If Saka is not on your radar yet, that better change now as he is definitely one to watch in the underground bass scene. A true creative mind, the Los Angeles-based artist learns from every experience and channels his newfound knowledge into his craft, with each new production impressing more than the last. This year alone, he has impressed us with a handful of tracks such as ‘Night’s Edge‘ and ‘Anima Sola‘ that have taken halftime to new depths, while also honing in on his signature sound to remind listeners of who it is they are listening to.
With a strong first half of 2019 and the promise of more heat, we figured it was time to connect with Saka for a guest mix and interview. The former is comprised mostly of IDs from the talented producer and some of his closest friends, sure to have you itching for official release dates. In the interview, Saka discusses everything from origins, inspirations, collaborating, battling through tough times and more. Don’t miss the ID-fest and interview below!
Tell us about the origins of Saka. When did you start producing? Who were your early inspirations?
I’ve been producing for almost two years now, but I’ve always been around it. When I was still in school I went to a lot of festivals with my best friends at the time (one of whom now makes music under FLY), and I always skirted around it, even though I was already DJing a bunch at the time. Finally, in 2017, one of my best friends Sam – goes by Sammy Legs and makes incredibly dope house music – just sat me down and firmly told me to stop talking about ‘what I wanted to make’ and just go fucking do it.
It’s funny because I have a wide variety of inspirations as I produced more and more. When I first started out, I remember being very inspired by producers like quickly, quickly & Player Dave… through them I found people like zotti, samsin, and vide, and I eventually landed on experimental bass/halftime by means of future beats.
At the moment, I’m very inspired by G Jones, especially when it comes to the way he paces his live sets. The high contrast juxtaposition of heavy and dark versus somber and serene is what I seek to eventually do with this project. I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of his sound palette, but his overall artistic ideas are absolutely genius. I’ve only cried at a handful of live shows, and I definitely shed some tears when I saw him in LA.
While I think I draw a lot of inspiration from different places, when it comes to sheer production chops and overarching musicality/songwriting, I’m most stoked on artists like Noisia, Mejfus, Eprom, Alix Perez, and Moody Good. I also really dig all of the stuff that comes from pretty much all of the boys who’ve released on Upscale, Frequent and Hudson Lee’s label, and am definitely very influenced by the neuro sound palette.
This genre is young though and I truly believe in it with all my heart.
When did you move to America? Did you get to experience the music scene in Hong Kong? If so, what are some key differences between the scene in Hong Kong versus America?
My parents actually met and grew up here, so I was always back and forth between San Francisco and Hong Kong. I was too young at the time and was not avidly searching for music, let alone electronic music. Even when I first moved here when I was 14, and I was at boarding school in Virginia, so I really didn’t get any proper exposure until I was 18 and in college in SoCal.
Now that I’m 24 though, I’ve had a good amount of chances to go to events both here and in Hong Kong, and I gotta say, the underground here in America is absolutely thriving in comparison in cities both on the east and west coast when it comes to bass music. If you’re going underground in Hong Kong, it’s gonna either be DnB or four on the floor. Aside from a few producers here and there, there’s absolutely no experimental bass scene at all from what I know of.
This genre is young though and I truly believe in it with all my heart – it honestly just takes Asia a little time to catch up with the American market when it comes to music. Last time I was there I’m pretty sure I was hearing big room house at clubs with a tiny sprinkle of top 40. People just don’t have the same kind of access to music the way we do with festivals, live events, and SoundCloud producer culture. Besides that, I just don’t think people are bumping this kind of music over there right now at all.
What do you like to do outside of producing?
Nowadays I honestly don’t do other hobbies, really. I try to stay in relatively good shape though and before I went into this hole that is producing I was rock climbing a bunch, so I still try to go occasionally. Besides that, I run a clothing brand and I work for this awesome startup based out of San Francisco as a product designer, so between that and music there’s really no time for me to do anything else right now. I used to love spinning poi and the flow arts in general, but it’s an extremely time consuming hobby if you wanna keep getting better, and right now I definitely wanna just get better at music (another also extremely time intensive activity).
“Designer by day, beatmaker by night.” Do you think the first influences the second, and/or vice versa? If so, how does the creative process behind each have an impact on the other?
Absolutely man. There are a ton of threads of commonality between the two for sure. I was learning about design/designing before I got into production, and it always informed my process. The ways in which you ideate the ways of solving problems, especially when you first start on a project and you’re trying to come up with ideas is very similar. Like you’re thinking about the user (when it comes to design) in the same way you’re thinking about the listener (when it comes to writing music). As a side note, all of the shortcuts/hotkeys in Sketch (a program I use for design) and the shortcuts in Ableton are all of the same so that also helps a lot haha.
I really am not a big fan of internet collabs to be honest… working together in person is just soooo much better.
You recently tweeted about slacking on “all these collabs.” Can you tell us who they’re with? What can we expect from these?
Besides the ones I’ve put in the mix, I’ve been meaning to finish songs/more tunes with vide, Milano, sktchy ppl, 92elm, onumi, LITLBIRD, bd hbt, CallMe, anti.negative, DJ Ride, XAV, and a few other friends I’m honestly totally forgetting about right now, but I’ve been such an idiot about buckling down and finishing. A bunch of other homies I’ve talked about writing stuff with and who I’m actually super excited to write with like Phizicist, SKEW, P A T H, aedfx, Untitld, EAZYBAKED, Floret Loret, Hudson Lee (and a couple others ;) ).
I’m also trying to work more with Player Dave and Brakebill – those dudes have this incredible ability to pull ideas out of me, I feel very creative when I’m in the studio with these guys. Especially Player Dave because we have a similar ear for what we want to accomplish with the beat; additionally, with him, I can just focus on sound design while he can sort of just come in and we can arrange the shit I throw in together while he rips a gnarly melody on the keys with some fire synth patch.
That being said I’m not the most focused on collaborating right now. I really am not a big fan of internet collabs to be honest… working together in person is just soooo much better. You get to bounce ideas off of each other and actually see each other’s processes and learn from each other.
I’d really love to work with COPYCATT or Chee someday – I think we make similar sound design choices and they’re some of my larger influences.
Along the same lines, if you could collaborate with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Probably Alix Perez right now. I think he’s an absolute musical genius – he embodies the perfect blend of what I like to refer to as ‘sauce’ and the technical/nerdy/sound design-y shit. Aside from him, I’d really love to work with COPYCATT or Chee someday – I think we make similar sound design choices and they’re some of my larger influences. I feel like we could make something very very innovative cuz I’m sorta a ‘scrappier’ West Coast take on their steez I think.
On the other side of things, I wanna work with basically all the Lost Dogz because we have totally different styles… I feel like once I fully nail my sound we can make some stuff that’s truly unique as fuck.
Earlier this year, you were going through some hearing loss troubles and as a producer, that must top the list as one of the most unfortunate setbacks. How did you remain positive through it all? What advice would you give other producers who are also going through tough times?
Oh that really really sucked man. No way around it. I was wishing that I could’ve traded a broken limb to have my hearing back. Basically these dudes jumped me and sorta beat me up – I got away fine but basically got reaaaally knocked in the right ear and it really forcibly blasted my eardrum (tissue was all up in there n shiiiit).
Honestly I wasn’t positive about it at all during the worst of it – I hadn’t been that low in a while, and I wasn’t getting very much better at music. This was all during some heartbreak stuff too so it really kinda ran me dry at the time… I was complaining all the time and shit. But as time passes you kind of get used to stuff like that… I slowly came out of it over the course of a couple months by practicing meditation, noting things I was grateful for everyday, and diving even more into music.
Physically though you just had to make sure to do things to compensate for disabilities like that. I would avoid producing on headphones at all costs (it would really fuck with my equilibrium and give me monster headaches) and asked a lot of homies if my imaging was okay or not. It made me a lot more aware of the stereofield because you REALLY notice when stereo wasn’t there anymore (couldn’t hear at all out of my right ear). It still feels a little wonky sometimes but you know I work with what I got.
The biggest thing that helped me was trying to bring things into perspective by remembering to be grateful. Like what if I had gotten killed instead. Or paralyzed. Like I still had all of my other senses; that it wasn’t both my ears, etc.
What is one thing you like and one thing you dislike about the current state of the bass music scene
Maaaan I love bass music and bass music culture! I really really love the people and the friends I’ve made through it. As a community it’s pretty ideal – little sprinklings of drama here and there, like any scene, but at the end of the day it’s all just love – just kinda tough sometimes. Besides that I truly believe that it’s one of the most innovative and creative genres of music right now. Sure there are a couple of monotonous songs here and there and people bite, but everyone is really killing it in their own way and getting across unique ideas.
That being said, I hate how little opportunities for shows there are. It’s really hard to make any money at all making experimental stuff. Or maybe I’m just not getting booked, haha.
The biggest thing that helped me was trying to bring things into perspective by remembering to be grateful.
Give us the rundown of your mix. Where’s the best place to listen to it?
Making food at the campsite at a festival is probably the ideal place. Haha. Only because I’m missing a lot of festivals this year and I’m not playing any of them and I want people to bump my tunes there…
On a more serious note, I think it’s probably best suited for you to bump in your car. If you can casually stomach bass music (from chill to heavy) then that’ll be a prime spot to headnod with a bunch of your homies.
Tracklist:
Drak – ID
Saka x Hudson Lee – ID
Saka x No Doz – ID
Saka x Chaca x ft. L’Homie – ID
Player Dave x Brakebill – ID
Sktchy Ppl – ID
Vide x EAZYBAKED – ID
ID
Saka x ID – ID
FLY – ID
Bonnema – ID
Saka x NIK P – ID
Brakebill x Sumthin Sumthin – ID
Brakebill – ID
Saka – ID
ID
Saka – ID
Vide – ID
Shy Melon x Mokedaddy – ID
The Bebé Culture – SPORTS MODE
Player Dave – ID
Saka – ID
Ruse – Melancholia Agitata (Skew Remix)
Saka – ID
TC – GTFU (Zain Wolf Remix)
Saka x Brakebill – ID
