Sound Advice: Taiki Nulight

The influential DJ and producer, known for putting his trademark on UK dancefloor influences, on learning DJ tools, collaborating with vocalists and building community on SoundCloud.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything SoundCloud offers to elevate their sound, get heard and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile. 

On this episode of Sound Advice, we are joined by Taiki Nulight, who has been establishing himself as a force in the UK bass driven scene since 2012. The DJ/producer, real name Erka Chinbayer, first started out as a duo alongside Nulight, experimenting in the deeper corners of 140bpm wobble alongside artists like My Nu Leng, Cause & Affect and Woz. Eventually, the duo split up and Taiki took on the Taiki Nulight name as a solo artist. He began touring the US and making big bass house bangers in collaboration with AC Slater, Chris Lorenzo and the Night Bass crew.

But Taiki never lost his love of foundational dubstep artists like Skream & Benga and Caspa & Rusko. This year, he’s dipped back into the dubstep realm and the grime sound with his recent ‘Stay in Your Lane’ EP, as well as huge remixes for the likes of Hamdi, NLE Choppa, Becky Hill and Skrillex. We talked to Taiki to find out more about building community on SoundCloud – including his fan-favorite production mixes – as well as his approach to remixes and production, and how a boy from a village in East Sussex graduated from grabbing the aux cord to bass music’s biggest stages.

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Listen to the audio episode of Sound Advice featuring Taiki Nulight:

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Listen to ‘Stay in Your Lane’ by Taiki Nulight:

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

• Taiki Nulight dials in to share more about his musical journey and we dive right in by discussing his formative influences growing up, and how he got his start as a DJ by being the one entrusted with the aux cord at house parties. From there, he discusses how his reputation as a crate-digger paved the way for him to learn more about the actual craft of DJing.
• He discusses how his foundation as a DJ led him to creating his own edits and learning more about how to produce his own original music.
• Taiki opens up about how coming from a video game background has influenced his sound and first got him comfortable using a computer. He explains how his early experiences making music were from a PlayStation game he played as a teenager called Music 2000.
• We learn more about the role that house parties had on him and his then-aspiring career in music, and how his experiences showing his friends new music he discovered influenced his approach to mixing and producing.
• He shares more about his foundational music influences, including in the dubstep scene, and how Caspa & Rusko’s 2007 mix ‘FabricLive.37’ became a stand-out inspiration for him. 
• Taiki discusses his path and how he’s been drawn to exploring different sounds, and how his latest EP, ‘Stay in Your Lane,’ sees him revisiting his core influences and returning to his roots in dubstep and grime after spending years establishing a name for himself in the bassline house scene. He explains how 2024 has been a full-circle moment for him in this way.
• Invaluable advice he’s learned over the years regarding knowing what to be precious about as a producer, and Night Bass’ Chris Lorenzo liberated how he approached making music. He shares more about what working with Chris taught him, including the importance of trying things out for yourself and not worrying about the “right” way to mix or master something.
• Taiki drops the gem that there is no better way to get better at producing than to work through it and to continue gaining experience… and how sometimes it takes 10 years of making “bad music” to realize and learn what makes a track work or not.
• We hear more about his experiences working with vocalists and how he approaches collaborating, as well as how he feels being honest during the creative process when working with other people is of the utmost importance.
• He shares more about dropping “unofficial” remixes on SoundCloud and how making edits has led him to be able to connect with artists and drop official remixes of their tunes.
• Taiki breaks down the backstory of his remix of Hamdi’s track, including how he used AI as a tool to recreate Hamdi’s vocal and write a 140bpm track (after years of writing at other tempos). He explains how Hamdi himself played the track at Lost Lands, and how that exposure led to Deadbeats releasing an official version of the remix as a result.
• We learn more about how Taiki uses SoundCloud in conjunction with other social media platforms, and how he’s built a following on SoundCloud over the years.
• He shares more about how he uses SoundCloud as a place to experiment and learn more about what his audience responds well to, and to share exclusives and unreleased music to help gauge what he should prioritize as far as finishing tracks and releasing music goes. He shares more about his approach to dropping mixes on SoundCloud, and how the platform serves as a personal archive for him to track his own growth as an artist.
• Taiki shares the story of how the opportunity to do an official remix of “TAKA,” from Ahadadream, Priya Ragu and Skrillex arose, and how he initially planned on doing an unofficial dubstep edit of the track, showcasing how you never know where your creative idea can take you next.
• Taiki shares more about what his dream collaboration or style of music would be, explaining how although drum ‘n bass has been such a huge part of his life growing up in the UK, he hasn’t yet explored working within the genre yet but would like to someday.
• How changing his environment has had an impact on the music he writes, and how this changes for him when he’s in the US versus in the UK.
• Taiki shares his best advice for up-and-coming producers/DJs looking to make a name for themselves in the music industry, and the tips that have stuck with him throughout his career. We also learn more about the role SoundCloud has played in getting his music heard, and how he’s used the platform to connect with fellow artists and create opportunities.
• We bring our in-depth conversation to a close with Taiki sharing more about his plans for the year ahead, and why he’s investing more in analog hardware in this next chapter of his career.

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Links and Extras

Follow Taiki Nulight’s journey on SoundCloud.

Press play on his latest EP, ‘Stay in Your Lane.’

Check out Taiki Nulight’s title track collaboration with P Money and Jolie P.

Tap in with the Night Bass crew. 

Listen to Taiki Nulight’s official remix of Hamdi’s “Counting.”

Hear AC Slater and Taiki Nulight’s collab EP, ‘My Peoples,’ released years after they first connected via SoundCloud DMs.

Explore some of Taiki’s influences, including Skream & Benga and Caspa & Rusko, to name a few. 

Listen to the Buzzing Electronic playlist on SoundCloud.

Never miss an episode and follow the official Sound Advice playlist on SoundCloud.

Getting The Most Out of SoundCloud

• Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
• Learn more about how to make a custom playlist on SoundCloud.
• Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with an Artist Pro subscription.
• Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.
• Learn more about getting heard with SoundCloud’s updated algorithm, available to Artist and Artist Pro subscribers.

To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist or Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

_{Credits: Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella, Producer: KC Orcutt, Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney, Coordinator: Trevor McGee}