that ROIL, my artistic side, can be a way to express my personal experiences. After that, all the songs I wrote are quite deeply personal and emotional.
How did your background in classical music and instruments like cello influence your approach to indie-pop production?
When I was 11-16, I used to play cello with small chambers, singing in choirs and helped them with composing songs. So I had a bit of experience and knowledge on how to make a song complete and how to express your feelings through sounds. I wasn’t a genius musical student at all, always struggled and never got chosen to an orchestra but I found the merge between indie-pop and string instruments a lot on the radio or Youtube. And I really like that kind of crossed-genre production.
Are there sounds or textures you kept returning to throughout the album without initially realising it?
It’s definitely the delayed guitar and string. I find many of my songs have 1 beat guitar that’s half a beat late walking throughout the song. And that’s the influence from alternative rock. But also with string sounds from keyboard, violin or cello, I used them to make it more emotional and hopeful sometimes.
How do you know when a song is “finished,” especially when the subject matter is so personal?
I always replay different versions of the song in my head before finalising it. It’s mostly when I can’t rewrite or reimagine it anymore. When I think about this song only with this specific line, melody and instrument, and it keeps visualising exact memories and feelings back to me, then that’s when it is honest enough to finish. The only song that I feel unfinished is “dandelion” which is the last song in this album. But I put it in the album as a metaphor to myself that it’s an open end, and life after coming out is still unfinished anyway. Maybe I can come back to make a different version in the future.
Did you work alone for most of the record, or was collaboration important in shaping its final form?
It worked on this album all alone from the beginning until the end. Even the aesthetic of this album cover, website and videos are craftly made by me alone in my bedroom. But now I have a friend for sound engineering and he is helping me with the upcoming projects.
Which song best represents the sound of the album as a whole — and which one misleads people the most?
I would say “Outside the Closet”, “I don’t mind” and “manhood” are most aligned with the album theme. The stories and the sounds are coherent and simplified. The song “narcissist” could be a little bit different from the rest of the album. It sounds more complicated and vague but it still gives the colour blue kind of palette when you hear the song.
If this album had a physical space, what would it look or feel like?
The space would be like the picture I actually made for this album cover. It’s a room with walls that you don’t actually know where it ends or where it starts. It feels not fully enclosed but still not outside. The colour blue is the shade of bittersweetness representing both a blue sky of hope and a deep blue ocean of sorrows. Another personal reason for the blue is when I was in my childhood, I had this dark blue closet in my tiny bedroom similar to this one on the cover. I got this blue furniture because it used to be referred as a colour of masculinity, the boy colour. Which is what I had been questioning myself for…
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