In Conversation With Sakkura

Hungry for the journey ahead with a string of fascinating projects and styles attached to her artistry, Sakkura – record producer, performer & DJ from Brighton – releases Astral, a vibrant and varied 11-track LP ruling BPM as its one and only limitation.

The project was released by Sakkura on her new label Atherea Records, but created and toured as Sakkura Live: a group of tight-knit producers, MCs and vocalists, but above all, friends. The project flows seamlessly between uplifting vocal-led summer anthems, to dark and twisted heavy hitters designed to be rinsed on a basement dancefloor. It is a powerful example of collaboration and a beautiful display of good friends feeling the freedom of a loving environment, and then capturing it for all to hear.

Whilst Sakkura is not new to the world of dance music, her pseudonym represents a fresh start. Formerly known as Wickaman, Sakkura symbolises new beginnings. Returning into the scene with both trepidation and excitement, she enters a new era entirely with her most powerful and exciting music yet.

Astral marks a look to the future, and stands strong as a foundation of love, community, creativity and friendship, of which this incredible collective will no doubt flourish from.

Over to Sakkura to tell us the whole story.

How are you Sakkura?

All over the place! Happy, nervous, scared, excited. A fruit salad of emotion. Putting myself out there, that’s really scary. The release, the band, all the pressures of working with a group of people, it’s not just about you anymore. You want to do right by everyone and the more excited the people I collaborate with get, the more nervous I get. I really don’t want to let these people down, they’re all friends of mine, real genuine friends. I only work with my friends. They’re not collaborators that I don’t hang out with. We all have a lot of fun together.

Sakkura is your artist name, but you also have Sakkura Live, talk us through the differences between the two!

Well, the funny thing is, it was Miss Melody who said ‘We’ll just call the live project Sakkura Live’. That was her idea. Initially, I thought that was sort of funny, using my name, in the band’s name. But then I started to like it. Where my brain went was Marilyn Manson. Everyone thinks of Brian as Marilyn Manson, but the band is also Marilyn Manson. I always liked the ambiguity of that. I like to blur the lines. With the radio plays we’ve been getting too, they say, this is a band. They’re seeing Sakkura and Sakkura Live as the same thing. That’s cool. There’s nothing there for me to be specific about, let’s blur the lines a bit.

Love that. What made you want to start a live project as well as Sakkura?

I had a live project years ago. It was with OC Breaks, who is the drummer in Sakkura Live, he was also involved in that along with Hoodz & Mavrik, and it was hell for me. I did some shows and it would take me a month to recover. I’ve always had this thing where I don’t feel welcome in the industry. I sort of freak out a bit. And I couldn’t take the pressure, so I didn’t want to carry on with it. But OC Breaks kept on saying to me ‘Let’s do it, let’s do it!’, so I said we would, when I have some music. Because I needed the music out there first. Just before lockdown, Dee Freer said to me ‘Come on, let’s do the live thing’. So they were both saying it. Lockdown happened, and of course, then nothing happened! So, I said when we come out of lockdown, I’ll have this album ready, and we’ll get the live thing going. That’s how that happened. Also, I thought it would be different this time…
And is it different this time?

It’s a lot of work! But it is different this time. I’m definitely enjoying it a lot more.

I guess you learnt so much from when you did a live project before. Do you feel like your mindset is different going back into it this time round?

Yeah. Absolutely. I was in a lot of fear. I still am now. But I’m really stubborn, so I’m not going to give up. I’m going to keep going, whether I succeed or it destroys me, I’ll go down with the ship. Plus, I’m really excited about where it’s going next. Now the album project is done, I’ve allowed myself a new confidence. The album is like a pick and mix, and I know now the areas that I really want to explore and we’re all really excited about what we’re going to do next. We’ve already started working on other tracks. We have this style and energy we want to explore. We have hooks and ideas, and this time, I’m going to put together the production, but not finish the tracks. I’m going to get some ideas down with Riva, then we’re going to get together with OC Breaks and Miss Melody and get OC Breaks to play the beats I’ve made in a way that he wants to play them, and then Miss Melody can come up with her stuff on the fly. We’re going to jam to finish the tracks, so everyone is involved. To try and come up with stuff for all of us at the same time seemed mental to me, and a lot of stress too. But, if I could produce all the parts, and we jam those pre-made sounds, that are already mixed down and mastered, it’ll be a cool way to make music. It’ll sound finished as we make it.

Wow – a super collaborative process!

It really is. OC Breaks might play something crazy on the drums and we can respond to it there and then. It’s such a joy, and it makes you laugh too, because it’s ridiculous!

Photo: Dan Reid

I bet it’s chaos! Beautiful chaos. Who exactly is in Sakkura Live? Let’s big up the crew a little bit…

OC Breaks is the drummer, we’ve been friends since we were 13 years old. He was the reason that I learnt to play the guitar. So, all of this is his fault! He is a surgeon on the drum kit. So methodical. The way he works out how he plays the breaks and the beats is incredible. Then there is Riva, who I have been working with and really good friends with for 10/11 years now. Her roots are in soul singing, she has this beautiful soulful jazzy voice, that’s her thing! We’re going to utilise her jazziness in some of the next tracks, I’m really looking forward to that. Miss Melody, our MC, I got to meet her through RV who is another producer on the album. She’s an awesome MC that adds a completely fresh dynamic to the band and is essential to our live performances. Then there is Dee Freer, again, a really close friend. I did some stuff with her on Ministry of Sound & Metalheadz back in the day. We have stayed friends ever since. She has a very different sound to Riva so the two of them bounce off each other really well.

Sakkura is a new alias but you’ve had many, many years in the D&B scene under the Wickaman alias. There were many years between the two – how does it feel to now re-emerge as Sakkura?

Scary. Really scary. I’ve lost touch with a lot of people, and I don’t know if I’ll be in touch with a lot of them again, which is sad. It was a negative time, it wasn’t a happy severance, let’s say. It’s with trepidation. It sounds weird but I think I have PTSD from this. I still have nightmares, recurring nightmares about the scene and where I was. See – at the time, I took a lot of shit from my peers on social media, people I respected, people I saw as colleagues and friends and it destroyed me. What that has done to my brain is still there. That’s why I find it weird to talk about it. That messed me up. It scared me. That’s why I’m still scared now, because of that. It was a kick in the teeth.

I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like for you. Very sad, and disappointing to hear.

It’s sad because I expected it. It’s a funny thing, me being trans is the least interesting thing about me. I don’t want to be seen as a figure-head for trans people. It’s not part of my conversation. I don’t see myself as part of any group, it just so happens that I am. I’m the last person to be shouting about it. It doesn’t interest me. If there is anything that I could do to inspire someone else that might be trans or someone who wants to transition is that you don’t have to make a big deal out of it. I don’t mean that in a negative way, it’s just not interesting for me. It’s been a big struggle for sure, but it’s not something I need to celebrate. It just is what it is.

This is undoubtedly a huge step and a scary time for you, but is it also a huge weight off your shoulders, re-emerging with your artistry as your true and authentic self?

Oh yeah. It’s amazing. It’s like, oh my god. I never thought it would be possible. There’s a real freedom that I have now. I can breathe. Obviously I’m scared that I won’t ever achieve what I did before or be as successful and all that stuff but it’s exciting. There is hope for the future. I feel like I’ve thrown some chains off, and that’s liberating. So there is excitement with it. 

I guess feeling so liberated and free helps with creativity too, does it?

It does now! Putting this album together was a struggle. But now that I’ve got to this point, I can finally look forward to something. Continuing this project with all these people, it’s really exciting. There’s light at the end of the tunnel.

There will be a lot of Wickaman fans who will love and support your new journey and will be happy to see you’re back with Sakkura. 

That’s really cool. A lot of people have said to me, don’t you want to reconnect with fans, but I was too scared to. This interview is the first time that I’ve said that. I’ve never said that before. I’m looking forward to creating a new Sakkura fanbase. I hope Sakkura connects and people enjoy where I’m taking the music.

Let’s dive into Astral, your new album – what does the project mean to you? What does it signify?

The album is a milestone, it’s unlocking a door. Getting this out there, it sort of puts us on the map. For all of us, that was a really big thing. It’s a foundation. It’s the foundation of which we’re going to build this thing. Journey wise, that’s what it signifies. I can tell you why it’s called Astral, too. The record label is called Atherea Records, it was meant to be “Ethereal Records”, but that one already exists. Basically, I suffer from sleep paralysis. I’ve seen lots of different things, I’ve been held down, I can see the thing pushing me down. I’ve had things come into my room, I’ve had nice entities, bad entities. I’ve had all this crazy stuff happen, since forever. I’ve managed to tame it now but I always felt that when you’re in those states, you’re sort of tapping into spirit realms. Which is why I chose Astral. Astral realms are the places between this reality and a spirit reality. You’re in both places. In the in-between place.

And Atherea Records?

I looked Atherea up online and it turns out that in a novel, Atherea is a planet that when you’re on it, you’re in both this reality and in the spirit realm. It couldn’t be more perfect. That is the theme to a lot of what I do, in fact, everything I do. That’s always there.

Will you be championing a particular vibe or style of D&B?

Basically, it’s the exact opposite! It’s definitely not championing a particular style. Hopefully, when people listen, they’ll get that it’s not about a style, it’s about how many styles can we fit into this BPM. The only boundary is a BPM, and we want to dance within that BPM, and be as creative as possible. Be as weird and quirky as possible, have as much fun as possible within that one boundary. I think boundaries are fun for that reason, right? Limitation creates creativity. Take instruments for example, they’re a complete limitation. You can sit there with all these synthesizers and sit there playing for days with all these different plugins, but give me a guitar and I’ll come up with a catchy hook in seconds! That limitation does something to the mind.

What does the future hold for Sakkura?

Who knows! I can tell you what I want it to hold. Having fun, expressing through music, expressing all of the emotions through the music! Doing gigs, going on tour. Being successful is where I want to go. Working with all the people I’m working with, moving forward together and continuing what we’ve started, is what I want the future to hold. Being on that map, being part of music and the scene, having our place. That would be amazing.