Hailing from Hanoi, Vietnam and now living in Berlin, SalaS (Felipe Salas Sandoval) is a truly dedicated musician who has more or less devoted his entire life to writing, playing and producing music. His most recent release is the single I Only Know One Thing; a haunting piece of music that is the true definition of art - but an "artist" is not necessarity what he considers himself to be.

SalaS / Photo Credit: Victoria SiwikSalaS / Photo Credit: Victoria Siwik

He first started contemplating the term "artist" in high school when he and his friends would work on various creative projects together. It became the subject of a passionate discussion that has stuck with him ever since.

"Society had a very set way of describing the term 'artist', and we decided that the label was too elevated, too ideological", he recalls in an interview with Discovr.TV. "We wanted to be more bound to earth, more near what real people felt. It was a wonderful time of self-discovery and realisation."

That mindset changed a little, however, by the time he went to university to study music composition and other people started referring to him as an artist. While not everyone studying music would call themselves a "musician", the term "artist" feels like an appropriate general description.

"I think I started being an artist when other people started considering me to be one, and not because I labelled myself as one", he explains. "The label is the consequence of working, living, and being with music almost my whole life."

"I still prefer the term 'artisan of music', a term that more refers to being a 'music labourer', if that makes sense to you", he added.

SalaS recognises that the word "success" is also a relative one, and insists that things like fortune and fame are not what interests him. But he wouldn't necessarily consider himself as not successful just because he's not earning millions along with global recognition from the music industry.

"I don't think a real music labourer cares about this", he says. "I care about my music and how it communicates with others. If I would have to use the word 'success', I would use it to describe the privilege I have to be able to dedicate my life to whatever I love and want. My family has a lot to do with this."

Read the full interview with SalaS on Discovr.TV.