Hello everyone, it’s your host Oliver from DULAXI, and today I’m delighted to be joined by Melbourne-based alternative R&B artist QEERAN, whose music explores the complicated dimensions of love, identity, and emotional transformation. Originally from Malaysia and now based in Australia, QEERAN brings a deeply personal approach to contemporary R&B and atmospheric pop, combining vulnerable storytelling with cinematic production. We are here to discuss his latest single, “STILL UR HOME”, released on October 23, 2026, a deeply intimate exploration of heartbreak, regret, and the lingering attachment that can remain long after a relationship has ended. Through its atmospheric production and honest songwriting, the track captures the uncomfortable experience of knowing someone has moved on while still struggling to release the memories attached to them.
Before we begin our conversation with QEERAN, here’s what you need to know about today’s featured project.
About QEERAN
Melbourne-based artist QEERAN has steadily developed a musical identity shaped by alternative R&B, contemporary pop, and atmospheric electronic production. As a singer, songwriter, and self-produced artist, he takes an active role in shaping his music, bringing together intimate vocal performances, carefully constructed arrangements, and emotionally direct songwriting. Born in Malaysia and now living in Australia, QEERAN draws from his personal experiences and surroundings to explore the more complicated dimensions of intimacy, identity, desire, and emotional transformation. His artistic influences include Alina Baraz, Ama Lou, 070 Shake, and Sabrina Claudio, whose approaches to atmosphere, vocal expression, and unconventional R&B have helped inform his creative development.
Following his debut project, “IN RETROSPECT”, QEERAN continued refining his sound and developing a more cinematic approach to storytelling. His music frequently explores the tension between attachment and detachment, control and surrender, and memory and reinvention. A two-year hiatus also provided an opportunity for personal reflection, technical development, and a clearer understanding of the artistic direction he wanted to pursue. Returning with a renewed sense of purpose, he has become increasingly interested in creating music that extends beyond individual songs, building distinctive environments where production, visuals, and storytelling work together to communicate a larger artistic vision.
His latest single, “STILL UR HOME”, released on October 23, 2026, brings this direction into focus through a deeply personal account of heartbreak and unresolved attachment. Inspired by an experience earlier in the year, the song centres on an encounter with a former romantic partner at a nightclub, where seeing someone he once shared a significant relationship with holding someone new brings previously unsettled emotions back to the surface. Rather than presenting the experience as a straightforward story of separation and acceptance, QEERAN explores the complicated feelings that can remain when a relationship has ended but the emotional connection has not completely disappeared. The song also confronts the guilt that can accompany heartbreak, particularly when someone begins recognising their own mistakes and the things they could have done differently.
Musically, “STILL UR HOME” combines intimate vocals, spacious production, warm low-end frequencies, and subtle electronic details to establish a late-night atmosphere that reflects the emotional setting of its narrative. Its nightclub backdrop provides an interesting contrast between the external energy of nightlife and the internal isolation of someone confronting an unexpected reminder of their past. As a self-produced release, the track also highlights QEERAN’s attention to vocal expression and the relationship between musical arrangement and storytelling.
Having this brief introduction to today’s featured artist and his latest release, I’m sure both new listeners and longtime fans are interested in hearing more about the experiences, creative decisions, and personal reflections behind the music. So, without further ado, let’s begin today’s interview.
INTERVIEW SESSION
Oliver:
Melbourne is an important part of your identity as an artist, and your music explores some of the more complicated sides of love, identity, and emotional transformation. Before getting into the music itself, could you tell us a little about the person behind QEERAN? What experiences growing up and living in Melbourne have played the biggest role in shaping the way you see life and express yourself creatively?
QEERAN:
I think the person behind QEERAN is someone who’s constantly figuring himself out, honestly! (laughs). I’m Malaysian-born, Chinese-Australian, and Melbourne has become home to me. It’s where I’ve experienced so many different versions of myself. I’ve always felt things quite intensely, and music became my way of making sense of those emotions. Melbourne’s nightlife has also influenced me creatively. There’s something fascinating about being surrounded by hundreds of people yet feeling completely alone in your own head.
Oliver:
You describe yourself as a self-produced singer, songwriter, and mixer, which means you take responsibility for several different stages of bringing your music to life. How did you develop the desire to become involved in every part of the creative process, and what does having that level of control allow you to express that might otherwise be difficult to communicate?
QEERAN:
It started with wanting to recreate exactly what I was hearing in my head without relying on someone else to interpret it. I’m entirely self-taught, so there’s been a lot of trial and error. Sometimes I’ll hear something in another artist’s music and spend hours in Logic trying to figure it out. But I love that creative control because production is another form of storytelling to me. Even the smallest instrumental change can completely transform how a lyric feels.
Oliver:
Your music draws inspiration from artists such as Alina Baraz, Ama Lou, 070 Shake, and Sabrina Claudio. These artists have distinct approaches to atmosphere, vocal expression, and emotional storytelling. What have you learned from listening to their work, and how have you taken those influences and developed a musical identity that feels genuinely yours?
QEERAN:
Oh, I could talk about these artists for hours! (laughs). Alina Baraz has been a huge influence, especially her ability to create these incredibly immersive, almost luxurious soundscapes. Sabrina Claudio has taught me a lot about vocal intimacy, while Ama Lou and 070 Shake inspire me to experiment beyond traditional R&B. I think my identity comes from combining those influences with my own experiences. My music might sound delicate and atmospheric, but there’s usually something much darker or emotionally chaotic underneath.
Oliver:
Your artistic direction often explores the tension between attachment and detachment, control and surrender, and memory and reinvention. These are deeply human experiences that can be difficult to understand while going through them. What draws you towards these emotional contrasts, and do you find that writing music helps you make sense of feelings that are otherwise difficult to put into words?
QEERAN:
I think I’m drawn to those contrasts because I experience them quite frequently. I can miss somebody while knowing they’re not good for me, or want to let go of something while being terrified of losing it. My emotions don’t always make sense! (laughs). Songwriting gives me somewhere to explore those contradictions without needing to resolve them. Sometimes I’ll start writing thinking I understand exactly what I’m feeling, only to discover something completely different by the end.
Oliver:
You previously released your debut project, IN RETROSPECT, and have continued developing a more cinematic and emotionally direct approach to your music. Looking back at that earlier chapter, what do you recognise about the artist you were then compared with the person and musician you have become today? What has changed most in your creative outlook?
QEERAN:
I have so much love for IN RETROSPECT because it represents a version of myself who was still discovering his sound and learning how to tell stories. I think the biggest difference now is intention. Back then, I was focused on making music that sounded good. Now, I’m more interested in making music that feels like something. I want listeners to picture the environment a song exists in, from the lighting to the emotional atmosphere. IN RETROSPECT was about discovering what I could create. This chapter is about understanding why.
Oliver:
After a two-year hiatus, your return marks an important new chapter in your career. Time away from releasing music can bring changes in perspective, priorities, and even the reasons an artist creates in the first place. What was happening in your life during that period, and what ultimately made you feel ready to return with a new creative direction?
QEERAN:
A lot of life happened in those two years, to put it simply! (laughs). I went through some significant personal changes, particularly in my relationships and how I understood myself. I also spent that time developing my production skills and becoming more intentional with my creative direction. Eventually, I reached a point where I had so much I wanted to express that not making music about it felt almost impossible. I feel more connected to my artistry now than ever before.
Oliver:
Let’s turn to “STILL UR HOME”. The song begins with a very specific emotional situation: seeing someone you once loved in a nightclub, only to watch them holding someone new. What happened in your life that inspired this particular moment, and why did you feel it was an experience worth turning into a song rather than leaving it as a private memory?
QEERAN:
The song came from a very real experience of seeing somebody I’d once shared a significant relationship with being intimate with someone else at a nightclub. I remember feeling like everything around me had suddenly slowed down. It’s strange seeing somebody who was once such a familiar part of your life with someone new. You understand things have changed, but emotionally, you’re not necessarily prepared to witness it. Writing about it felt natural because I knew that feeling would resonate with so many people.
Oliver:
The title “STILL UR HOME” carries an interesting contradiction. Home usually represents comfort, familiarity, and belonging, yet the song explores a connection that can no longer exist in the same way. What does the idea of still being someone’s home mean to you, and how did you arrive at this title as the best way to capture the song’s emotional centre?
QEERAN:
I’ve always loved the idea of home being a person rather than a physical place. When you’re deeply connected to somebody, they become part of your everyday existence, and losing that familiarity can be incredibly difficult. To me, STILL UR HOME is almost a question disguised as a statement. It’s wondering whether you still represent something comforting to somebody who’s moved on. Sometimes you don’t necessarily want the relationship back. You just want to know that what you shared hasn’t completely disappeared from their memory.
Oliver:
One of the most interesting aspects of the song is that it doesn’t present heartbreak as a simple situation where one person leaves and the other eventually moves on. Instead, it explores the uncomfortable reality of still feeling connected to someone even when the relationship has ended. Why was it important for you to leave room for that emotional uncertainty rather than give the song a straightforward conclusion?
QEERAN:
Because heartbreak is rarely that straightforward. I wish it were! (laughs). We’re often encouraged to see healing as this linear process, but in reality, those stages overlap constantly. You can feel completely fine one day, then unexpectedly see somebody and find yourself right back in those emotions. I didn’t want STILL UR HOME to pretend I’d reached some beautiful moment of acceptance when that wasn’t how I felt. Sometimes real life doesn’t give us a neat conclusion, and I wanted the song to reflect that.
Oliver:
You have spoken about the guilt that can come with heartbreak, particularly when you recognise that there were things you could have done differently. This introduces another layer to the song because the narrator is not simply dealing with losing someone but also confronting their own decisions. How important was personal accountability in writing “STILL UR HOME”, and did putting those feelings into music change the way you understood your own experience?
QEERAN:
I think accountability is something I’ve become much more conscious of as I’ve gotten older. When you’re hurt, it’s easy to focus entirely on what somebody else has done to you, but there’s also value in reflecting on your own actions. That doesn’t mean excusing how someone treated you or taking responsibility for their decisions. Writing STILL UR HOME helped me understand that there are things I wish I’d done differently, and things I know I deserved better from. Both can be true.
Oliver:
The lyric, “You looked my way like I was still your home / Then turned around and left me here all alone,” captures the emotional contradiction at the heart of the track. There is recognition between two people, but that moment doesn’t necessarily mean reconciliation is possible. What was happening emotionally when you wrote these lines, and how did you want listeners to interpret that brief moment of connection?
QEERAN:
I think these are some of the most important lyrics in the song. When you’ve shared a history with somebody, a single glance can feel like an entire conversation. I particularly love the word “like” because I’m not saying I was still their home, just that it’s how I interpreted that moment. Maybe that look meant absolutely nothing to them. And that’s what makes it so heartbreaking. The emotional weight of that interaction might only exist in my own mind.
Oliver:
Although the song comes from a specific experience of romantic heartbreak, you have also opened its meaning to include lost friendships, people we have hurt, and even versions of ourselves that we struggle to leave behind. How did you approach making such a personal story accessible to people with very different experiences of loss, and was universality something you consciously considered while writing?
QEERAN:
I don’t actually think too much about universality when I’m writing. I find that the more honestly I write about my experiences, the more likely somebody else is to recognise something of themselves in it. Although STILL UR HOME comes from romantic heartbreak, losing your place in somebody’s life can happen through friendships, family, or even within ourselves. I love that someone might hear the song and think of an ex-partner, while another person interprets it as a conversation with their younger self.
Oliver:
Sonically, “STILL UR HOME” brings together intimate vocals, spacious production, warm low-end, and subtle electronic details. There is also a restrained late-night pulse that gradually builds around the chorus. As the person responsible for shaping the production, how did you decide on this particular combination of sounds, and what did you want the instrumental arrangement to communicate before the listener even paid attention to the lyrics?
QEERAN:
I knew I wanted the production to feel like being in a nightclub, but from the perspective of somebody who’s emotionally disconnected from everything happening around them. I didn’t want a conventional club record, but rather that contrast between external energy and internal isolation. That’s where a lot of the spacious production, warm low-end and atmospheric textures come from. I wanted the instrumental alone to communicate nostalgia, tension and longing before the listener even understood what I was singing.
Oliver:
Your music often uses minimalist textures, warped vocal layers, and unexpected sonic changes to create an atmosphere around the storytelling. When producing “STILL UR HOME”, how did you experiment with vocal treatments and electronic details to reflect the tension between nostalgia, jealousy, longing, and emotional distance? Were there any particular production decisions that significantly changed the direction of the finished track?
QEERAN:
One of my favourite moments is the line, “Then the lights fell upon you and I saw you embracing him.” When I reach “embracing him”, my voice suddenly drops into a much lower register as the instrumental becomes significantly fuller. I experimented with singing that phrase differently, but the lower delivery captured the emotional weight of that realisation perfectly. I wanted the production to react to that moment. I love when an arrangement isn’t just supporting the story, but actively telling it with me.
Oliver:
The nightclub setting gives the song an interesting contrast. On one hand, there is an environment associated with movement, social energy, and escapism; on the other, the narrator is experiencing a deeply personal emotional struggle in the middle of it all. What made this setting particularly effective for telling the story, and how did you balance the external atmosphere with the more intimate feelings at the centre of the song?
QEERAN:
There’s something almost cruelly ironic about experiencing heartbreak somewhere you go to escape everything. I’ve always found nightlife fascinating because it can be incredibly liberating and lonely at the same time. You can spend an entire night dancing, feeling completely untouchable, then one tiny thing happens and all that confidence disappears. I wanted to capture that contrast sonically, keeping the late-night energy while making the vocals feel intimate and vulnerable. To me, STILL UR HOME almost feels like a scene from a film.
Oliver:
Returning after a two-year break with a more developed sound and a clearer artistic direction can bring its own challenges. As a self-produced artist, you also have to balance the emotional demands of songwriting with the technical decisions involved in recording, mixing, and production. What was the most challenging part of bringing “STILL UR HOME” together, and was there a particular moment during its creation when everything finally started to come together?
QEERAN:
The biggest challenge was translating what I was imagining emotionally into something tangible. As a self-taught producer, I can hear incredibly detailed arrangements in my head, but recreating them in Logic is another story! (laughs). I’m also quite particular with my vocal delivery, sometimes recording multiple versions of a single line to capture the exact emotion. Everything really came together when the vocals and production began responding to each other. I actually became quite emotional while producing the song, which was when I knew I’d created something meaningful.
Oliver:
Your current direction seems to embrace vulnerability without losing the darker, atmospheric qualities that distinguish your sound. As you begin this next chapter following IN RETROSPECT and your return with “STILL UR HOME”, what do you feel you understand about yourself as an artist now that you perhaps didn’t fully understand before your hiatus? How has that personal growth influenced the music you want to create moving forward?
QEERAN:
I’ve realised I don’t need to separate the different sides of myself to create a cohesive artistic identity. I can be incredibly vulnerable in one song and almost emotionally untouchable in another. That’s a much more honest representation of who I am. I’m also thinking beyond individual releases now. I want to create entire worlds where the music, visuals and storytelling feel connected. And perhaps most importantly, I’ve learnt that I don’t need to have everything figured out before sharing my work.
Oliver:
Finally, when someone listens to “STILL UR HOME” during a difficult moment in their own life, perhaps remembering someone they lost, regretting something they said, or struggling to accept that a relationship has changed, what would you hope they take away from the experience? And as you continue building this next era of QEERAN, what can listeners look forward to in terms of your upcoming music, creative direction, and the wider artistic world you hope to build?
QEERAN:
More than anything, I want people to feel understood. Sometimes you can know something is over and still miss it terribly, and I think it’s important to allow ourselves to feel those contradictions. As for what’s next, I’m developing my next body of work exploring heartbreak, escapism, desire, detachment and self-discovery (to name a few). I’m pushing towards a more immersive, cinematic sound and a stronger visual identity. Ultimately, this chapter isn’t just about what happened to me, but what those experiences eventually became. And for me, they became music.
“QEERAN’s music reminds us that the end of a relationship does not always mark the end of an emotional connection. Through ‘STILL UR HOME’, he gives a voice to the thoughts we often struggle to admit, particularly when memories, regret, and the desire to move forward refuse to exist separately.”
~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)
EDITORIAL PERSPECTIVE
What makes “STILL UR HOME” particularly interesting is the attention QEERAN gives to the relationship between its narrative and production. The nightclub setting is not simply a backdrop but an important part of how the story unfolds, with subtle changes in vocal delivery and arrangement reflecting the narrator’s shifting emotions. His willingness to explore personal accountability alongside heartbreak also gives the songwriting another dimension. Combined with his self-produced approach, the result offers a revealing introduction to an artist increasingly interested in connecting music, atmosphere, and visual storytelling.
~ Oliver (DULAXI Team)
CLOSING
A special thank you to QEERAN for taking the time to speak with us and for sharing the personal experiences, creative decisions, and reflections behind “STILL UR HOME”. Our conversation has offered a closer look at the person behind the music, from his journey towards becoming a self-produced artist to the experiences that continue shaping his evolving creative identity.
For listeners who have experienced the difficulty of letting go, regretted decisions from the past, or found themselves holding on to connections that have changed, “STILL UR HOME” offers an opportunity to explore those feelings through music. We encourage you to spend some time with the release and discover the different layers of its storytelling and production.
As QEERAN continues developing his next body of work, it will be interesting to follow how his exploration of heartbreak, escapism, desire, and self-discovery unfolds through his music and wider artistic vision.
Thank you for joining Oliver and the DULAXI team for this interview. We appreciate every reader who continues to support our conversations with artists from different parts of the world. Stay connected with DULAXI for more interviews, music discoveries, and stories exploring the people and creative experiences behind the music.