Alt rock and indie soul project Sakai has officially released their debut EP, Do You Like Me Now?, arriving after a year of increasingly frequent live performances across both coasts and the release of debut single ‘Out’ earlier this year. The band marked the EP’s arrival with a San Francisco release show on July 31, 2026.

Fronted by Japan-born songwriter and vocalist Marié Sakai, joined by Audie Bethea on guitar, Brendon Daugherty on bass, Caroline Carter on drums, and Ryan DiCenzo on keys, Sakai find the space between indie rock’s rougher edges and the fluidity of soul, with arrangements that draw from jazz, funk, blues, and Japanese musical traditions across Do You Like Me Now?.

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. The artwork photography comes from Colleen Phan-Eversman.

The record’s title hints at its central concern: how much of ourselves gets shaped by the desire to be liked, understood, wanted, or approved of. Across Do You Like Me Now?, Sakai turns that tension into songs about loss, longing, self-perception and contradiction, moving between moments of intimacy and uncertainty.

“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.”

The EP opens with ‘Orange Tree,’ a track born from an encounter with an 8th-century Japanese poem and a shamisen and koto recital in San Francisco. Those influences make their way into the song’s musical language, which is built using the Hirajoshi scale, a traditional Japanese pentatonic tuning system. Sakai also returned to the flute specifically for the recording, adding another distinctive texture to the arrangement.

Lyrically, ‘Orange Tree’ considers the impermanence of relationships, holding love as something that can be simultaneously cherished and regretted, while still finding meaning in the fact that it existed at all. A contemporary dance-based one-shot video for the track, directed by Charlie Aufroy and featuring Sakai and Charlie Aufroy, is in production.

‘Out,’ the EP’s lead single, takes a more existential turn. The song circles around anxiety, avoidance and the uncomfortable habit of distracting ourselves from the very life we want to experience more fully. At its core is a question that keeps looping back on itself: “What if I’m sorely disappointed? Or what if it’s me who’s the disappointment?” A music video for the track 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, transforming stress and longing into something physical and immediate. The song deliberately avoids defining the nature of its relationship, leaving enough space for listeners to attach their own stories to it.

“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 EP’s title track, ‘Do You Like Me Now?’, digs further into people-pleasing and identity fragmentation. Its arrangement builds toward a dynamic shift that mirrors the mounting exhaustion and intensity of seeking approval, with the song’s emotional pressure reflected in the band’s increasingly expansive sound.

The track also came together with an element of happy studio spontaneity. “We had no plans of having a grand piano… but once we had finished our takes… Ryan cooked.”

That collaborative spirit is central to the record. Although Sakai’s songwriting provides its foundation, the finished EP is shaped by the personalities and instincts of the full band.

“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,” says guitarist Audie Bethea.

“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,” says bassist Brendon Daugherty.

Drummer Caroline Carter adds: “It was cool seeing the result of all the work we put into building the songs pay off.”

And for keyboardist Ryan DiCenzo, the process was about watching those initial ideas become something larger through collective input: “It’s so special… to have experienced the growth and transformation of these songs… each person [left]their own mark.”

After spending the past year building momentum on stages across the country, Sakai arrives at its debut EP with a sound that feels both carefully considered and open-ended. Do You Like Me Now? is a record about wanting to connect while fearing exposure, about the push and pull between self-expression and self-consciousness, and about the shifting distance between who we are and who we think other people want us to be.

Listen below:

Related