Gold class: Santigold
She collaborates with the
Beastie Boys. She hangs out with tree-hugger
Isabel Lucas and
Jessica Biel. She is the urban dance fire-starter known as
Santigold.
In Australia as part of the Parklife festival, Santigold speaks with
NW about her uniquely shiny name, bemoans the lack of real artists in the music world and she tells us what she really thinks about
Lady Gaga. It’s all gold!
You’ve been jetting around a fair bit lately! Yeah, I was in Paris last week, I was in Berlin, Bestival on the Isle of Wight. So the UK and Europe. I’ve been up since 4am and now it’s 6pm and I’m so tired.
This year’s Parklife has a lot of women headlining, is it a good time to be a lady entertainer? There are a lot of ladies killin’ it in the industry right now. It just so happens.
Is it the Lady Gaga effect? Umm… no. I don’t think it has anything to do with Lady Gaga at all.
What do you think about her career trajectory over the last couple of years? I think it’s great – for her. It’s wonderful for her for that to be able to happen. I don’t listen to Lady Gaga, but it seems like everybody else in the world does, so that’s good for her.
Do you think she’s opened the door for other strong female performers? I think there are a lot of female entertainers in the marketplace, but there are hardly ever a lot of female artists in the marketplace. And especially now, I think there are so few true artists who get any sort of mainstream attention at all, and I think it’s really unfortunate for music. I think it’s all crowded with, like, absolute industry-driven, money-driven pop crap. And I think it’s unfortunate, I really do. But I know that there are a lot of real music lovers out there and I know there are a lot of real artists out there – I just don’t think they exist in the mainstream.
Although, that said, Adele is dominating charts around the world… I think Adele is a special case, because I think her voice is wonderful, and so interesting and unique, that she can sing really pop, mainstream songs and give new life to them. Do you know what I mean?
So it’s been three years since your first album – what have you been up to? Well, what happened was I toured for two years with the first record – people don’t realise how that works! I toured for two years and I guess a lot of artists only tour for a year on their first record but I really worked on building up a true fan base. I guess I’m realising now that most people bang out records really fast.
What was it like working with Spike Jonze and the Beastie Boys on Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win? I love that video clip, it made me so happy. I love it! Spike is one of my favourite directors, and I love the Beastie Boys and I just died laughing when I saw it, I was so happy. It’s so great and so creative. I really enjoyed it and I was so happy to be a part of it. And I loved my outfits. I love my scuba outfit and my crazy hairdo!
Was it a huge hassle to have to change the spelling of your name from Santogold to Santigold? Not really, it was so stupid. I really didn’t pay any attention to it – I just ignored it the whole time and let my lawyers deal with it. I was on tour the whole time. When you don’t have any control over something you just don’t pay any attention to it. It just changed one letter, and most people were pronouncing it wrong anyway.
Where is your name from? My name is kind of a hybrid. My parents heard it when they were travelling in East Africa, and it comes from Swahili, from the word Asante. But everybody says “sante” and it means thank you. So they were like, “Sante, that’s a nice name.” So, then my mum wanted to name me that but she thought if she spelled it that way no one would say it right, so she changed it to an “I”.
Are you going to catch up anyone while you’re here? Well, I have one really good friend from Australia who I love – you know Isabel Lucas? We climbed Kilimanjaro together.
We were going to ask you about that – it was for charity? Yeah, we shared a tent. It was to raise awareness about clean water and we went with Jessica Biel, Emile Hirsch, a lot of people. And then we filmed a documentary. But Isabel was my tent mate, and I love her. She’s the best girl.
What was she like? She is the sweetest, most wonderful tree-hugging lady and I love her. She could totally get down and talk shit and be hilarious. And she was a trouper – she got food poisoning on the last climbing day, but she made it to the top anyway. But it’s sad, she left Australia a couple of days before I arrived.
What was Jessica Biel like? She was sweet. She was really cool. I didn’t spend as much time with her, because she was in the other group, but she was really nice. And she’s funny.
She always seems very self-contained. I don’t know, I think generally sometimes the people that are more shy, sometimes, you don’t get a sense of their personality because they kinda keep it to themselves. It’s more like, private.
Parklife festival is touring Australia. For more information go to parklife.com.au.