Sainté: Surviving the spotlight
On the back of releasing his debut E.P. Local MVP, in January 2021, swiftly followed by 7-track project Out the Blue, later in the summer, the Leicester rapper has truly established himself as one of the big players to watch going into 2022. That said, the artist is keen to show the world that he is more than just a musician, with his new double release Queen/Aim representing a new creative direction for the rapper.
Director and friend TJ Sawyerr managed to sit down with Sainté, ahead of his eagerly anticipated debut tour, to discuss his growth, his creative flair and how he has navigated the scrutiny and spotlight that comes with success.
Who is Sainté?
My name is Sainté, aka YS, aka King Fox. When describing myself and what I do, I don’t like using the word rapper, nor musician, I’d prefer to say I’m a multi-faceted artist. As of now, I make music primarily, but I’m definitely looking to reach into my other creative bags in the near future.
Where did it all start for you? Why did you decide to pick up the mic?
It was really just a hobby to begin with, by no means was it the target I was aiming for in life. Until very recently, that target was basketball for me. Culturally, basketball and music are very naturally linked, so I’d often find myself freestyling with my teammates on the bus on the way to games, back when I was hooping in Leicester. When it came to spitting, for some reason, it quickly became clear that it was something that came naturally to me. All my boys would always gas me up, saying ‘you’re cold! You should defo record something! Make a tune!’ etc. and so eventually I recorded one track that the mandem were f***ing with heavily, and I decided that I wanted to shoot a video for it as well, so I shouted my now-partner-in-crime, Arran, who I knew through some mutual friends, to jump onto that visual. My whole starting process was based off of a genuine ‘why not?’ mentality, and the rest is history.
After the feedback I received on that tune, it became a no-brainer for me to keep going. Very quickly the numbers started to fly, obviously not as they are now, but, coming from a small scene like Leicester’s, things were moving in an exciting direction and it was only right to keep pushing.
Coming out of a smaller city like Leicester, not notorious for its music, how important was it for you to establish yourself at home, before cracking into London’s broader industry?
The scene in Leicester isn’t too crazy, it’s not really been on the map when you think about music hotspots in the U.K. so I think that’s what really drove creatives such as myself and Arran to go and do what we’re doing. As I’ve said, I carry the same mentality as I did with my first music video – ‘why not be the first?’ – but naturally it can be tough at times when there’s not lots of creative inspiration around you for you to bounce off of at home. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of other talented artists in Leicester but when it comes to my sound, Arran’s visual and our taste as a whole, there’s not really anyone in that lane. Naturally I think that inspired us to take our own direction and grow beyond the ends, so I’ve got the city to thank for acting as my motivation to flourish and providing me with the support to do so. I might not be living in Leicester now, but my heart very much lies there.
That considered, it’s only fitting that on the first leg of your upcoming tour you’re returning to perform in Leicester, how does it feel to be able to share such a milestone career moment with your hometown faithful?
I must say it’s pretty surreal. I did not see this coming for me, even if I rubbed a genie bottle, I wouldn’t have dared to wish for such an opportunity, to perform for the first time in my home city as the premier of a U.K. tour. It’ll probably only be once I get on stage that it will really registers with me. I’ve gone out of my way to make a custom garment for the Leicester show, making sure that I rep the city properly that night!
A lot has changed in the past year, has it been difficult to manage your growth and all that comes with it?
The change is nuts man. For me, the best way to manage growth is to not watch it too much. People ask me ‘oh, do you ever sit back and just think about everything and all the progress?’ and, while firstly I would say it’s best not to, I’d also genuinely say that I’ve not even had the time to deep it all, with how fast things have been moving, which can be viewed as both a blessing and curse in some senses. That said, sometimes I do have to appreciate that me and my people are really doing this shit.
You have quite an understated presence on social media. Would you say you have quite a calculated approach to your internet activity?
Really and truly I feel like I’m just myself on social media, some may say it comes across as calculated but it’s really just me. I’ve never been one to overshare or ramble online, I just keep things calm and composed. People don’t need to know everything.
How important is it to you that you have built (and will continue to build) your career with your close boys alongside you throughout?
It’s very important man. The people directly around you heavily influence who you are as a person – as they say, you are a product of your environment – so surrounding yourself with good people will result in growth, while if you surround yourself with bad people, you’ll quickly see the consequence. Mentally and emotionally, as well as professionally, my guys are a massive force for me. I don’t think people realise, when listening to my music, that I tend to talk about things that I’m actually doing and living through. People will say ‘Sainté’s music brings such a good vibe’, and that is simply a product of the good energies and good people that surround me everyday.
Your double-single Queen/Aim drops today, in advance of the tour, starting Sunday – can you tell us a bit about the two tracks and how they may present a new edge to you as an artist?
Yessir! Got a double drop landing in collaboration with my boy BB, top engineer and creative genius, with visuals directed by Arran, so it’s a mad internal production on this one. That said it’s definitely the biggest and most creative video we’ve done, so I’m mad excited. I remember this concept arose super late one night when BB and myself were talking about how we wanted to attack 2022 and up the levels. Of course that’s a phrase everyone uses, but for me, it was a case of elevating in all types of ways. I love what I have put out over the past year, and the success and numbers that stuff has received, but I feel like the world doesn’t understand me like that yet, as a person nor an artist. I think it’s easy to fall under the impression that ‘Sainté makes happy music – therefore he’s happy all the time’ but I’m really just like everyone else. I feel the same emotions and go through the same things, so naturally, I felt that the main necessary evolution for me was to put more emotion into my music. I’d definitely say Queen/Aim brings forth a new sound and a new vibe, I don’t even know how I’d describe the genre, but I think that’s what’s cool about it. I can’t say I know where exactly is came from, the flow immediately developed from the first feeling that came to mind when I heard the beat BB laid down, and even at that point, I knew we were creating something different – so yeah tap into this one people.
So does this drop represent a change of artistic lane for you?
I wouldn’t say that. People may be quick to think, ‘oh shit, has he completely switched up?’ but I want you all to know that what is already in Sainté’s arsenal, remains in Sainté’s arsenal, sounds don’t get replaced, the repertoire just broadens. That’s a common misunderstanding that I think COVID brought forth. I released Local MVP during the pandemic, which was music I had made beforehand, but, obviously, due to COVID, I couldn’t really record like that, so I wasn’t able to release exactly what I might have planned to release across that period. For that reason, everyone got stuck listening to this same set of tracks from that project, because that’s all that was available at that time, and they come to believe that that alone represented my lane and who I am. That couldn’t be further from the case. Now, I’ve got the chance to show you the sounds that I intended for you guys to hear from way back, and you’ll get a better idea for who Sainté really is. Don’t get it twisted though, summertime, you’ll get summertime Sainté back and better than ever.
You mentioned early that people ought to expect to see a broader creative scope from you in the near future. What does that look like and what can we expect?
I’m not saying I’m gonna do a clothing line, but I do love fashion, so people shouldn’t be surprised if I do show myself to be dipping my hand into that field. Primarily, I want to give back to the people that have supported me, in the form of merch, putting out sentimental things – collectors items that people will treasure for years to come. The only thing of that sort that I’ve ever done was a sticker pack and to this day, even with something as small as that, people still send me photos of them with unopened packs that they’re holding onto. At first when I was receiving these messages I was like ‘rah, it’s just a sticker pack, put them on your laptop or something’, but now, because I do see my creative craft and my broader impact being greater than just music, I can understand how one may value small material items of the nature. That’s definitely something I’d like to continue, exclusive drops, collabs, keep your eyes out.
The value that your fans see in even small offerings, such as a sticker pack seems to be indicative of the connection that you are forming with your fan base, as a desirable individual to look up to. Growing up, who were the main role models and inspirations that made you believe that you could succeed as young Black man in a less-conventional field?
Immediately, names like Jay Z, Tyler, the Creator spring to mind. Even athletes such as Dennis Rodman, whose documentaries I would watch as a kid – to see where he came from, living on the streets, to what he became – one of the greatest athletes of his generation – definitely gave me confidence that I could follow suit. In the U.K. it was artists like Dave, doing all of these small cyphers, eventually blowing off of his BlackBox freestyle and then fast-forwarding to where he is now, with his most recent album, you can see the huge progress and change that he made, coming from the streets of Streatham. Being privy to stories like that allow me to relate to these guys’ success – I see those cyphers that Dave did being the equivalent of me freestyling for fun on the bus – so to look at how far I’ve come up till now, to the point where I’m selling out tour dates in cities across the country, I can definitely see how those previous success stories have fed into my will for greatness and supplemented my come-up.
You’re recent E.P. Out the Blue landed and made more than a splash. Did you expect such a reception, with some of the big name features that you had on there, or did its success come as a surprise?
It was definitely a surprise. Every release of mine is, and that’s something I’m aware of at this point, but even with that in mind, the reaction to Out the Blue still caught me off-guard. For a long time, people had been requesting a tune with Knucks and a tune with A2, so it was only a matter of time before it happened, and within that E.P., such a link up came to make sense. I knew, with the Summer is Blue track specifically, that I was giving people what they wanted, so I was certain it would be well-received, but then actually watching it go off is a different feeling. I’m never really that guy to be making predictions about a song’s success, I don’t even think like that. Sometimes I’ll post something and then turn off my phone and ignore it for a bit, so I can level any anxiety.
Collaboration-wise, are there specific people that you’re looking to work with this year, both within music and beyond?
My main priority this year is to remain in my creative bag and really think outside the box, beyond just music. After the Four Tour I’m definitely looking to diversify my means of press and experiment with my PR roll-outs, in the form of creative direction projects, company collaborations and maybe even a magazine at some point – without giving away too much haha.
Now bringing your growth into context with the pandemic, how do you think the COVID period came to affect your craft and your trajectory?
Naturally for different people, the pandemic presented different challenges, but for me, personally, that period was certainly more of a blessing than a curse. Throwing things back to early 2020, when we first got locked down, I was juggling university with part-time work as well as basketball and music, so when COVID came around, and school and my job became less prominent commitments on a daily basis, while basketball was almost entirely out of the equation due to restrictions, I had so much more time to be writing music and working on my sound. Of course, I wasn’t necessarily able to go and shoot a blockbuster music video mid-lockdown, nor could I really perform live or network physically, but I was able to hone my craft and build, to the point where, now, as things are opening up again, I no longer need to be at uni, nor do I need a 9-5 job. I definitely identified, early on in the pandemic, that this time would be a huge opportunity to grow and learn, so I’m blessed to say, retrospectively, that I seized that chance.
That said, you blew onto the scene during a time where it was impossible to form a physical connection with your growing fan-base. All considered, how important is live performance for you, especially heading into the tour?
I love performing live, but it is definitely something that I am still getting used to. There’s still a real novelty to the feeling of seeing and hearing people signing your lyrics back at you and opening up moshpits to tunes you cooked in your bedroom, so the tour will definitely act as a learning curve for me as well as a crazy experience.
On the back of the COVID lay-off, your E.P. launch party was your first show back in the game, and it went off. How much confidence did that install in you and your performance?
It gave me real confidence man, I felt amazing on the back of that show, but, with me, I can never get complacent or too comfortable. So yeah cool, everyone was there for me at that show, but the game is the game, it can be cut-throat, you can be in today and out tomorrow, so I could never get comfy. If anything, a night like that acts as motivation to push on, in my mind it’s like ‘if last show was that lit, I’ve gotta go double as hard this time’.
Post-tour, festival season is just round the corner. How are you feeling heading into your first season of overseas shows?
It’s exciting man. I feel super honoured and blessed to even be asked to come and perform at such events. Last year, festivals were something that we did discuss, but I decided that I wasn’t keen to rush back into large-scale shows on the back of the COVID lay-off. For me it’s always been about organic growth and natural steps, so last year’s festival season just wasn’t something that I felt the need to jump onto. For a lot of people on the outside, you may feel as if you’re witnessing an overnight success, but it really hasn’t been the case. I know I’ve been putting in the hours to get to where I am, and I’ll continue to take such time to get to the top. I know I could be doing big capacity shows here there and everywhere, but I am still preparing myself for that level. The festivals that I have confirmed so far this year, such as the Places + Faces gig in Portugal, have all been events that make sense in line with where I’m at right now, I don’t feel a crazy sense of urgency to move at an unnecessary pace. I want any given viewer or fan to be presented with the very best Sainté experience, so when I’m ready to upsize and show the people what I’m on, I’ll do so.
What would your key message be to any young person trying to find a way into such a daunting industry as the music/creative scene?
I would say that the saying “don’t knock it till you try it is not crap. Me being from a small city like Leicester, I always believed that these celebrities who would spread such messages were just capping, like those people on TV who would say ‘stay in school kids!’, it’s like, we know you’re paid to say that! That said, over the past couple of years, that’s been a phrase that I’ve come to live by, because oftentimes you don’t even mean to stumble upon the passion around which your career will form. Cool, it may take a year, it may take 5 years, it makes take 10 years, for you to progress in the direction you desire – at the end of the day, it’s about remaining consistent and it’s about how much you really want it. Be patient. Use the example of someone like Central Cee, he’s been doing music for time, which is something a lot of his young fans aren’t aware of. People think his career started when he dropped Day in the Life and that couldn’t be further from reality. Learn to block out the noise and the scrutiny, and put all your energy into your craft. It’ll happen for you.
