After establishing herself with the poised melancholia of her eponymous 2019 debut, Sasami embraced volume and control on 2022’s Squeeze—touring with a metal band—but her goal on Blood On the Silver Screen was to speak her truth with conviction by singing. Working with co-producers Jenn Decilveo and Rostam, with Sasami as sole writer, each Blood On the Silver Screen track viscerally captures a different thread of love, sex, power, and embodiment. “Pop music is like fuel,” Sasami says. “It’s just invigorating.” Across Blood On the Silver Screen, Sasami’s lyrics narrate the ecstasies and agonies of being “a modern lover,” she says—writing about “big city dating endeavors” even as she found herself relocating, on a whim, from Los Angeles to rural Northern California. The anthemic “For the Weekend” explores “modern intimacy, where you can get deep without the relationship being defined,” while the irrepressible “Just Be Friends” bottles the dizzying longing that can overtake those in-betweens. “I wanted to go all out with this album,” Sasami continues. “I wanted to, in my tenderness and emotionality, have the bravery to undertake something as epic as making a pop record about love. I hope it makes people feel empowered and embodied, too. It’s important to not box yourself in.”
