Multi talent Isaac Sakima surfaced a couple of years ago playing the piano and singing a rather lovely cover version of Beyonce’s Crazy In Love for a nice project called A Quiet Corner – which, it appears, is no longer in business. Very much in business though is Isaac Sakima who now, more than two years later, dropped the Isaac and goes by the name of SAKIMA, readying a debut release.
What really, if you sport a voice and play the piano self-taught like he does, feels like a sensible thing to do. Reason enough for Team Poule to get our Kent Brockman going and see what it’s all about. Attached below is Energy – his first single – a marvelous minimal yet spacious production and those impeccable vocals. Meet SAKIMA.
You have been making music for a while, do you feel your approach to composing or writing has changed over the years?
I think it’s ever-evolving to be honest. But my desire to make music has always been the same, I love the communicative possibilities of song and of art in general. I’m heavily influenced by my peers and as my inspirations change so do my methods of working.
What instruments do you like to use most or are the most natural to you?
Piano is definitely my core instrument. As a child it came naturally to me, the arrangement, build and feel of a piano just made sense. At the same time I’ve always been obsessed with the human voice and again from an early age I was always singing, so it’s a bit of both. Equally, being a child of the digital revolution, meant I was always into technology. I struggled in school so much with dyslexia that the school gave me a little laptop to work with instead of pen and paper, which unsurprisingly put me in a place where I could touch type before I could write by hand in a straight line. This meant computers were a natural place to work from so producing digital music is like, second nature too.
What does your recording process look like?
Most of the time I either approach the studio with a lyric or melody, figure out what key I feel comfortable singing in and then build from there, improvising and messing around with sounds. Or I start with a particular kind of beat in mind, and make a big ensemble of sounds and percussion. I think a solid beat is a great stimulus to grow melodies and lyrical content from.
What’s your greatest source of inspiration?
Quite simply, people. Whether it’s other artists styles, other people’s stories or the way people treat each other. I think we are all shaped by the friends and foes around us and as an artist it ends up shaping your work.
Is there a special emotion you want to induce in the listener?
I never really try to think about what I want a person to feel emotionally with a track, but I always want them to escape with the music somehow. With my single Energy, you might feel sad thinking about love lost or happy thinking about positive changes, whatever you feel, I just want the listener to escape away into a slightly more cinematic and playful world.
A place you would love to play live at?
I’m really into site specific performance, I went to see The Drowned Man by Punchdrunk (two nights in a row !) and it made me want to perform music in an abandoned space like they had done, in a super immersive, cinematic way. Alternatively The Roundhouse!
Thanks for taking the time!
