Sound Up! Jay Saint
In this week’s Sound Up! feature, we are bringing you something positively sinful wrapped in a heavenly package with Jay Saint. The openly gay, R&B singer/songwriter is serving us bodies on bodies and queer, raw sex appeal in the form of taking no shit and not reliving the past.
The single “Basic” is bringing us anything but basic, as the nearly nude artist is bearing his chest, and his heart, in the track. Asking his lover why he is always pushing his buttons and treating him as if he will inflict the same indiscretions as his lover’s ex, Saint isn’t here for anything other than the hot nights and the sexy mornings.
“Why you always messing up my evenings?/ Just wanna hit the plan and f*ck til the morning”
Saint, fresh off his first full-length LP, ExCommitted, a collection of songs which navigate themes of love and war in a language that everyone can understand. The queer artist isn’t afraid to shy away from exploring his sensuality while also knowing that it ultimately takes a blend of catchy beats, honesty, and a bit of pure magic to get to the phase in his career which he’s truly ready for.
He got his first break in the music industry writing for artists at Bad Boy Records. This led to writing for Danity Kane’s second album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, which reached number one on the Billboard 200.
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“I remember going into a room and seeing all the writers … and I remember seeing this one writer because she wrote Beyonce’s ‘Halo,'” Saint said.
He went on, “Every time I wrote in that environment, I always thought about a climax, something that’s going to stick. That melody has to stick. If you didn’t remember anything, you would remember my chorus. She listened to the song that I wrote for the girls, and she loved it. Everyone had a hand in it, but I remember her asking who wrote the chorus, and of course I let her know. The chorus ended up being Danity Kane’s ‘Pretty Boy.’ I wrote a few other things, but that’s one of my proudest moments.”
Now having released his own, 11-track album in January, Saint is able to explore his own thoughts, opinions, and experiences and can allow his roots to really shine through his unique sound.
“The state that I was in when I wrote all of the records on this LP was a very vulnerable state,” Saint said. “The sound of this body of work is … you hear a lot of ‘island’ in my tone. I’m Caribbean and Haitian, and I wanted to have a lot of that influence in my music, but I didn’t want it to be on the nose. It’s a little bit of everything.”
The lead single “Push Away” is an island-infused bop proclaiming the end of a relationship and the realization that it’s time to share your love with a partner who truly deserves it. In “Basic,” it appears that Saint is ready to end it and move on to something bigger and better.
Now, get cozy, and turn that sound up for Jay Saint and his new video for the single “Basic.”
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