Some songs mark a beginning, while others quietly seal the lid on a creative chapter. Okayden’s latest release, Sugar Water – Polybit Remix, is one of those poignant conclusions—a shimmering final act in an era of experimentation, long-distance collaboration, and unexpected artistic chemistry. Released on July 25, 2025, the track is a sonic farewell to the world of Okayden’s third EP and its expansive remix journey. But far from fading into the background, this remix gleams with new life, standing tall as a genre-blurring, boundary-pushing statement.
The track’s roots trace back to Sugar Water, an original collaboration between Okayden and VRDA. Despite being separated by more than 800 kilometers—Okayden in Melbourne and VRDA in Sydney—the two artists built a track that melted the limitations of geography. Okayden first discovered VRDA through a blog post and, captivated by her sound, initiated a dialogue that would eventually lead to collaborative magic. The original version of Sugar Water found modest success on streaming platforms, resonating with an audience that appreciated its glitchy, ethereal textures and emotion-laced vocal manipulations.
Enter Polybit—a fellow producer and mutual connection through the artist Superchromatic. Though Okayden and Polybit had admired each other’s work from afar, it wasn’t until the remix album concept took shape that a proper collaboration emerged. Initially approached to remix a track from Okayden’s third EP, Polybit instead fell head over heels for Sugar Water after diving deeper into Okayden’s discography. That spontaneous pivot became the seed for what is now the remix listeners are streaming today.
The result is a track that feels almost interstellar in its scope. It’s fitting, given that Sugar Water – Polybit Remix was recorded across multiple cities, with Polybit crafting parts of the remix while traveling internationally. Layered with ambient textures, fluid synthwork, and glitched vocal samples from VRDA’s original takes, the remix takes Okayden’s signature chopped-and-reassembled approach and pushes it into a richer, more atmospheric realm. The result is something haunting, textural, and oddly nostalgic—like a photograph of a moment you’re not sure you ever lived, but still remember.
Okayden notes that the remix is deeply significant not just for its sonic qualities but for its place in his journey as an artist. “This remix is kind of an end of an era for me,” he reflects. “It’s the final note in a series of remixes that followed my third EP. It feels like closing the chapter on a really formative time in my creative life.”
One of the remix’s most compelling aspects is the way it leans into abstraction while remaining emotionally grounded. In the original version, Okayden was heavily focused on vocal editing, taking VRDA’s recordings and slicing them into delicate, refracted loops—sometimes reversed, sometimes stretched, always altered. Polybit then took that intricate framework and layered his own sonic storytelling on top, creating a new narrative from the original’s emotional scaffolding. The remix doesn’t just reinterpret—it transforms.
While Okayden’s production talents have long earned him a place in the Australian underground electronic scene, this release shows an artist stepping more confidently into his own vision. His recent hour-long radio set on Electronic Music Australia further underscored this. It was his first major live broadcast, streamed across both Australia and the UK. “I really tried to bring out the best tracks to showcase,” he says of the set. “It was nerve-wracking, but also incredibly rewarding.”
That sense of reward—of seeing creative growth come full circle—is embedded in every beat of Sugar Water – Polybit Remix. There’s a sense that this track isn’t just a remix. It’s a reflection. It’s a conversation between artists who speak in plugins and vocal stems, who bridge time zones and musical styles to make something that feels intimate and limitless all at once.
As Okayden moves toward the next phase of his journey, this remix stands as a love letter to collaboration, to trusting your instincts, and to letting go of what no longer serves you artistically. “Working with so many artists on remixes recently has really opened my eyes,” he says. “It’s shown me things in my own production that I didn’t even realize were good. And it’s made me excited to experiment even more.”
Sugar Water – Polybit Remix may be a goodbye to an era, but it sounds like a welcome to something even more thrilling just over the horizon.
