Santigold Strikes Gold — Again

So I'm just trying to continue to keep creating, but I want to branch out into some new things that you haven't really gotten from me before.

This is Sound and vision for kxp. I'm Rachel Stevens and I'm a bit beside myself right now because I have with me here Santi White, AKA Santigold, who has just released her fourth album, Spirituals. Santi, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Thank you for having me. Yeah.

And where in the world are you joining me from today?

I'm actually in la. We just got back. I was gone for a month, but just got back home and back to.

Work, back to the grindstone. Well, okay, first things first. I. I want to talk about your influences for this album, but I've read two conflicting things, so I need you to settle it for me. One said that Devo is your all time favorite band. And then in another interview, you said that the Smiths is your all time favorite band. So can you please tell us who is Santi Gold's favorite band of all time?

The truth is that I would never say anybody's my all time favorite band. So anytime that you've ever read that, it's lies. Yeah, they always do that. So the fact is, I love Devo, I love the Smiths, I love Fela Kuti, I love Nina Simone, I love Bad Brains, I love. You know, these are like my core influential bands. I can't choose one over the others, you know.

Well, there you go. Yeah, I mean, I figured that much, but with all these absolutes, I just had to ask. So Spiritual's fourth studio album out now, did you have musical influences that you looked to for this album?

No, not really. I mean, you know, I'm always listening to songs that influence me, but I don't listen to music that much. When I'm working on music, I might get kind of locked in on a song. I remember I was listening to Lijiadou Sisters a little bit, which are these Nigerian twins who are amazing female vocalists.

Oh.

But that was just like, you know, around one song that I was working on. And so it goes like that. Sometimes I might be listening to something and I'm like, oh, I love this, and it'll influence something I'm thinking about for a song. But on this record, that didn't happen very much because it was a very different experience making this record because I wasn't really thinking, like, I'm gonna make a record and I want it to sound like this. Some of the songs I started A while before, and they were just kind of sitting there somewhere on my computer for years I forgot about. And I never, you know, they were just little bits of music. So then when I came to the songs, it was almost out of desperation because the pandemic had begun and lockdown had kind of started. And I needed to create really bad. Like, it was like life and death.

Heal, heal Think I got a hole in my head I think I'm a numbness finally thinking it's making my head decay.

You know, I felt like I was just not gonna make it through if I couldn't create. Because that's like my lifeline. That's my way of getting through things and touching inwards with myself and finding out where I'm at. Am I okay? Like, I have to write it out, sing it out. And so there wasn't much like I wanted to be like this or I want my record to be like this. It was very much like just pouring out of me how it was.

I can feel that throughout the album. Like, this album is called Spirituals and it does feel very spiritual. Can you tell me a little bit about why you called this album spirituals?

I called it Spirituals because of what it did for me. And it was based off of the idea of Negro spirituals and what they did. And they were songs that helped slaves regardless of what their circumstances are. You know, the fact that they were 100% not free. Experience freedom and joy through song, through music, through performance of songs. And that's what the writing of these songs did for me. They were my way out, they were my way in and up and forward. The songs are in no way traditional Negro spirituals.

The album opens up with the song My Horror and it talks about being through hell and back. Like, what's your hell? What are you talking about when you talk about hell and back?

I was just talking about being stuck in a life that was too small, stuck in a part of yourself that wasn't big enough to fit your whole being. Basically almost suffocating within that. But I definitely wrote that when I had no help in the house. I had just turned 2 year old twins and a 6 year old. I never had a break throughout the night. Kids were like musical chairs in and out of my bed. I wasn't getting sleep and I felt like I was drowning because I'm an artist and like, yes, I'm a mother, but I have to also be able to be myself and be an artist and have time, autonomy as a human being.

So I just wanted to Let you know that I put on like nice makeup today, like eye makeup. And you talking about just like living in a small world or not fitting into the small world made me cry. And so thanks for messing up my makeup.

Oh, yeah. Because see, because that's the stuff that doesn't really get talked about enough. Particularly I. I know that you felt it as a mother and just kind of the trauma that was traumatic and so just touching in on the trauma of that survival time. And I put on eye makeup too, just in case.

Just in case. Well, thank you for that solidarity. I appreciate it. Throughout this album, I just. Santi, it's incredible and it makes the six year wait worth it because that's how long it's been since we got a full album from you. Thank you. And you talk about how Ain't Ready, which is one of the singles that we've been able to get, is a battle song. I also feel that on this song that we get from the album now, the lasty.

Look now at the fire Lasty.

It feels like a battle song to me. Not so much. Like, not exactly in the lyrics, but definitely in the beat and the emotion of your voice. Is this also a battle song to you?

That song was inspired by George Floyd. To be honest, I don't know. I made up a story that was inspired by his story, you know, and it's not so literal. It's more of a poem about this guy who's like, not really notable. He was in a position to save everybody. So he's like having a conversation with his mother. You know, she's like, kind of like, are you going to be okay? And he kind of like doesn't really answer.

This is.

This story might be more in my head than it's in the story.

No, I love. I love that.

But this happened. And so, so he goes and basically he is a martyr. And this cop takes him down. But he knows what he's doing. He kind of like shows up for it because he's like, if I let him do this, then I'm unleashing the beast and I'll be the last one because it's gonna upset all the souls. And all that's come before me so much that you're not gonna get away with it. It's gonna come back to get you somehow by him being the last one. I don't even know if that makes sense, but that's what it was to me and that's what I wrote. And it was very, very emotional.

That makes sense. It doesn't need that. You don't need to tell a whole story in those lyrics without. While people still feel them.

You know, it really can be about multiple things. And I think that's what's so special about music is how even without the lyrics, it connects with people on so many different levels. And then with the lyrics, if you have lyrics that can actually be interpreted, however people need them to be interpreted and it can inspire or help them, that's exactly what it's there for. So.

I think that Witness is my favorite song on the album right now. I really love this song. And it's not talking about like being a witness, it's talking about being seen and being witnessed in particular.

On this song, I was thinking about being an artist and how we hold mirrors up to society so that people can actually see themselves. So, I mean. Yeah, so you can see yourself. Right? This song for me was about the weight of that job. What I think my job is, and my role is, is to help push culture forward, to help be a bridge from here to where we all need to get to. You know, maybe that's something I've taken on myself, but that's what I'm. That's what I'm trying to do. And it takes a toll.

Santi, people have high expectations of you. I have high expectations of you. You're incredible. It's a double edged sword, right? Because you, you make art that is just incredible. And so I can't imagine the pressure that comes with that.

I really appreciate that you say that, but a lot of people have no clue who I am. And so it's an interesting struggle to try to walk this line of trying to stay at this level of integrity and being true to art and my values, but also fit in a world where art is purely about commodity. And so a lot of what I do isn't valued and how to sustain yourself as an artist and pressures that come along with trying to walk that balance, that line.

Can you see my nasty.

I read that in 2003, you got a psychic reading that told you that you were going to get to where you wanted to be in your career, but it was going to take a while. And I just wondered if you're still on that.

That's funny, I don't remember ever saying that. But I mean, that definitely happen. That definitely happened. But I don't often go to anybody to tell me what's going to happen. I've gotten better at my own ability to sort of read situations and read energy and read where things are in the world. And. But I do have teachers and guides who I do check in with. Yeah. And so what was your question about that? Do I still do that?

You know, that was my cheeky way of asking, like, what's next for you? And like, do we have to wait another six years or.

What'S coming? I can tell you, like I said, I don't need the psychics anymore is that I really want to do more outside of music and I really want to find ways to bring music into sort of different creative projects than I've been doing before. I'm kind of over the music industry. I mean, I don't know when I wasn't over the music industry, but trying to be an artist at my level in this industry right now is not what I signed up for. So I'm not saying that I'm going to stop making music because I will always make music and I will always make the music available. But I don't want this to be my job anymore. Like, I know so many of my peers and friends, they're constantly doing music all the time. Like, I don't, I don't make music in that way because I can't. Like, it's not, it doesn't hold my interest. It doesn't. I don't always have something to say and that in that way. But I'm always creating something. I'm always really excited about what I'm creating. So right now I, I've been working on a book. I've been, I've been working on this film idea I've been working on for, for even for this record. You know, I tried to do a multi sensory experience. I've been working on teas and, and some body products and all these other ways to experience that, that actually tie in with the music and the themes of the record. So I'm just trying to continue to create. I'm going to keep creating, but I want to definitely branch out into some new, I don't know, new things that you haven't really gotten from me before.

I love it. Well, I'm so happy that you're trusting the process as an artist because we get albums like this and we get to expect more art in different kinds of ways from you. So thank you so much and thank you so much for this time that you've spent with me here and with our listeners at kxp.

He.

I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you. It's been really, really great.

If you like what you hear, please rate and review this podcast. Thanks so much for being here. This is sound and vision for kxp. I'm Rachel Stevens.

I'm sorry. There was also a pandemic, and none of us knew what the hell it was at that point. And we were locked in our homes, away from each other, like, fearing for our. With no toilet paper. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was a lot going on.

That is 100% hell and back. And when you're a mom and there are butts to wipe and there's no toilet paper, like, no wonder we're all losing our goddamn minds.