Tatsuki is a freelance creative whose popular YouTube and social media channels have made him a recognisable personality among Gen Z and Beams enthusiasts alike. While many content creators are often associated with loud opinions and competitive antics, Tatsuki takes a different approach. His videos typically feature him showcasing a new camera or blend of coffee, all set against the calm backdrop of his stylishly lit apartment. Tatsuki values the moments in between, believing that atmosphere and vibe are just as significant as the explicit content. Whether you finish his videos with newfound knowledge or a sense of tranquillity from the repose of your couch, the experience you have with him is yours to shape.

I believe I saw you last at the ‘Linda Linda Linda’ screening. What did you think about the film?

It was a fun experience. I think most of the people there were quite young. It had a youthful energy. There were moments in the film when the whole audience was very quiet, then laughed together. I personally liked some of the still shots and visuals. The storyline was very coming-of-age and youthful. 

What I took away from it was mostly the cool compositions. I really liked the very static shots with a tripod-mounted camera that ran for like a minute. If you remember, there was one scene where the girls were having their first argument while trying to get a new band member. So they yell out to the Korean actress who is very far away, atop a staircase. They’re like, “Hey, do you want to be in the band?”, to which she replies, “Okay!” Then it’s probably two minutes of the same shot, with the actors walking in and out of frame. 

I remember that shot! The reason I also bring this up too is because I never asked if you were a film bro? Do you have a Letterboxd account?

Definitely not compared to other people. I also don’t watch too much media myself.

Gotcha.

It’s hard for me to go to a movie by myself. I like to experience things with other people. I recently watched the third Avatar at the Opera House outdoor cinema. It was so hot out there (laughs). The film was just a visual bomb of crazy CGI. Anyway, I watched it with my little sister, and it was just fun. I like watching movies with other people and getting to talk about it with them afterwards.

I think there is something about watching movies collectively. It should be a collective experience.

It’s interesting because Minnjie loves going to the movies by herself. She focuses on the movie and then comes home. I could do that, but I always end up doing something else (laughs). If I have the time to go watch a movie, I end up working or something. 

For complete transparency, we met a few years ago. You edited a documentary for us about ‘Song for the Mute’ for another publication. Shout-outs to EST Media. 

Shout-outs to them

I was thinking about the trajectory of your career and ‘Song for the Mute’. Both of you have blown up (laughs). 

I mean (laughs)…They’ve definitely established themselves in a very professional setting. I visited that Melbourne store but haven’t visited their Sydney one yet. 

We tried to go for the opening, but it was just so packed

I always pass it, but I’ve never walked in. 

It’s prime real estate.

They’ve done some really cool and interesting stuff. I remember just listening to Melvin and Lyna’s interview for hours and hours. I felt like I was getting to know them really well. I knew their whole story and what they’re up to as I’m piecing together the video. After I finished, I thought of running into them in the street and saying, “Yo!”, and them replying, “Who are you?” (laughs) But yeah, it was fun putting that video together.

Taking it back, we’d heard about you from a friend. We checked out your work and talked about it for literally a second, before reaching out. At the time your following was roughly at the 10K mark. What do you remember about that time in your career and life? 

I went through a pivot moment around that time, especially with the social media content that I was creating. To put it simply, I was creating camera gear-focused videos because that’s what I was watching on YouTube. That’s what I wanted to emulate. It got to a point where I wondered if all I’d ever do was keep talking about cameras to people on the internet. I felt like it was getting stale on my end. I actually stopped watching all the other creators making camera videos and stuff. I just stopped finding it interesting. I pivoted to lifestyle content, which opened new doors and avenues for me. As “lifestyle” suggests, it’s based on what you do. At the time, I was juggling my part-time job and freelance work, including working with you guys. I started documenting and sharing this whole new life I had. If I were to create videos that claimed I was a photographer or videographer, I’d come off a little weird. I was still finding my footing in the industry. To be completely transparent, I was figuring it out in public while mixing in all the external stuff. I love decor, design, and food. Sharing my life and personality would mesh all of these interests together.

That’s definitely when my channel started to grow. I was finding a new audience that wasn’t specifically interested in cameras. They were just interested in what I was doing. That was a pivotal moment. Those few months when we created that Song for the Mute video, I was definitely going through the motions.

What first drew you to cameras?

I was always playing around with cameras. My dad was taking photos of trees and stuff as part of his work. I’d help him out and take photos. I was always a nature boy. I was always going on hikes, camping, and taking photos of mountains, lakes, and other scenery. I would always have a huge DSLR with a crazy big lens. It’d be like three kilos, and I’d bring it everywhere.

It got to the point where all the landscape photos began to look the same. I actually got bored with it and stopped playing around until I found film photography, as cliché as that is. It was like a whole new thing for me. I started playing with that, and I was drawn back in. I switched to street and portraiture photography. Now it’s a mix of both, leaning more toward lifestyle, day-to-day, slice-of-life pictures. I’m just trying to find the beauty in the normal, like this spread of delicious things in front of us (Tatsuki proceeds to fan his hand over the coffees and plates of baked treats on the table).  

The color palette is all…

Brown (laughs). But yeah, even just finding the beauty in how light shines through coffee in the AM. That’s more interesting to me. Portraits, everything like that is very cool and fun, but if I don’t have an intention behind it, I question, “Why am I even doing this?” I can understand that you can just be doing it for the love of the game, right? But if I’m hyper-focused on my own lifestyle content, then dabbling in other industries and portrait photography isn’t where I want to put my time. I’ve got limited time. 

Was it hard to transition to making your content so much about your life? 

Yeah, it was interesting. I had to find what works for me, where I draw the line as well. I can’t share everything about my life. It’s like romanticised moments mixed in with real conversations and thoughts. As my background is in video and photography, I enjoy creating visually stunning shots of ordinary things. If I make a coffee and I want to make a really nice sequence, it becomes like a little game or puzzle. I’ll spend the next twenty minutes making coffee while creating a stunning visual sequence for my vlog. It gives it a different characteristic, something a little more professional. 

Those little moments are easy for me because I’ve done harder things. I just need to take videos of still moments in my life. But finding a balance, that’s the most difficult thing, like identifying when to bring my camera, and where not to bring it. Using professional cameras when I’m out can sometimes not be the nicest thing. So shooting on digicams or even my iPhone is good enough. Also, if you’re in the content world, it’s not that serious. YouTube, especially, is really not that serious. I often sandwich different media together. I’ll put together a really high-quality visual sequence and slap an iPhone clip of me just yapping about something else. At the end of the day, it’s not that serious to have everything coherent, and if it makes my life easier, then that’s better at the end of the day.

Do you think about how big your audience has become?

I do think about it because the numbers feel quite ridiculous. Seeing it grow, I’m so grateful. But when I see it in person, that’s when it really hits you. If I go out to the city or somewhere with a lot of people. Like, if I’m in Chinatown, that’s where my audience is, right? They’re all around that area. I’ll run into people, and they’ll say, “What’s up? Have a good day!” If that happens a few times while I’m out, I really start to feel the effects because this is just Sydney. When I look at the demographic of my audience, it’s quite global. I know Sydney is really small, so it does feel concentrated. But knowing the number of people who have subscribed to my YouTube channel, Instagram, or even the people who comment and interact with what I’ll post, It does feel quite crazy.

Just thinking about that number, it’s a lot.

Just think about how many people fit inside a football stadium. You think about how many people have seen your latest post or something. I try not to get too into statistics because that can really mess you up, especially if you’re trying to be a pro at social media. You can get too locked into the idea that your latest video or photo isn’t getting as much interaction as you want. It can really get you down. You have to be quite mentally strong. At the end of the day, it’s also a bit of luck with the algorithm. If you play it right, that’s great. But sometimes, if it just doesn’t work, that’s fine. You have to find the balance between creating for yourself and catering to an algorithm if your goal is to grow and find new audiences. 

Chris and I talk about this all the time. Everytime we post something personal, usually in a compromised position (laughs), it always does well compared to a work post or something. 

I mean if I post a selfie, that will probably perform better than if I post a collaboration or a piece I spent twenty hours working on. That’s just how it is.

What are the first steps you take when creating a new piece of content? 

As in like for…

Let’s say vlogs and longer form stuff. 

When it comes to vlogging, I mix in-the-moment, unplanned material with some things that are slightly staged. I’ll have a dot-point list in my notebook of interesting things or what I think would be fun to talk about. Whenever the lighting’s really good or something in my house, I’m like, “Maybe I should film something” I’ll have a list of topics that I can then spontaneously bring up. I never really script anything because when I do, I stutter on words and stop talking. It ends up being a whole process where I’ll have to record a lot. So I prefer to write really shallow points, maybe just three words in the top point, like “new coffee beans” Then I just work off that. A lot of people benefit from full scripts and fully fleshing out their ideas, but I like to keep it light.

At the end of the day, again, I think it’s not that serious. I think as long as I’m being genuine when I’m talking about it, that’s the most important thing.

Did you design your own font too? 

The font was interesting to me. I’ve always wanted to create products. I want to make calendars, mugs, and physical things. However, the logistics of that are quite difficult. So I thought I’d like to start with an e-product, something that can just be downloaded. Very simple on my end. I did some brainstorming, and couldn’t think of anything. Then one day, I just organically began making my own font. I write handwritten captions for all my videos. It’s everywhere on my stuff. And I thought it would just make my life easier. I was halfway through making it when I thought, hang on, why don’t I do a really good job of this and sell it? People have asked me what font I use, and I always tell them it’s one I’ve worked on myself. If someone were to buy it, they could essentially achieve the same thing more quickly.

What I really like about your content is how beautiful and cinematic it looks, but you’re talking so casually. If it were too scripted it might be too stiff. 

That’s true. Having a bit more of a casual conversation style, trying to keep it not serious. The main thing is, when it’s scripted, it can feel unnatural. When you’re talking to a camera, that’s an unnatural thing already. Until you get used to that, you’ll probably feel a bit weird. But when you do get used to it, you can start to really notice when you feel like you’re genuinely talking to the person behind the camera or not. There’s quite a big difference. If I watch a video and can tell the person feels a little nervous, I start to feel nervous too. I don’t have to watch this video because it’s so easy to just click off and do something else. If you’re watching someone convey their ideas or talk about something, you don’t want it to feel off; you want to feel confident.

Yeah.

The biggest thing, especially in the lifestyle content field, is you’re inviting people into your world. I imagine most of my audience is eating breakfast or dinner, or watching me in the background while they do something else. So I try to make twenty-minute videos with just a bit of visuals, random conversation, and slice-of-life moments. That’s the audience that I cater to. The goal is to have an effortless conversation with the audience. 

As we were talking about the ‘Linda Linda Linda’ screening, I was thinking about the number of people in there. We might’ve made up less than one per cent of your following. However, the room was packed, all watching the film together. I imagine a lot of people watch your content on their own.

I think so.

Unless people get together to watch. They’re like, “Wake up, new Tatsuki out” (laughs)

I was in Los Angeles a few months ago for an event. There were a lot of creatives and people in the field trying to become pros. I ran into two people who watched my videos, and they were like, “We watch all your videos together!” I was like, “Oh, sick” (laughs) I think a lot of couples watch my videos while eating at home. 

We do the same thing. It’s like the comfort of having company. 

It’s definitely a company thing. If you mesh with a content creator and see a new video, you’re like, “Oh, what are they up to this week?” 

It’s the new version of TV personalities. 

Yeah.

One of things that people also love about your content is of course the recommendations. Whether it’s cafes, foods, or homewares. When you go to a place, what are you looking for?

I do recommend a lot of cafes and stuff. However, I go to a lot of places that I end up not really wanting to recommend. I worry about recommending something that’s actually not that great. Especially if they were to go and be like, “what?” (laughs)

Yeah.

Out of all the cafes I go to, there are definitely some that really don’t make the cut, and others that are good but still don’t make it. I want to show something interesting. Recently, I went to Melbourne, and my goal was to visit as many cafes as possible to make a video to recommend them. I was going through my Google Maps, searching for different cafes. If you’ve watched the video, you’ll see that many of them are quite random. There was one cafe that was built in a heritage tower. It looks like a big chimney; it used to be a manufacturing building. They disassembled it and created a cafe inside. There are little plaques outside detailing what it used to be, etc. That stuff is pretty interesting. I like architecture and stuff too. If I were to recommend someone to go there, they can visit and be like, “Wow, this is weird”, and then enjoy good coffee, food, and the vibe. 

It’s quite important for me to make sure that if someone goes somewhere I recommend they have a good time. At the very least they enjoy what I was trying to talk about in the video.

Where does the actual coffee sit in the hierarchy of recommendations?

For…

The criteria (laughs). 

Oh, the criteria (laughs). I love coffee, but I’m also not a coffee purist.

Yeah.

I think a coffee shop has to be a good mixture of coffees. Some cafes have food, or pastries, some don’t. It doesn’t really matter to me. If they’ve got good coffee and a vibe, that’s enough.

I also love a place where you can bring your laptop and do a little bit of work. Somewhere where you don’t feel uncomfortable sitting there for like an hour or so. But there definitely are cafes where you can’t do that. There might be too many customers and you feel like you’re intruding on the place too much. My go to cafes definitely have good coffee, comfortable vibes, and enough space to do a little bit of work.

Do you have anywhere in Sydney you want to shout out right now?

I think ‘Primary Coffee’ in Marrickville has a very cool new vibe. It has a similar feeling as a lot of Melbourne warehouse cafes. I would recommend checking it out.

When I wrote the next question, I was curious about any pressure you might feel recommending places in Japan, especially as they’re being inundated with tourists. I saw that it’s becoming a public problem. 

Yeah for sure. They recently cancelled a Cherry Blossom Festival as well.

Really? 

I can’t remember which location, but it’s a pretty big deal.

I was in Japan last year during the cherry blossom season. 

Yeah.

Even though they’re obviously rated…underrated (laughs).

They’re so beautiful. 

I guess in a more broad sense, you brought up the fact that you don’t necessarily like to highlight places that you don’t feel strongly about. However, do you feel a pressure or weight when it comes to recommending places whether in Japan or Australia? 

As we were chatting just before, having a balance in my own life is definitely a big part of it. I don’t want to spill the beans on my local cafes. It’s not like I’m gatekeeping it, but I need my own privacy, too. For bigger creators with millions and millions of followers, if they recommend a cafe in a big city like Tokyo, it’s 100% going to get busier. And if your local cafe is that, then you’re going to end up running into people who follow you or something. It’s not going to be your local cafe anymore. It’s going to change. That’s definitely a part of it.

When it comes to Japan, it’s good to be very respectful of the places that I film and promote. I went to one place near Inokashira Kouen, and it had a no-phone, no-laptop, and no-talking policy. You’re only allowed a book or paper. When we walked in, the guy said to us, “You’re not allowed to talk in here. Is that okay?” Minnjie and I were like, “What?” before quickly agreeing and deciding to do it. Inside, the vibe was super peaceful and tranquil. You’d have regular customers who’d come in, say hi, sit down, and start journaling or something. I was sitting there, soaking in the vibes. I thought about how guilty I’d feel if I brought out my phone, which I low-key did (laughs), but having that kind of environment is like a haven. If a content creator came around and made a viral reel about the place, I think he would hate it. I don’t think he’s doing it for money, as that would mean he would have to operate the business so differently. He’s just doing it for the love of coffee and for having a quiet, little, safe space for writers and readers. 

Overall, it really depends on the location. I am hyper-aware of how the owners would feel about me filming the location and promoting it. That definitely has a lot to do with it. 

It’s funny because Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, right? Sydney being way smaller would be an understatement.

Sydney? Yeah.

But it’s such a Sydney mentality that more is more. You don’t really hear people claiming any business is particularly sacred. In Tokyo and bigger cities you can have pockets of something being singular. That’s one of the beauties of big cities I think. 

Japan has been around for so much longer than Australia as we know it. They’ve definitely had their moments where they’ve gone big and chilled out. You need those little pockets of quiet where you can go visit and stuff. There are so many people in Tokyo, it’s hard to imagine it, but there are more people in Tokyo than in Australia.

Which is crazy.

Which is crazy because Japan is smaller than New South Wales. It’s also a tourist destination. It’s not just people living there. There’s a constant influx of visitors who come purely to see cafes, take pictures of cherry blossoms, and enjoy all the beautiful things Japan has to offer. Japan can’t really operate without the tourists either. So it’s a very touchy situation. I have no answers to that. As a content creator, you’ve just got to be mindful of what you do. You see a lot of viral clips of tourists doing shameless stuff like pull-ups on torii gates or engraving their names into bamboo forests. I don’t know, get a grip. 

Yeah, get a grip. 

You’re in someone else’s country. Respect it. With that being said, that’s everywhere else, too, right? You have tourists in every country doing stuff like that. I think Japan feels like it has more of a spotlight on it because of its current hyper-tourism and the number of traditions.

Japan’s dollar is also relatively weak compared to Australia’s.

It’s a good situation for a lot of foreigners to go visit.

It’s a bit of a clusterfuck for tourists to go over. 

it’s definitely fucked. Japan’s market is pretty tragic. Something’s going to have to shift.

Definitely in the near future. Speaking of audiences and Japanese traditions, let’s segue into ‘Bunshinren’. Along with your own content, you also make short documentaries for a Sydney and Osaka based tattoo studio. Before we started recording, you were saying that you feel more passionately about that sometimes compared to your own stuff (laughs). How did that relationship start? 

Long story short, I made a short Instagram reel for one of the artists at the studio. The studio owner, Chris, saw my video and, after a few weeks, got in contact with me to make something similar. I ended up making a website-style video introducing him, the shop, and what they do. From there, he was interested in the idea of making a YouTube channel and being more consistent, sharing BTS into the life of an artist like himself. I found this quite interesting. It was also at a time when I needed a client, like a contract with someone, so I could quit my part-time job comfortably and live as a freelancer full-time. He allowed me to do that. I think I made weekly videos for him for a year and grew the channel quite a bit. From the second year, we decided to adopt a more quality-over-quantity approach. We halved the number of videos to post to once every two weeks. 

I’m proud of what we’ve created because we’ve grown a community there in the tattoo scene as well. It’s not tattoo tips, how-tos, or what’s better. It’s getting into the mindset behind what the artists do. There’s a lot of culture and tradition in their art style. It’s wabori, a traditional Japanese art. It originally started with tebori, a hand-poking method using small prongs. That’s, of course, evolved into just regular tattoo guns now. But there’s a lot more history there than in many other tattoo styles because it’s been around for so long. It’s heavily mixed in with yakuza gangster culture in Japan. However,  many people don’t know that it originated with firefighters and policemen. Anyway, there’s a lot to talk about there. There’s a big heritage. I’m learning more about my Japanese roots while making a living working with these people. I do feel really strongly about this, and it’s something we’ve nurtured and created over the last three years.

My goal has always been to create a tattoo empire on YouTube with these guys. I think we’re really doing something special.

Well, it’s definitely on the way. When I first clicked on one of the videos, I thought it’d be a vlog/day-in-the-life kind of piece. But, they were full documentaries. You can see your fingerprints in it, but it was cool to see it applied to something that wasn’t literally yourself. 

As I’ve been creating those videos, I’ve been making them alongside my YouTube videos. At the start, of course, the style was similar to how I’d create my own YouTube videos. But as we did it more and more, through repetition and experience, both channels started to develop their own identities.

Now there are bits where you may have noticed, like the title for every video has a number for the episode that switches. It’s the same as the vlogs in my video. It’s the same sound effects and motion graphics. There are a few little things I interchange between the videos. It’s kind of like a little signature piece. Apart from that, they’re breathing by themselves and doing their own thing. I’m really happy that they have their own unique art style. 

What I enjoy so much about making these videos is that it is very different from the approach, the thought processes, the behind-the-scenes pre-planning, and the execution.  It’s also an interview style. I’ll be talking to someone while I’m behind the camera, initiating conversation and trying to create a story from what I’m seeing. Every single video is slightly different. There are many similarities between the videos themselves, but it’s fun to create these stories and share them with an audience.

I feel like transparency is such a big part of your brand.  On a surface level, it’s giving a window into your life. But on a deeper level, whether it’s in your vlogs or production how-tos, you’re giving away gems. You’re letting people know how you did something, verbatim, encouraging them to do the same. Was that something you thought of consciously, or did it just develop as you started making content? 

I don’t think there’s too much point in gatekeeping things because if I create something and other people want to know how I did it. Transparently, if I share how to create something, it will probably perform better in an algorithmic sense, because people will be commenting on it, sharing that post and helping other people. So there’s value in being able to help people do stuff. And if I don’t share it, someone will figure out how to do it anyway. What I’m doing isn’t that special. What I’m creating isn’t super unique. While it is my creations, someone else could replicate it and if they do so, that’s great. I may as well make it easier for them.

In most of my videos, I try to implement a sense of creating value to the viewer. They’re spending their time watching my videos. Most of the people watching my channel are into the camera space. Well, I am and they’re watching my videos, so I assume they would be too. If I can create value by sharing really easy tips or how I created something for free as none of my videos do you need to pay to watch, I think that’s incredibly useful for them. In the long run, I’m sure there’ll be a full circle moment, shouting out how I helped them at one point. It’s not like I want validation or anything. I just have a feeling that if you help someone, good karma will come back.

I talk to the tattoo artist Chris a lot who is Buddhist. He talks about how creating value is with people to people. Interaction is the best thing that you could do as a human. The person in front of you is the most important person at that moment. It’s really rubbed off on to me because if I can’t be in the moment, for example here with you guys chatting while my head is somewhere else, there’s no point in me really being here. I think it’s the same with my videos. I want to create a sense that the videos I make the person watching can enjoy them, and they get a sense of value out of it.  Whether that’s relaxation, learning how I make a video or use camera tools and stuff.

I think that’s a huge sign of your character. I feel like a lot of people turn towards inwardness as opposed to imparting knowledge and leaving things better. 

Yeah.

I was originally going to ask if you have any goals to make feature length documentaries or narrative film? However, you brought up earlier you eventually want to get into products. What does the future of Tatsuki look like? 

I’ve talked about this with friends and stuff. For my five-year plan, I want to keep going with what I’ve got. I’ve got so much momentum, and I’m having fun with what I’m doing. While I’m having fun, I should keep doing that. On the side, I want to start creating products, which I assume will start as merchandise.  Eventually, I want that to evolve into its own existence, its own brand, similar to how I’ve created a second YouTube channel. I want that to be its own entity. When I’m in my 30s, I want these two things to coexist. 

Of course, I don’t think I’ll be making weekly vlogs forever. I can’t see that happening. It’s very fun and fresh to me right now.  But in the future, I’ll definitely dial that down. If it’s once a month and includes a lot of bits about how I’m creating products or services, I think that’s where I want to be.

In the future, I hope to have a brand. That will be my new creative outlet and my YouTube, on which I’ve grown a big community. I plan to keep growing and reach new audiences with whom I’ll be able to share what I’ve created. That may give them value. I think that’s the future.

Huge thanks to Tatsuki for taking the time to chat. If you haven’t already, follow and subscribe on YouTube, Instagram, and all other platforms.