In this conversational interview recorded at a Uniqlo store, Santigold shares her impressions of the massive Japanese flagship, recounts her brief 2008 tour of Japan—including a memorable Devo show in Tokyo—reflects on her past feature in The Fader’s “Now” issue, and discusses her upcoming album. She explains that the new record took two years to create, shaped by a challenging personal year, and describes her artistic vision of crafting epic, cinematic songs inspired by artists like Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. The dialogue is informal and enthusiastic, highlighting both commercial and creative aspects of her current work.
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We are here with Santigold, Uniqlo.
It's huge, and I was blown away, to be honest. I had no idea.
Exactly, neither did I.
I think it's really cool that people are bringing back stores with basics.
Yeah.
But the store is so not basic. It's the biggest basic store I've ever seen.
I know, it's crazy. So have you toured in Japan as well?
I've only been to Japan one time. Okay. Yeah, I did.
Touring or just hanging out?
I did, I had a show in Tokyo and a show in Osaka. I had a fun day in Tokyo. Devo played in Tokyo when I was there and it was like really memorable because they're like my favorite. I love them. It was great.
You were on our Fader Now issue like what? 2 years ago, I believe? '09, maybe?
Maybe 2008.
2008, wow.
Maybe, that's when my record came out.
Wow, exactly, it must have been. So now we're actually working on our Now issue right now, so we thought it would be interesting to speak to you about what you're doing now.
Yes, well I have a new record.
Okay, highly anticipated.
I am equally anticipating people to hear it. It's done, and And it'll be out very soon. Well, you know, they're set up, so like you'll be hearing the music very, very, very soon. It took a long time to make.
Okay, how long?
2 years.
Okay.
2 years, 'cause I was on tour for 2 years and then I started— a year and a half.
Okay.
Which is apparently really long nowadays, even though I think that's kind of normal.
I remember the days when people used to release albums every 3 years.
Yeah, right? Everyone's acting like it's like the longest thing ever. You know how like you have a year where you go through so much stuff and it ends up being one of the most important years for you 'cause you grow the most and like, it was one of those years.
In hindsight though.
Yeah, it was a rough year, but it's all in the record. Once again, I mean, that's how art works, I guess, anyway. So it's a lot about learning how to master your own reality within and without. And sonically, it's just as mixed up as it always is. Some of the songs, I try to make them sound like, just like, epic songs, like just big old epic songs. Like, I was listening to like Peter Gabriel and like Kate Bush and even some like of the old— I mean, there's just so many things, I don't want to start listing all this stuff, but just songs that sounded really, really big and like take you on a landscape. And then cinematic, like I always like songs that sort of like paint a picture for you. And I guess that's how I see things, like I just always, when I'm getting ideas, I just I see it first, you know what I mean? Um, Santigold. Just for the record.
