When we first spoke to BAKKIS in 2025, he was establishing himself as a producer with a taste for both direct, club-focused house and more atmospheric sounds. Since then, he has continued to develop those sides of his music while building Okada Records and working with other producers through R-TRYBE.

His new Okada single, ‘Another Day’, draws those instincts together. There’s weight in its drums and bassline, but space around the melody and a sparse vocal that leaves its meaning open. The track began at Pikes in Ibiza, where BAKKIS sketched out almost the entire arrangement on an Ableton Move before finishing it back in the studio. It follows ‘Emphasize’ on R-TRYBE, a release that explored a more spacious side of his sound.

We caught up with him again to talk about the record that first made him curious about production, what playing his own tracks out has taught him, and the decisions that come with running a label.

What’s a record you heard as a DJ that made you think, “I want to know how they did that”? Did trying to make music yourself change your answer?

Joy Kitikonti’s Joyenergizer is definitely one. I remember hearing it in Ibiza back in the day and being completely fascinated by the energy of it and wondering how the hell he’d made those sounds. It just sounded different, and it really stuck with me. Starting to produce definitely changed the way I listen to records. Before, I think I was mainly hearing the end result and wondering how someone had created it. Once you start producing yourself, you begin pulling things apart in your head. You’re listening to the arrangement, the sound design, the groove, and what they’re taking away as much as what they’re adding.

But I don’t think learning how music is made necessarily removes the mystery. If anything, sometimes it makes you appreciate a record even more. You realise that what sounds incredibly complicated might actually come from a fairly simple idea that’s just been executed really well.

I still get that feeling when I hear a great record. The questions have probably just changed from “How the hell did they make that?” to “Why the hell does that work so well?”

Another Day sits somewhere between the tougher house records you’ve made and the more spacious sound of Emphasize. Was that a conscious meeting point, or are those distinctions more useful to people describing the music afterwards?

I actually started Another Day by the pool at Pikes in Ibiza. To be honest, I don’t think too much about consciously finding a meeting point between different sides of my sound when I’m making music. I tend to follow the vibe in the moment and what comes out, comes out.

I do like switching between more groovy house records and the melodic side of what I do, though. I think both are naturally part of my taste, so sometimes they end up meeting in the same track without me really planning it.

Another Day is probably a good example of that. It has the groove and weight I like in house music, but also that more spacious and melodic atmosphere. That wasn’t really a conscious decision at the time. It’s much easier to recognise and describe those things afterwards.

Take us back to the first version of Another Day. What was there from the start, and what only arrived once you realised what the track needed?

I actually made almost the whole track by the pool at Pikes on Ableton Move. The drums and groove came first, then the bassline and the melodic elements, so most of the identity of Another Day was already there in that first session.

That’s quite typical of how I work these days. I like starting tracks on hardware because it keeps me focused on the idea and stops me getting too caught up in all the possibilities you have in the computer. Once I have something I’m excited about, I’ll bring it into Ableton and finish the production there.

A track doesn’t necessarily become better because you’ve put more work or more things into it.

The vocal came later, once I was back working on the track in Ableton. By then the track already had its musical identity, but I felt it needed that final element. The vocal added another layer of emotion and personality without needing to say very much.

That vocal says very little, but you remember it. Did you ever try making it more prominent?

Not really. I felt quite early that it didn’t need to say much more. Even though the vocal is very simple, I think that actually leaves more space for the listener’s imagination and allows them to make the story their own.

I have my own story and certain things I think about when I hear those words, but I’m pretty sure someone else listening to the track will interpret them completely differently. I really like that.

Sometimes if you explain too much, you take that away from the listener. Even something as simple as the words “another day” can mean completely different things to different people depending on what or who they connect them to.

Has a track of yours ever surprised you when you played it out, either because a part you’d laboured over made no difference or a small detail suddenly mattered?

Definitely. One thing I’ve learned from playing my own music out is that some of the details you can obsess over for hours in the studio can make almost no difference on a dancefloor. You can spend forever tweaking something that feels incredibly important when you’re sitting two feet from your monitors, and then play the track in a club and realise nobody is going to notice it.

I think that’s been quite important for me as a producer. It’s helped me relax a bit and trust simpler ideas more. A track doesn’t necessarily become better because you’ve put more work or more things into it.

You’ve now got Okada and R-TRYBE in your life. What’s the most difficult call you’ve had to make as a label owner that you wouldn’t have faced as an artist sending out demos?

Probably the biggest call was actually deciding to do it in the first place. As an artist, you can make a record, send it to a label and then a lot of the responsibility is out of your hands. Starting Okada meant suddenly taking responsibility for the other side of that process as well.

You’re not just thinking about whether you love the music anymore. You’re thinking about release schedules, artwork, distribution, promotion, budgets and how you actually build an identity around a label over time. There are a lot of decisions behind every release that you don’t necessarily see when you’re just sending demos.

Sometimes you’ve worked on a track for so long that you become a bit snowblind

It’s definitely been a learning process, but that’s also what I enjoy about it. Having Okada gives me the freedom to release music I believe in and build something around it rather than always waiting for someone else to say yes.

You hear a lot of other producers’ unfinished music through R-TRYBE. What’s something you’ve advised someone else to change, then caught yourself doing in your own work?

This happens all the time, to be honest. It’s much easier to listen to someone else’s track and have a clear view of what’s working and what isn’t than it is with something you’ve made yourself.

There are loads of examples. I might tell someone they’re overusing a vocal, that an arrangement doesn’t need another section, or that they’re adding too many elements, and then catch myself doing exactly the same thing in my own music.

Sometimes you’ve worked on a track for so long that you become a bit snowblind to it. You’ve heard every part hundreds of times and you lose the perspective of someone hearing it for the first time. That’s one of the reasons feedback from other people can be so valuable. Even when you know all these things yourself, sometimes you still need someone else to point them out in your own work.

When you hear Another Day now, is there a moment that feels particularly yours? It could be a sound, a slightly odd choice, or something you nearly took out.

The groove probably feels the most naturally “me”, but there’s a detune on the rising melody that I notice every single time I hear the track. It’s a slightly odd choice because it almost ruins the perfection of the melody in a way. Some people might even hear it and think it’s a mistake, but it’s completely intentional.

I like those little imperfections that make something feel slightly unexpected or uncomfortable. Sometimes I’ll deliberately push things away from being too perfect because that’s often where some of the personality comes from.

I can probably push those decisions too far sometimes, though. That’s where having a mentor or someone you trust to challenge you can be really valuable. They’ll sometimes question something you’ve become attached to and make you decide whether it’s genuinely adding character or whether you’ve just taken the idea too far. With the detune on Another Day, I wanted it to stay.

Another Day is out now on Okada Records