Santigold shares “Nothing” single + video

Santigold has given us another glimpse into the world of Spirituals, her fourth album due out September 9th, with the release of “Nothing“ and its accompanying video short. “Nothing” is Santigold at her most defiantly vulnerable. She shares, “Nothing is a song I wrote about invisibility. It’s a song for anyone who has not been seen, and for me it was an opportunity to explore how that feels. I wrote Nothing in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests, and in writing the lyrics I was able to release a heaviness that I did not know I was carrying. Being Black and being a woman, particularly one who has chosen the creative path that I have chosen, I have always felt invisible to a degree. People see only what they think they know, or what they think I should be. Or sometimes, they see nothing at all. This song is about the burden of existing beneath a veil of nothingness. And the strength it requires just to be, despite it.”

On the “Nothing” visuals, Santi adds, “This video vignette was inspired by a Wangechi Mutu image called Snake Eater. I had seen the image years ago and when I was thinking up visual ideas for this song, this piece came to mind. I loved the idea of a being that is woman but also beyond human in some way, and even unclassifiable. A being for whom there is no name, no category, who is totally unique, and fierce. I wanted to become this type of creature in this video because I don’t believe we have to know how to name or define what we’re seeing to accept that it exists, that it’s beautiful and powerful and worthy of being exactly what it is. How exciting to encounter a being so magnificent that it is beyond our imaginations. How exciting to find that that beast is living within you and to set it free.”

Wangechi Mutu’s video piece starring Santigold, The End of Everything, is currently on view in London until September 18th as part of the In the Black Fantastic exhibition exploring Afrofuturism at the Hayward Gallery. Read The Guardian’s five star review here.

Last month, Santigold announced The Holified Tour with dates across North America this fall. South African rapper, singer, and songwriter Sho Madjozi, whose music and visuals center the Tsonga culture, has been announced as support for the tour. Santigold’s tours are renowned not only for the adventurous setlists and performances, but also the integration of choreography, costuming, and other visual elements all created and curated by Santi. The Holified Tour is an opportunity to experience the world of Spirituals in person. Tickets information here, full dates below.

“Nothing” follows the release of “High Priestess” and “Ain’t Ready” from Spirituals. A fiercely innovative artist always looking to pioneer her own path, Spirituals is the first Santigold album released on her own label Little Jerk Records and it will be distributed by Secretly Distribution. The album captures the feeling of surviving in the modern world while elevating yourself to new places. It was mostly recorded during the 2020 lockdown and features producers and contributors: Rostam, Boys Noize, Dre Skull, P2J, Nick Zinner, SBTRKT, JakeOne, Illangelo, Doc McKinney, Psymun, Ricky Blaze, Lido, Ray Brady, and Ryan Olson.

Since her last full-length release, Santigold has also engaged new ways to express and release her ideas, allowing her greater range to be even truer to her creative intentions on her own terms. She created Spirituals as a multisensory experience that includes not only the music and video vignettes, but new ways of sharing her visual art, forthcoming small-batch natural skincare products, and a tea collection; the products bearing the same brand name, Spirituals. She will also be releasing a new podcast in which she interviews other artists and visionaries around some of the same themes explored in her music. Santigold has other literary, film and product lines in the works as well.“I want to continue branching out into all forms of art,” she says. “And I’m really excited to let my music take me to new places.”

While taking yourself to new places is core to Santigold’s outlook at this point in her impressive career, she has always been an artist who has charted new paths in the world of pop music and beyond, breaking down barriers of genre along the way, further cementing her as an essential artist when surveying the last two decades of popular culture at large.

The Holified Tour Dates

10/9: Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre
10/11: Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore
10/13: Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
10/16: Boston, MA @ House of Blues
10/17: Brooklyn, NY @ Great Hall at the Avant Gardner
10/19: Montreal, QUE @ Mtelus
10/21: Toronto, ONT @ The Danforth Music Hall
10/24: Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
10/25: St. Paul, MN @ Myth Live
11/3: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
11/5: San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
11/7: Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
11/8: Seattle, WA @ Showbox Sodo
11/10: Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
11/11: Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
11/13: Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
11/14: Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
11/16: Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
11/17: San Diego, CA @ Soma

Spirituals album artwork