“I don’t make music for myself,” says Santigold in a press release announcing the tour. “I pay a lot of attention to that — making music that’s liked by more people than just myself. The 99¢ album cover features me shrink-wrapped among a cluttered mess of things — my life in a bag. It is about how everything is a packaged product for sale: how we package ourselves, our lives, our relationships.”
Santigold emerged in 2008 when her self-titled debut yielded the singles “L.E.S. Artistes” and “Creator”; she went for something darker with the follow-up, Master of My Make-Believe. Unlike those albums, 99¢ is more contemplative.
“I wanted to write some songs that felt very personal,” she says. “You could go around being annoyed all the time, or you can go, ‘This is crazy and actually funny.’ Then you can play around with it, and make great art,” she says. “This album has required me to be more open, less of a perfectionist. I realize that my work is a collage. And I can pretty much take that anywhere.”
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2016.
