Heard It Here First

Something that you need to know when it comes to Saka’s style of experimental bass music is simple: always expect the unexpected. Eric Chow, also known as Saka, has been a breath of fresh air in the electronic scene, producing immersive, multifaceted tracks layered with abstract, atmospheric elements.

Saka’s artistic vision is not bound to one electronic genre, as his production style often unfolds through drum & bass, half-time, and dubstep. He grew up moving back and forth between San Francisco and his birthplace of Hong Kong. Saka’s roots are beautifully reflected in his project, through mythological symbolism, visual aesthetic, and East-Asian inspired concepts. 

His emergence as an exceptional producer has landed him on stage at major festivals, such as Lost Lands, Elements, Electric Forest, and many more. This past year, Saka joined Of The Trees on his Moonglade tour, traveling city-to-city to showcase his intuitive knack for electronic music production. I had the pleasure of seeing Saka at one of the Moonglade tour’s stops, and he was my most anticipated artist on the lineup. Every set I’ve seen of his has been tastefully unique and goes a step beyond modern-day bass music. I’m fascinated by how eclectic his project is and how all his tracks have intricate characteristics.

Some of the fan favorites in his discography are “Shaolin,” “Salvo,” “False Angel,” and his collab EP with Black Carl!, Rush Hour, out through Zeds Dead‘s Deadbeats label.

His 2024 EP, “Monomyth,” out through Of The Trees’ Memory Palace Records, captures that staple Saka versatility, showcasing heaters that carry cutting-edge characteristics and complex soundscapes. This vibe is also alive in Saka’s most recent single, “Fangs,” produced alongside Mindset, as it captures the essence of distinct, gritty, and edgy bass music.

Saka is currently on his Fall tour, so do yourself a favor and be sure to catch one of his shows as he travels across the U.S. I’m looking forward to seeing him throw down at Seven Stars, which is GRiZ’s comeback festival and one of the most highly anticipated EDM events of the year. 

After catching his fantastic set at Sound Haven 2025, we sat down with Saka for an exclusive HIHF interview. We discussed the natural cycle of creative flow, inspirations behind his recent tracks, and his experience on tour with Of The Trees. Enjoy!

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HIHF: Hey guys, what’s up? This is Eliza with Heard It Here First, and today we’re sitting down with Eric Chow, also known as Saka. How are you doing tonight?

Saka: I’m doing wonderfully!

HIHF: Well, you crushed your set; it was incredible! How did you begin your musical journey, and what got you into producing?

Saka: Oh, that’s tough. Well, I’ve played instruments for a lot of my life, but I didn’t take note of electronic music until I was 15. It was Rustie, Skrillex, Caspa, and all of these UKF dubstep OGs. And then Skream and Benga, all this kinda like loud dubstep, but then I left dubstep for a while. I got really into four-on-the-floor and really into house. I was playing party tech before it became this huge commercial thing. Which is amazing, but it’s good or bad. Then I started getting into bass music. I saw G Jones and Minnesota play back-to-back in 2015. I was at the house stage with Fly, who was in the scene, and we were going to festivals all the time together. He brought me to that set. I was candy flipping and lost my mind. I thought it was the coolest thing. And from there, I got into artists like Ivy Lab and Eprom.

HIHF: Who are some of your favorite electronic artists? Are there any others who have helped inspire your music?

Saka: Oh, for sure. I always have a flavor of the month. A producer that I love. I still love them all obviously, but I always find a new fixation. I’m really into 2Hollis right now and Brakence. But also outside of that, I’m really into hip-hop, like Haarper and Nettspend. A lot of stuff like that. Bass music-wise, I feel like I’ve always been inspired by a lot of the same things in my umbrella. Some of whom are my friends at this point. I always like to draw inspiration from stuff that’s not what I’m doing. I think the UKG stuff that’s happening is really interesting and fun. And really cool to bring into dubstep. I think that crossover is really cool. Everything’s getting faster, but also slower.

HIHF: Are there any artists outside of the electronic genre who have helped shape your music style?

Saka: Oh yeah, I love Mk.gee. When I write melodic stuff, which I do sometimes, he really informs me on what to do melodically. I don’t know the theory involved enough, even though I do play instruments.

HIHF: What instrument do you play?

Saka: I play the saxophone. I just feel like it’s hard for me personally to work it into my music well. I’ve done it in a couple of songs, but I snuck it in there. 

HIHF: Well, we would love to hear more of it! So, when you hit a creative block, do you have any go-to methods that help you navigate that?

Saka: Yeah, I think breaking down what producing is into little tasks really helps. It really is like a muscle. Every artist has a cycle of binge writing, and then they hit the brakes really hard, and that’s when your brain needs to almost do like a memory update. It’s like a save file. You gotta consolidate everything you’ve learned and figure that out. Otherwise, I think you just get really burnt out if you keep going and never stop. I think the cool thing about art is that people will draw from their experiences, and if you can hear that, it makes it that infectious. I think it’s the only way to hope people get it, you know? If they connect with it, AI doesn’t matter. The big harrowing thought that every artist has is: Am I just replaceable? But, as long as people know you’re writing it and know your process and who you are, I think eventually, we’ll have another cycle where authenticity will come back. When things get over-commercialized, it’s a symptom of late-stage capitalism. But simultaneously, I think things will always equalize, and that’s the nature of humans. Patterns will emerge and repeat themselves, and that’s just history.

It happens on a sonic level, too, and I think that’s one of the fun things about making what is traditionally counter-culture music, but now it’s become a different thing. Some people have been eating who’ve been doing this forever, and it’s a complicated, convoluted thing. It’s the human experience; it’s lots of grays.

HIHF: We love your new “Fangs” release with Mindset. What can you tell us about it?

Saka: I love it. I feel like it’s a return to my older stuff, which is really dark. I feel like I’ve been focused on this emotive, duality sound. It’s a really cool track; I liked that I made it with Mindset. We made it at like two in the morning in CHEE’s studio. It was a one-try song, and I feel like those are always really fun. It was like melting in my sets for a while, and then Timmy and I wanted to put it out.

HIHF: I caught your opening set for Of The Trees on his Moonglade tour. What was it like going on tour with Of The Trees, and did you learn any lessons along the way?

Saka: I love Tyler! That whole bus was just a bunch of friends. I love touring on buses in general; it makes it really easy to feel like there’s a community and to have a place to go back to every night. I think that’s rare with touring. It’s a different type of camaraderie, I think. Every person I’ve toured with, I’m really close with, we’re literally waking up at five in the morning to take a piss while looking at each other, you can’t help but get close to one another. I feel like I’ve known Tyler for a while in that capacity, and a lot of people on that bus, honestly. It felt like Summer camp with friends more than work or touring. It felt cool to hang out with a lot of people who think about art the same way I do. A lot of people in this industry I meet are very sweet people, and I actually like them as humans. When it comes to sonic palette, it’s not my thing. Its not a bad thing that we disagree on music, but it’s a separation of what we’re trying to accomplish, whereas I feel like a lot of the artists on Tyler’s tour bus that I was with, we have the same vision about art and what we see is similar, so its really validating I think as an artist to try and paint a picture you think is notable to have other artists think it’s cool. 

HIHF: What was the inspiration behind your track “Set Me Free”?

Saka: Oh, I love that song. It’s about new chapters, for me, I feel like it was an evolution of my life at that time, so it’s kind of like a time piece for me. Kind of taking back ownership of what I’m trying to do, because I feel like for a while I was really discouraged and felt like I couldn’t make the music I wanted to make, and have it be heard. I enjoy a moment like that, and sometimes I feel like, for artists, it all feels so fleeting. I think it’s just like the nature of it, the nature of life. It’s cycles. And yeah, so that song is kind of about that, about evolving and being able to let go. 

HIHF: Do you have any upcoming collaborations you can tell us about?

Saka: I have this one song with Kayzo, which is surprisingly very left field, but I feel like he’s on this really cool journey of getting more into that vibe, and I have a song with Beastboi I really like. He’s king of out of my realm, he’s more of this blend of almost like hyperpop dubstep that I love, and so that will be cool. But honestly, a lot of originals are coming out soon.

I enjoy flips, but my focus right now is putting out this EP. I think it’s like a lot of my best originals, and yeah, just think it will be my last EP before I try to get into more album stuff. I’m just gonna pursue artistically what I like, I think, and just have blinders on. I think paying attention to the other noise is like, you do what you can do. 

HIHF: What do you want your fans to know about the Saka project moving forward? 

Saka: Expect different BPMs. But the same two BPMs, really. I think it’s just a duality; I just go back and forth between them. I like having constraints in my art; I feel like it makes me write better music.

HIHF: What do you mean by constraints? 

Saka: I’m gonna have a universe of stuff that fits within my project, such as the liquid stuff I do. And then the 140 groovy stuff I do, and there will always be duality of that.

HIHF: Thank you so much, Eric. We’re so happy to have sat down with you today at Sound Haven 2025!

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