2 June 2017

Santino Le Saint is music’s brightest new chameleon

Genre-bending.

[S]antino Le Saint is an enigma. The 19-year-old multi-instrumentalist musician from South London defies categorisation, despite several comparisons to The Weeknd. “I feel like that’s happened because he doesn’t neatly fit into any one genre either,” he laughs.

Hailing from Brixton, Le Saint’s musical education began in a familiar place, the backseat of a family car. “My earliest memories of loving music are being with my dad driving to my grandma’s on the other side of the country when I was about seven,” he says. “We’d drive for three and a half hours listening to this one CD over and over again that was all old soul and rock, like Jimi Hendrix. After a while I knew every single song and I think that was when I really started singing and learning about music.”

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Fast forward a few years and the budding musician was putting covers on Soundlcoud, which was when he first started to consider music as more than just a hobby. “My dad is a musician, so it always felt like it was something that could happen, but it wasn’t until I was 16 a or so and doing covers that I made a conscious decision that I wanted to do it.”

“Growing up I don’t think I necessarily fit into any category I was the sportsman who sang, played guitar and skated which surprised people,” he says. “But I don’t want to force myself to be anything, or put myself or my music into a box, I want my music to feel as organic as possible, to just filter through me.”

Le Saint’s first two EPs were a period of growth for the musician, before releasing his first single “4AM” from his upcoming record. Atmospheric and moody, “4AM” blends Le Saint’s R&B vocals with heady wailing guitar solos, electronica and a healthy dose of dark-tinged soul. Melding genres like this can be tricky terrain for musicians, but Le Saint makes it seem easy – his past influences crashing together to create a debut single that is nothing short of epic.

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“My first EP was completely acoustic and over the years of releasing music I evolved as a person which definitely helped me as a musician,” he says. “I wrote about what was happening to me, how I felt but also stories that I felt like people could relate to. With that in mind as the EPs progressed everything else – my singing, production – seemed to get better and turned into a greater final product.”

“As a singer it’s easy to fall into the trap of writing love songs – which isn’t a bad thing – but I also think that as a singer it’s sometimes hard to push across certain motives in the way that say, a rapper can. As for the sound of my music I want to make everything I do organic to an extent, while still working hard. I used to listen to a lot of old soul and hip hop but then went through a heavy metal stage which I think shows on “4AM”. I’m just going to let my life journey take my music where it does. I’m up for experimenting too.”

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And it’s not just in his music that Le Saint is up for experiment. He is a founding member of CLOUD X, a music initiative that is eschewing the restraints of major labels in favour of a collective approach to music management, branding and artists. Le Saint is heavily involved in plans that involve signing and developing talent, art curation and nurturing film and fashion projects. There’s that multi tag again.

“With the speed that everything moves – in not just in music but in life too – it’s good to be around movements and like-minded people that can keep up and that all have the same vision,” he says. “I consider myself so lucky that I found the right people at the right time. Our minds works well together, from a business to a friendship level, which makes collaboration exciting. I think it’ll catch on too. People are starting to want to create groups and lifestyle themed brands, which is what we’re trying to do.”

First up though is more music, with a third EP on the horizon. “Musically I know what I want. I want to be reactionary. I want to see where things go, but ultimately I want to make loads of cool music that is cohesive, and that’s me.”

Follow Santino on Instagram @SantinoLaSaint.

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