Saul Williams – Interview – February 2011
By: Elliott Quantrill, Thomas Hannan
Ahead of his sell out appearance at the Rockfeedback gig held at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen a few weeks back, Saul Williams sat down with us to discuss his new album, poetry, and life as a continuing source of inspiration.
Rockfeedback: So Saul, what brings you to London?
Saul: Well I have a record coming out this year called Volcanic Sunlight. It’s coming from a different place, and it’s probably the record of mine that’s closest to my personality. I think I’ve exorcised a lot of my anger through my music in the past, whereas this time around this really just feels perfect. Tonight is our second show playing together as this band, and we’re just warming up for what will hopefully be a lot of shows.
Rockfeedback: Is the new record totally devoid of anger, then?
Saul: I can’t say that the album is calm, the thing is, it’s life. In poetry and music I have pointed out these angry things, but in life I have always maintained this attitude of everything was placed, everything in its time, the master has faith and a way of authority... Even this (interview) is happening for a reason. But I haven’t written from that place all the time. It’s called Volcanic Sunlight because the idea is that the sun and God is this force outside, a force that shines down on you. I like to think that he is this thing that comes from within, that you pull out and share with everyone, this light coming from the deepest source, welling up. And it’s the most fun I’ve had making an album.
Rockfeedback: Has working with a band so much changed the way you write or record?
Saul: To be honest I work more so with the band when I’m touring. When I’m making music I often spend time composing alone. It really just comes from realising the power and beauty within music and how music can help us transcribe so many ideas - what strings bring, and what tribal drums bring, and what African horns bring... We could put out a song with no words and people could say ‘this is a sad song, this is a happy song, this makes me feel like this’. I treat music making like that, and really try to apply my ear.
Rockfeedback: Is it that power within music that keeps drawing you back to it, when as an artist, you also work in so many other mediums – poetry, film...
Saul: Music is important. I’m reading a book right now called The Cosmic Circle, and that book right there is really talking about the connection between shamans and molecular biology, and how these people are essentially not having hallucinations, what they’re actually seeing is DNA and molecular biology. Those shamans talk about how you cannot interact with the spirit world without using it. On my last album I was wearing a lot of feathers (in the accompanying photos), and I was evoking this spirit of this modern day shaman, this person who can bring these worlds and ideas together, and before that it was important to do that pre performance ritual. I believe in music - so many musicians have changed my life. I remember one time when I was here in England and I was talking to Goldie maybe ten years ago, and he was making it his own personal intention to introduce me into drum and bass, and hey, I was never going to turn down Goldie. I remember he went up and put this record on and came on to the dance floor and just looked at me the whole time, pointing out the beat – I couldn’t even dance, he was just staring at me, but afterwards he took me outside and he said ‘I can hear your heart beat’, and he was like, ‘that’s drum and bass’.
Rockfeedback: Do you ever struggle for topics for your songs?
Saul: I mean, I don’t get writers block, I write music and I write words a lot. There are times were I'm much more into sitting at a piano than I am just sitting with my journal, and sometimes vice versa, and sometimes I do both.
Rockfeedback: Do topics often bridge your artistic mediums?
Saul: I think that poetry is often much more personal, whereas music is more universal, but those two combine easily. For instance, if I have a well in your backyard and you have a well in your backyard, we go to separate wells to get our water, that's personal. But the source of that water and where it comes from, the deeper down you dig, that’s universal. And so the topics aren’t really that different. Much of my work is personal, but I try to be conscious of what I'm sharing. That’s why I'm trying to find a universal way of sharing something that’s personal. With poetry I may be less concerned with that, but it’s all a way of sharing, and its cathartic, the music and the poetry - its cathartic.
Rockfeedback: What keeps you inspired, what keeps you wanting to write?
Saul: I’m inspired about in being in love. It’s a passion for life and being alive, that’s not something I have to work upon, it’s just there. So really it’s just a matter of staying in touch with that, but maybe that itself is something you work upon. I lived in New York, then LA and now I'm living in Paris, and I think it helps to move around. It’s good to self check every now and then, but overall I have no fear of losing that passion.
ExplainMyHeart / Saul Williams by Minimiss
Artists in this article: Saul Williams