Illustration by Ties Albers
Her glorious single ‘LES Artistes’ is playing on the BBC and her face is peering out from behind her Noo Yoik sunglasses on mainstream and style magazine covers. There is a big buzz on those websites around her gigs in small but perfectly hip venues in London. Santi White’s alter ego Santogold has scaled the heights of the music and style credibility cliff; but is she about to take flight on a paraglider into the mainstream? The people who ought to know say she will.
A selection of those sages also worked with her on the album; Diplo, Mark Ronson, Switch and Freq Nasty (Santi also works as a co writer for other artists) although she’s clear that there was no danger of her original vision getting lost in a swirl of contributors:
“Well, when it’s stuff for me the finished product is EXACTLY the same as the ideas in my head. John Hill and I produced every track on the album, then other people contributed to certain other tracks like Diplo on ‘Unstoppable’ for instance or Switch and Freq Nasty on others. So from John and I there’s some sort of cohesion. While the others have influenced the sound of other songs, it’s never a case of me doing my bit and then someone taking that away and transforming it. I’m involved in the whole process ‘cos it’s my record. Overall, although the record is very diverse it’s not fragmented – it’s a complete piece of work.”
Her background at Music College where she specialised in African drumming followed by a stint in A&R at Sony in New York almost suggests she tried everything else before making a name for herself as a singer. “Everyone wants to know about the Haitian and West African drumming. I was a music major in college and you had to have an instrument. I played guitar a little bit but I really loved hand drums. I studied lots of things to do with musical ethnology, I wanted to be exposed to as many different things as possible – experimental music, the history of rock and roll – I wanted to know about everything. But I was also particularly interested in women drummers, female musicians who did things that men said they couldn’t do and also specific kinds of drumming that ONLY Women do. All because people said to me girls aren’t drummers and if someone says to me you can’t do something, then I’m like ‘Oh yes I CAN!’ I’ve always been into anything that’s cool but not what other girls did. Like wearing hi-tops when I was a little girl right down to snowboarding or wearing dreadlocks on top of my head with sides shaved off.’
She’s bright, very self confident, breezy and unapologetic about her talent, unembarrassed about the hype surrounding her at the moment and, sweetly, very enthusiastic about the whole journey.
“Well I’m just excited and happy about it. No, of course I didn’t expect [so much media attention] but I think its great and it’s all around the time of the album launch so it’s just very positive.”
She’s moved up the scale rapidly, not just in terms of the 24 carat producers queuing round the block to work on her album, but supporting Bjork live – something of a dream: “I did three shows with Bjork at Madison Square Gardens and she was just one of the warmest, most inspirational people you could ever meet and work with. She reached out to me from hearing my stuff on Myspace before the record was even made. I got to hang out too and it was great fun.”
On the image front, her preference is for tight, slinky but fun patterned bits and pieces: “I’m into one pieces just now. Jumpsuits. I love’em. I did some of my publicity photos in a full length leopard skin jumpsuit. I’m really into that look. And those black leggings with the zips printed all over them? Oh yeah, they’re Jeremy Scott. I just love Jeremy Scott. I met him and we hung out at Coachella festival. He makes wonderful clothes and he’s a great guy too.
Oh yes, and I’ve done the after party for Stella McCartney’s show in Paris, and I think she’s really great.”
When we move onto the subject of writing rhyming lyrics, Santi becomes more animated still. “The fact that my lyrics put across a message, or tell a story is very important to me. And the fact that they all rhyme, well that flows pretty naturally to me especially a song like ‘I’m a Lady’, that came quite easily. Other times I’ll really agonise over getting just exactly the right word. For example the chorus for ‘Lights Out’ took me forever to get just the right word.”
She can cut the mustard when it comes to putting together a good old fashioned verse-chorus-verse number, but that’s when she’s got time to deliberate over every word and get it perfect. I put her on the spot and ask for a spontaneous rhyme – vis-a-vis the notorious boxing match game – where you have to think of an imaginary boxing match to equal “The rumble in the Jungle”. Already up there are “The Ruck in Timbuck (too)” and “The Injured Kidney in Sydney”. Santi falls silent for what seems like an eternal two or three seconds. I’m on tenterhooks, but, by Jove she’s done it!
Ummm, “Get yer hooks in, in Brooklyn?” she ventures.
Well, I don’t know about where Shanti comes from, but round here that’s fighting talk.
Words: Naomi Attwood.
