Alt Rock / Indie Soul project Sakai announces their debut EP Do You Like Me Now?, alongside a release show in San Francisco. The EP arrives following a year of growing live performances across both coasts, and the release of debut single “Out” earlier this year.
Formed in 2025, Sakai features Japan-born songwriter and vocalist Marié Sakai alongside Audie Bethea (guitar), Brendon Daugherty (bass), Caroline Carter (drums), and Ryan DiCenzo (keys). Across four tracks, the EP traces themes of loss, longing, self-perception, and emotional contradiction—balancing raw indie rock textures with soulful vocal delivery and structurally intricate arrangements influenced by jazz, funk, blues, and Japanese musical traditions.
Recorded at Tiny Telephone Recording in Oakland, CA with additional overdubs at Women’s Audio Mission in San Francisco, the EP was engineered and mixed by Danielle Goldsmith and mastered by Amar Lal of Macro Sound. Album artwork photography is by Colleen Phan-Eversman.
Do You Like Me Now? explores the tension between vulnerability and performance, what it means to want connection while fearing exposure, and how identity shifts under the weight of perception.
Marié Sakai speaks on the release, “It feels so good to release the DYLMN EP. It’s a vulnerable thing, sharing something you’ve poured yourself into with the world… It’s a delicate dance.”
Track-by-Track Overview
“Orange Tree” was written after encountering an 8th-century Japanese poem and attending a shamisen and koto recital in San Francisco. The song merges literary influence with contemporary composition. The song is built using the Hirajoshi scale, a traditional Japanese pentatonic tuning system, and features flute, an instrument Marié revisited specifically for this recording. The track explores relational impermanence, framing love as something both cherished and regretted, yet ultimately meaningful in its existence. A music video for “Orange Tree,” directed as a contemporary dance-based one-shot featuring Marié Sakai and Charlie Aufroy, is currently in production and scheduled for filming on June 28, 2026.
“Out,” the EP’s lead single, confronts existential anxiety and avoidance behaviour. The song examines the paradox of desiring deep engagement with life while simultaneously retreating into distraction. Marié describes the emotional core of the track as a loop of self-questioning: “What if I’m sorely disappointed? Or what if it’s me who’s the disappointment?” The accompanying music video was filmed on June 9, 2026 and may be released alongside the EP.
“Wanted” was written in a single sitting following an emotionally charged interpersonal moment. “Wanted” captures the physicality of emotional stress and longing. Its lyrical ambiguity, avoiding clear definitions of relationship type, invites listeners to project their own experiences into the song. Marié Sakai reflects on the track’s sonic development: “Conner Currie, lead guitarist on this EP, really made ‘Wanted’ what it is with his beautiful harmonics. They’re a combination of fragile and resonant.”
The title track ‘Do You Like Me Now?’ centers on people-pleasing and identity fragmentation.
The track builds toward a dynamic shift that reflects both the exhaustion and intensity of seeking approval. Marié Sakai recalls a spontaneous studio moment: “We had no plans of having a grand piano… but once we had finished our takes… Ryan cooked.”
Across the project, Sakai emphasizes collective expression and collaboration:
Guitarist Audie Bethea reflects: “Mar brought beautiful songs to the table, and the band really took it so far… I really feel the expression of each of us radiates from these songs.”
Bassist Brendon Daugherty adds: “There’s so much bundled in here I’m proud of… it’s so rad to see how these songs have grown to represent us all.”
Drummer Caroline Carter notes: “It was cool seeing the result of all the work we put into building the songs pay off.”
Keyboardist Ryan DiCenzo shared: “It’s so special… to have experienced the growth and transformation of these songs… each person [left] their own mark.”
Over the past year, Sakai has performed bicoastal, building a growing audience ahead of their debut EP. The band will celebrate the release of Do You Like Me Now? with a live show in San Francisco on July 31, 2026.
About Sakai
Sakai is an Alt Rock / Indie Soul project formed in San Francisco in 2025. The band blends emotionally direct songwriting with genre-spanning arrangements, drawing from indie rock, soul, jazz, funk, blues, and traditional Japanese music. At the core of Sakai’s work is songwriting as catharsis; music shaped by emotional truth, exploring themes of loss, yearning, identity, and self-perception. For fans of Florence + The Machine, Amy Winehouse, Hozier, and Radiohead, Sakai’s debut EP marks the emergence of a band equally grounded in vulnerability and sonic ambition.
Find Sakai: Instagram, TikTok, Website, Spotify
NOTES TO EDITORS
EP Title: Do You Like Me Now?
Artist: Sakai
Release Date: July 31, 2026
Recording: Tiny Telephone Recording (Oakland, CA) + Women’s Audio Mission (San Francisco, CA)
Engineer/Mix: Danielle Goldsmith
Mastering: Amar Lal (Macro Sound)
Artwork: Colleen Phan-Eversman