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| Interview Saul Williams |
| Some may be more familiar with Saul Williams, the poet. I was introduced to his muse from my guru who saw him live in Paris, France. He wouldn’t stop talkin’ about him! So, my curiosity got the best of me and I purchased the 2001 release, Amethyst Rock Star. To this day I play it as if it were dropped last week. The album’s format will stand the test of time and can truly never grow old. Saul is an author, was a character actor on UPN’s Girlfriends and has been a featured artist on the spoken word landmark performances of Slam. Still touring off of the seemingly never ending tour for his self-titled 2004, second release, Saul was kind enough to talk to us from Northern Europe, where he is the opening band slot for Nine Inch Nails. Just as The Dresden Dolls opened up for Trent here in the States, Saul, though a seasoned musician in his own right, is still an unfamiliar face to the audiences that flock to see NIN on a whole. Europeans’ more liberal acceptance of crossover genres is quite refreshing and should make for compatible bedfellows with Saul being in the fold. His dizzyingly clever words will have ‘em nicely mind-funked throughout the evening, surely to have the audience pondering way after NIN’s departure. Here’s just a minute glimpse into the man that is. |
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Erika: For our audience who may not be familiar with your muse, what would you want them to know about you right off?
Saul: (Laughs) Oh, I don’t know. (Long pause) Ummm… Erika: Or about your music, if that makes it easier. Saul: Okay. Ummm. (Kidlike) That’s still a hard question! Erika: (Laughs) We’ll come back to that one. We’ll do it this way. You’re busy as a writer, actor, and musician. What is your favorite outlet out of all your creative devices? Saul: Well, the through line between all the stuff that I do even with writing poetry is performance. As a poet I’m someone that lives to recite the work that I write. As an actor I like to perform, as a musician as well. That’s really part of the reason as to why I do music, it’s to have the opportunity to take the stage. (Laughs) It’s another means to performing. Performing is an amazing way in which to lose and find yourself and just have wonderful moments. Exhilarating moments and moments of clarity. It’s pretty powerful. Erika: Do you think you become another person when you’re performing? Saul: No, I don’t think I become another person. If anything, I would become a less inhibited me. Erika: That’s the perfect way of putting it. ‘Industrial Punk-Hop’, is that still an actuate description of your music? Saul: For those who need descriptions like that, yeah. It’s a true description of this album I think. Erika: How did you get hooked up with Trent to do the European leg of the tour? Saul: Trent turned out to be a fan. He told me last night, he saw the video for “List of Demands” and he loved it, he got the album and felt like it was one of the most inspiring albums he had ever heard. Erika: (In shock) Wow... Saul: This is what he said to me. He could’ve been lying. (Laughter) Erika: Oh, I’m sure he wasn’t. Saul: None the less, found it extremely inspiring and asked us to tour with him as a result. Erika: Have you been doing much touring where the music is concerned? Saul: Yeah, I’ve been touring almost non-stop with the music for almost a year now. When an album is being promoted I do. Aside from the poetry. Erika: Do you have any expectations for this tour? Saul: Um, no. It’s usually a matter of just having fun. As my man George Clinton would say, “Really try n’ pee on the audience.” (Laughter) Which just means, just knock ‘em dead! Just try and give knock out performances. Erika: So what does the future hold for you? Saul: Next thing that’s happening is that I have a new book of poetry that’s coming out in February. Which is called “The Deademcee Scolls”. I’ve been working on that for some time and just finished that. Then there’s going to be music that’s related to the book. Acting-wise, I don’t know, I haven’t been able to focus on the acting. I’ve been on the road. Erika: You’ve been so busy in these different arenas, how do you balance everything? Saul: I don’t know… Erika: You just do it, right? Saul: I just… do it! Erika: Do you conceptionally organize your music or is that something of an ongoing backlog of your work. Saul: Oh, I do it! Erika: Does it seem more organize when you do it that way. Do you have an idea that you might have to put on the backburner until you find something that’ll match it? Saul: Oh there’s always going to be a whole bunch of backburner stuff that’s half baked and I’m not excited about it enough to see it through to the end. ‘Maybe I’ll come back to it later.’ Stuff like that. Then there’s stuff that’s immediate. Like, ‘Oh, wow, I gotta form this like, tomorrow! Erika: How do you think your writing has changed over the years? Saul: I think you tend to take closer and closer looks into details or… I don’t think the writing has changed really, it’s how I’ve change. Perhaps, I may be more comfortable with speaking from a more honest place. So in those ways, the writing will reflect my growth. So my writing has changed for a number of years primarily just into the way I’ve grown. With just being more comfortable in my skin. Erika: What inspiration do you pull from? Saul: Um, all sorts of things from emotions such as love passion to good songs, good films, good books. I pull a lot from just my imagination as well. Pretty much based on the fact that I believe in it. That I believe in the power of the imagination. To envision something and watch it slowly become a reality. Through the process of holding onto that vision. Erika: And I noticed on your self titled album that you refer to family and friends as ‘Scorpions and Bears’ etc. what’s the meaning behind that? Saul: (Laughs slyly) Nothing. I just didn’t feel like putting people’s names down. I realized that half of the people I was talking about would know who I meant when I said certain animals. Cause of certain tattoos they had or zodiac signs or conversations we had or nicknames they have. I said you know what, I think I can go through everybody that I need to call out. Erika: See, here I thought it had some higher meaning. Saul: That’s what’s cool about it, I could be talking about some simple stuff and people could read so deeply into it and think that I’m brilliant! (Laughter) Erika: But you are brilliant anyway! Saul: Ha ha, REALLY?!? Erika: I’m here to tell ya. No, really, but I did hear that you have a strong sense of spirituality, what is attributed to that? Saul: I think that it has a lot to do with my upbringing. My father was a Baptist minister. I grew up in… I guess I don’t even know if it’s the same now [The “Baptist Faith” in general]. I’ve moved so far from the church I wouldn’t really know. But I know when I was growing up, the church, The Black Church. You know, when it was like that that was the closest thing that black people in America had to royalty. The pastor’s family-type shit. I grew up very much immersed in that culture. Fortunately for me, even though I became solely turned off by many aspects with the institution, I realized the power and the importance of prayer and a connection to… (Sigh) I’m tying to avoid the word ‘holy’. That which is sacred. Learning the importance of the spirit and learning the importance of love. Even in stepping away from the institution, and the religion, what that really did for me was heighten the spiritual essence of it all. The shell off the egg. The skin off the banana.(Laughter). Erika: Do you see “God” in people today? Saul: Where else would I see her? Erika: Do you have a mantra? Saul: Half the poems I write I think of as that. Those are my mantras. Erika: Mini speed round: Favorite punk rock band? Saul: Bad Brains. Erika: Favorite punk rock song? Saul: I like “Banded in D.C.” Erika: Do you have a favorite industrial band or song you like? Saul: Chrome. Erika: And the song? Saul: It has zombies in the title. [Zombie Warfare from the Half Machine Lip Moves/Alien Soundtracks] Erika: Even your liner notes are eloquently phrased. And yes, I did read the cd all the way through! [He laughs; The self titled cd itself has a 8 point font that circles around the cd with words of inspiration and such which has 1000+ words within] ‘When the clock strikes you today’, what will happen? Saul: Hopefully I’ll wake up! Erika: Do you have any personal messages for your fans? Saul: (Childlike) Hi guys! Erika: And so now that you’ve warmed-up, what do you what people to know about you? Saul: That I’m quite silly in my off time. And the majority of my time is my off time. And I actually came very close to doing stand up comedy. Erika: Really? Why didn’t you? Saul: It’s funny, I would’ve had the same story as Dave Chappelle, cause I was gonna start with ‘When I was fourteen…’! Damn! |
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| Visit www.saulwilliams.com to keep up to date with news and other tidbits of the workings of Saul. |
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| "If anything, I would become a less inhibited me." |
| 2004 release, Saul Williams |
| Interviewer: Erika Kristen Watt |