Raucous electronic artist Tricky FM knows you’re shocked

Last summer, I was wasting time online when I stumbled on the video for “Gentle,” a single from the Tricky FM album Peace Love Unity Rave. The song’s burbling sonics and soft, yearning vocals, rendered visually by the video’s cool color palette and pulsating digital textures, intrigued me. When I dug deeper, I discovered that Tricky FM—the stage name of the San Francisco-based musician and jewelry designer Hana Freed—seemed to be a real presence in the Bay Area music scene. She works with the local label Cherub Dream Records, and has performed a string of shows with artists like Mechatok, Astronauts Etc, and French 79. Her August 2025 opening set for the latter was documented in Lauren Melton’s short film Take Me There. Now, Freed is gearing up to perform her new record Twin Star Fantasy at The Lab on October 22. Shortly before the album’s release, Freed and I met up in San Francisco to talk about how she developed her sound and visual style, her relationships in the scene, and