You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
Santi Gold is a singer, songwriter, and producer.
She's put out four albums since 2008,
and she's been featured as a collaborator on songs with Jay-Z, The Beastie Boys, Diplo, and more.
In this episode, Santi takes apart her song,
Ushers of the New World, from her 2022 album, Spirituals.
She made it with some other collaborators she's worked with before,
including Grammy-winning producer Rostam and producer Ricky Blaze.
She told me about how she tries to channel her gut instincts and how she wanted to transform some of the darkest feelings of 2020 into something galvanizing.
My name is Santi Gold.
This song started with an email from Ricky Blaze, who I first met through Diplo back in like 2010.
I remember Diplo being like, hey,
there's this young producer and he lives in Brooklyn, but his family's Jamaican.
And like, I think you really like his music.
So I met him and we ended up doing the song Disparate Youth together.
So I got an email and he was like, hey, here's some new tracks, let's check out.
And I was tired.
But for some reason, I was just like, let me just, before I go to bed, let me just hit play.