While we work on our year-end highlights, we wanted to hear directly from artists about how 2025 has been for them and what they’re looking forward to in 2026.
Discover their answers in our Questionnaire, alongside their Best of 2025 tracks, albums, and mixes. Following Carlos Nimmens, Fernando Lagreca, Beico, Brunetto, and AFFKT, apaull, and Afterlife, the next artist is Vexillary.
Best of 2025 – Artist Questionnaire by Vexillary
– What’s one thing you learned about yourself as an artist this year?
There’s still so much more for me to learn. Slowing down, questioning my instincts, and sticking with the process has taught me more than just pushing forward ever could. In my pursuit of perfection, I’ve realized it’s often the in-between moments, the small unpolished steps, that shape the work the most.
-How has your creative process evolved over the past year?
Evolution for me isn’t about drastic changes, it’s about small steps toward growth that make all the difference in the end. With previous albums, I prided myself on finishing songs at a rapid pace and moving on to the next ideas. The last album, Horror in Dub, felt alive and inventive as a result.
But my new LP, Digital Suspiria, coming out in March, had a far more methodical creation process, more thought-out, more layered, deeper, and more expansive as a whole. That’s the approach I’m carrying with me into the next phase of things.
-Who or what inspired your work the most in 2025?
There’s been a resurgence in my interest in Japanese culture, which directly inspired the artwork for my new LP and the preceding singles. I also got back into gaming in a big way, and a lot of the more creative titles on Switch 2 and PS5 feel like a real pinnacle of contemporary creative culture.
Film continues to be a huge source of inspiration as well—2025 was full of great releases that fed directly into the atmosphere and world-building of the project.
-What’s something you accomplished this year that the “you from last year” wouldn’t believe?
The level of production on Digital Suspiria is something the version of me from last year honestly wouldn’t have believed. I spent an obsessive amount of time in post-production, really pushing the sound to where it needed to be—polished, heavy, club-ready, but still detailed enough to reward headphones.
On top of that, I fully stepped into the visual side this year. I shot and directed all of the music videos myself, bringing a more cinematic edge to the Vexillary universe. It was always a visual project in my head, but this was the year it finally became one in reality.
– Is there something you hoped to accomplish in 2025 but didn’t, and are now aiming for in 2026?What’s one goal -big or small – you’re setting for yourself as an artist in 2026?
Happy to say that after 7 EPs and 4 LPs, with the fourth LP Digital Suspiria coming out next year, I’m finally ready to activate the live side of Vexillary. It’s something I hoped to do in 2025 but needed more time to get right, as I’d always viewed Vexillary primarily as a studio and production project.
In 2026, my goal is to bring this music to the stage properly. Rehearsals start in a few weeks, and I can’t wait to share dates and unleash this music live. It’ll be something special and well worth the wait.
– What are you most excited to explore creatively in 2026?
Writing for the next record has already begun, and I’m exploring a whole new creative direction. I really want to push the sound for the next chapter while sharing Digital Suspiria, my new album, with the world in March. 2026 is shaping up to be a big year for Vexillary—so stay tuned.
– Is there a new medium, project, or direction you’re planning to dive into next year?
Digital Suspiria is more than just a record, it’s a whole world unto itself. I’m currently exploring ways to bring it to life beyond its musical foundation. A video game? A movie? Nothing’s off the table right now, and that’s what excites me about 2026 and this new album cycle.
Your Message for Fans & Music Lovers
I want to thank you all for standing by my project for the past decade and beyond. I’m happy to share that I’ve cooked up what I believe is my greatest work so far in the form of a new album, Digital Suspiria, arriving on the Spring Equinox 2026.
I can’t wait to share it with you. It will not disappoint, I promise.
Top 10 Tracks of 2025 by Vexillary
1. Cobrah: Torn — I said it was the single of the year and I still stand by it. Sexy as hell with top-notch production. I heard it live the week it dropped on Halloween and it gave me proper chills and courage—what more can you ask from music?
2 Charli xcx: House (feat. John Cale) — What a pleasant surprise to see her take another left turn and still hit the mark. She doesn’t miss, and as a longtime Velvet Underground fan, I was beyond pleased to see John Cale introduced to a whole new audience.
3. Rosalía: Berghain — Vivaldi modernised through an ultra-polished pop lens, with monster features from Björk and Yves Tumor. Never saw this coming in a million years. She absolutely dunked on the entire music industry with this.
4. Sleep Token: Emergence — I finally get the hype. When I heard this one, I had it on repeat for days. Such a unique arrangement and a great contrast between heavy and soft.
5. Fcukers: I Like It Like That — Catchy as hell, with just enough attitude to keep it from tipping into camp.
6. Spiritbox: No Loss, No Love — Courtney is a monster vocalist with so much range, and it’s all on display here. They even weave in some slick electronic layers with the heavy stuff. Love this one.
7. Lorde: Shapeshifter — Anything off the Virgin album could land in my top 10, but I picked this for the Garage beat. Saw her live last night and it was easily one of my top 2 or 3 shows this year. She won me over big time and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
8. Ela Minus: Upwards — The most infectious bass pattern going. I’ve been listening all year and still can’t figure out what makes it so cool. A great song from an album-of-the-year contender.
9. Vexillary: Kill Shot — As far as shameless self-promo goes, this one marries my darker side with a more pop-leaning edge through tight production. Something to keep you intrigued until the new album Digital Suspiria drops next year.
10. Metrik: Hole — Absolutely explosive DnB and from a really strong album through Hospital Records.
Vexillary’s Top 5 Albums of the Year 2025
1. Aya: hexed! — You enter another world the minute you press play. Ran into Aya’s book on the previous record at Rough Trade NYC around the release of this, so it feels destined to have found this manic alternate world.
2. OKlou: Choke Enough — Something super fresh to my ears: intimate yet big, hyperpop yet folk. A whole new flavour of alternative.
3. DJ Hell: Neoclash — This one just came out and is such a nice way to round out the year. There’s a proper return to electro form here. Still getting to know the record, but it’s always good to have new Hell.
4. Black Sites: R4 — The real beauty here is in the raw mechanics at work. It’s a different kind of electro, but it feels mega-focused, like it was purpose-built. Organised chaos at its best.
5. Deftones: Private Music — Got to see them play MSG this year in NY, and it was absolutely magical. This is their most consistent and best record since White Pony, which is crazy given they’re 25 years apart.
About Vexillary (BIO)
Vexillary is the brainchild of New York-based producer Reza Seirafi. His diverse body of work is rooted in an alluring undercurrent of gloom and shaped by a scientific approach to sound design.
A former chemist and perfumer, Reza became fascinated by the hidden bonds between unrelated chemical ingredients that yield otherworldly scents. Vexillary’s music follows a similar path, blending seemingly incompatible elements into a signature fusion of decadent techno, darkwave, and EBM. Each release feels like a new alchemical experiment — balanced, volatile, and anything but formulaic.
After six EPs and a decade of releases on independent labels, Vexillary founded his own imprint, con:trace, in 2021. His debut LP on the label, Full Frontal Lunacy, was a vivid concept album chronicling madness and collapse. 2022’s Crash and Yearn followed with bolder production choices and beat-driven emotional storytelling, further evolving his voice.
In 2024, Vexillary dropped his third LP, Horror in Dub, a bold sonic descent into bass-heavy atmospheres and electronic dread. The record explored themes of horror and beauty through a dub-tinted techno lens. A remix collection, Horror ReDubs, featuring artists like Leon Switch, Blush Response, and VHS Head, soon followed, expanding the sonic narrative.
Now, in 2026, Vexillary is set to unveil his boldest and most fully realized album to date: Digital Suspiria. A collision of futuristic sheen and yesterday’s harsh structures and motifs, the record signals a new chapter — one where songwriting, vocal presence, and conceptual depth are all pushed to the forefront. Polished yet raw, synthetic yet haunted, Digital Suspiria affirms Vexillary’s place at the vanguard of the dark electronic underground.
Follow: Artist, Support
https://linktr.ee/vexillary
