Saint

WHO?MAG: Talk about your new album?
Saint: Well the new album is called “About Time”. It’s my first solo album in 4 years. This is basically the hip-hop album I always wanted to do. I just sat down and worked on what I wanted to hear personally. I work with people that I have been down with. No concerns with, will this sound work? What is my target audience? Who’s hot right now to put on this record to help sales? What kind of beats can I make that will get played in the club? Etc… This is just music from my soul and if you like it I’m really glad. If not, then this album just isn’t for you, that simple.

WHO?MAG: What is the difference between this album and your first album “Grown Folk Music”?
Saint: Folk Music was more of a house/hip hop blend of music. Basically, a project that was presented to me to accomplish. “About Time” better represents my true love of how I like to make music. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed making “Grown Folk Music” and was pleased with the final product in the end, but “About Time” is really more of a look into what Saint really does when given complete free reign.

WHO?MAG: What did you do in the period in between albums?
Saint: I put out a couple albums and an EP with my group The Good People that is me and Emskee. I did mostly Japanese and European releases. I did some production overseas as well as some people over here, but mainly have been releasing things overseas because they tend to take to my music a lot more than the U.S.

WHO?MAG: I noticed on this album, it was a more hip -hop feel than an electronica. Why did you decide to go that route?
Saint: Like I had mentioned, I’m really a hip-hop artist, a Producer/emcee. I will venture into other genres time to time for a challenge, which can be fun, but hip-hop is my number 1.

WHO?MAG: What happened with the Seven Heads label?
Saint: Seven Heads basically decided to call it quits on the record label side of things and decided to just focus on marketing and promotion for other labels artists. Also as usual, the same “shady” business you hear about so much about record labels applies to their situation too. It got a little messy with the artists including myself, but I will show a little class and not get into that in too much detail. Let’s just say they did some things that most artists on the label didn’t appreciate.

WHO?MAG: How do you feel about Urb including you in their next 1000 artists to watch?
Saint: It’s cool, but I think it’s just basically a way to get the artists fans to come check out their site. Next 1000? Is that really an accomplishment? Haha. Top 100 or so would mean a little more to me, but either way I appreciate it. Not saying I should automatically be in the top 100, a lot of good artists are out there, but just wondering how sincere they are about their picks with this. Although I appreciate anything positive said about my work.

WHO?MAG: Equipment-wise what are you using at the moment?
Saint: Production wise ASR-X, Pro tools, some keyboards including Triton, Motiff and Roland Juno. Also some live instruments such as percussion, guitar and bass guitar. Recording my vocals, I use Neumann u87 and Avalon 737 preamp.

WHO?MAG: How was your approach to producing this album opposed to the first one?
Saint: The first album had more of a focus on what style it was going to be. It had more of a blueprint from the label of what kind of music they were looking for. They didn’t tell me how and what to make, but gave me a good idea of the style they wanted from me, which I didn’t mind cause I enjoyed making that kind of music too. This album was completed before any label even heard it. I made an album how I wanted to from foundation up. Also this album shows a lot more of my emceeing side, which only appeared on 2 songs on Grown Folk Music.

WHO?MAG: How was it working with El Da Sensai?
Saint: Me and El was on Seven Heads around the same time, so we had that connection. I went out to Jersey to produce a beat for his album, which was supposed to be the intro. The label decided not to use it so it never made it on the album. Around that time, I started working on my album, so of course had to get him on a track. I was always a fan of him before we met. Both El and Kaos, real cool people.

WHO?MAG: Any other projects that you’re working on?
Saint: Right now I am working on an album with Canadian Producer/Emcee Muneshine. The group is called The Residents. We have been working on music together in some capacity for years now. We been talking about doing the album together for a while and finally just said “let’s stop the bullsh*tting and do this already.” It’s more than half way done at the moment. So far the album includes guests such as Ed OG, Rob Swift, Blahzay Blahzay, Ohmega Watts, Cadence and some others. We are producing most of the album, but have a few outside beats from people like Ill Mind and Mphazes. I also produced about half the album for Emskee’s solo album, which was just completed.

WHO?MAG: Any last words?
Saint: Just want to mention you were one of the first people to interview me after my first release about four and a half years ago and that will always be one of my memories of when I started out. The interview with Will in the Miami hotel, haha. Thanks a lot for showing love and thanks to everyone who took time to check out the album. Also a shout out to Domination Recordings and Pro Se. Check out everyone they put out. Always quality.