Golden Wonder

Ms. Santi White is slowly waking up to the value of patience.

The young Brooklyn artist is currently in the studio, mixing her self-titled debut album, a project which has taken a very long time to surface for a number of reasons. Up until now, we have only been able to listen to Santogold, (White’s clever pseudonym), on MySpace or Mark Ronson’s playful Version record, covering The Jam’s ‘Pretty Green.’
Armed with a reggae tongue and influenced by everything from dub and electronica to hip-hop and new wave, Santogold is impossible to pigeon-hole into any one genre.
“Santogold is me. It’s a nickname that I’ve had since I was a kid,” she explains in a friendly voice. “This musical project is an attempt to create a mash-up of all the different influences that I have.”
Keeping her company in the studio have been John Hill, who previously played with her in punk outfit Stiffed, and an assortment of special guests including M.I.A.
“The majority of the material was me and John but then all of our friends… you know how it is, everybody’s in the studio and everyone’s so talented and wonderful so it’s like ‘hop on!’” she laughs. “So it ended up being sprinkled with all kinds of special little adornments!”
Santogold's best kept secret status went out the window last month when Rolling Stone made her one of their 10 acts to watch in 2008.
“I’m really excited and glad that people are in to what I’m doing and I'd love for the album to hurry up and come out so that they can actually hear the whole thing and not just stuff that’s on my MySpace!” she jokes, eager to simply get the record on CD shelves.
While such a complimentary comment would be the highlight of any young artist’s blossoming career, Santogold explains how it was supporting another special, slightly bigger female act, that made her year.
“I opened for Bjork at Madison Square Garden. It went great, I had a full band and it was a great show. That place holds 16,000 people or something like that. It was really exciting and the crowd sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me and everything!” she remembers, still giddy about the experience.
What can we expect from her debut album?
“I really want people to experience the music from their own individual perspective and with untainted expectations. Like, when I go see movies I don’t like to know what they’re about! Previews kind of ruin it for you because you know what to expect. If I were gonna’ hand my CD to someone and they asked me, I’d be like, 'It’s a surprise!’”

Santogold’s debut album is previewed on myspace.com/santogold