Today we shine the Spotlight – Sahati. We got to sit down with this young artist to talk about music and the journey so far. The debut EP “Post Kid” introduces us all to her music styling and story. Check it out right now
Hidden Beats
We Are Story Tellers
New-wave musical artist Sahati is here with us today! Thank you for joining us today. To start us off would you like to introduce our readers?
Thanks for having me! I’m Sahati, an 18-year-old artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Kosovo, currently based in Toronto. This month I released my debut EP “post-kid” which encapsulates a journey of growth in this messy state of the world. I’ve always been in love with performing, whether it be in front of a crowd or just for myself, and in 2019 I got to open for Miley Cyrus at Sunny Hill Festival and partake in other North American festivals! I try to harness and expand my creative vision as holistically as possible, merging music with visuals, poetry, and other art forms.
I introduced you as a new-wave artist but what would you consider the genre of your music? Can be one or several.
I’d call it unbordered. I could give an approximate genre for each track – “anything” is alternative rock, “naten” is indie-bedroom-pop – but all together it’s a mix of raw, unspoiled, mosaic of sounds.
You dove headfirst into music from a young age. Was there ever a doubt in your mind that music wasn't what you were born to do?
I’ve always been so immersed in the arts that I didn’t have a chance to think about whether I’m going to do that or not because I was too busy doing it. If it wasn’t music, I was making short films, writing poetry about tragic characters I made up in my head, or choreographing a dance to Rihanna’s “Only Girl”. So I guess the answer is nope!
What is the first instrument you learned how to play? And the latest?
The first instrument I got my hands on was the “def”, a traditional Albanian rhythm drum. After that, I did 9 years of music public school for piano but I really disliked it. What really made me fall in love with music was the drums. I hadn’t seen a lot of women playing drums and I felt really discouraged, I got told to play a more feminine instrument and that I couldn’t make it as a girl. A year later I won 1st place in an International Drumming Competition and played as a drummer/rapper at festivals so I would love to get their input on how feminine that is. This year I started playing bass, and became the bassist for my band “Motel 67”, I love it.
When you compare your early inspirations to your inspirations now, how have they changed? Have they mirrored the growth in your own music?
What a great question! My earliest music influences have been the artists on the iPod that my cousin gave to me. I was 10 and had no idea how to use it, so I listened to my cousin’s library – mostly Gorillaz, Radiohead, and The Beatles. I guess that explains my love for genre-bending artists and experimental sounds. Lately, I’ve been indulging in female artists such as PJ Harvey, Luna Li, and Sylvia Plath, who are incredibly talented and completely unhinged. They’ve been a huge inspiration for being brutally honest with your art creations, and I hope to create art that makes someone feel the way I do with their work.
Now for the fun questions about getting into your new EP! This is your first album release how do you feel about fans' reactions so far?
So so great, it’s been taken incredibly well by listeners. The best comment I’ve gotten so far is that they can come back to the EP for a different mood each time. “Naten” is there to uplift you, “be with u” is there for you to cry with, and “stop wasting my time” is there to let your rage out. That’s exactly what I was hoping for people to take, I love that!
For a new listener of your music, what is the one takeaway you want them to remember from this EP?
“Post-kid” is here for you to be used as anything, as just musical wallpaper, or as support for you to go through this journey of growth and failure and joy and madness. There is no shame or limits to what you feel, and I encourage you to explore parts of yourself with parts of “post-kid”.
Tell us a bit about your collaboration with Molly Annelle for your second track. You can definitely hear their influence it is a huge stand out amongst the other songs.
“naten” is definitely one of my favorite tracks because both Selah and Molly did their magic on it. When I first heard it just made me want to dance, and as I was singing along to it I knew that Molly would just make it 100 times groovier. Her part was done right before she went back to Vancouver for a bit, and it took her like 30 minutes to write and record her whole part – including the melody and harmonies. She’s just brilliant, adding a Spanish verse to it made this track trilingual, which we both loved so much. It was high energy throughout the whole process of creating the track and I hope this can shine through when you listen to it.
You are a little jack of all trades from song-writing, to instrumentalist, to the singer to the producer. What is your favorite step in the music-making process? What is the hardest?
My favorite part is figuring out what a song is about. Most of my songs are about specific situations or moods, and it’s always so exciting to start writing lyrics for them. The hardest part for me is finishing a track since I get really distracted by creating new concepts all the time. Recently though I’ve been able to finish more songs since I’ve been expressing new ideas through short films too, which you’ll get to see soon on my Youtube channel.
Do you have a favorite song on the EP? Why?
I think “anything” is my favorite. It’s kind of mysterious to me because I totally forgot what I wrote the lyrics about initially, and now they’ve taken a different meaning, which I still really like. It also has an interesting structure when it comes to the bridge which I didn’t realize until after, and it inspired me to mess around with time signatures in my following projects.
The album cover art was taken in front of the TTC I recognize. Was it hard to get the timing just right? What was the idea for the location?
Yes! We were actually done with the photo shoot when I saw the TTC pass and just urged Ina (the photographer) to take one there as it passed. It was a single shot and the last of the film roll, and that ended up being the cover of the EP.
Where is the coolest place you have performed?
Definitely Sunny Hill Festival. Being in the same lineup as Miley Cyrus was really inspiring because I got to see a different side of the industry which felt so far away from me at the time. Getting to talk to Dua Lipa, ColeTrane, and other successful artists gave me perspective and made me sure that this is what I was meant to do. I know I’m going back there and to other festivals again, with more songs and improved performance. I’m ready.
How is your DJ career doing? Do you find it difficult to balance both or do your DJ and artist careers both contribute to the same goal?
My DJ career has been on a temporary hiatus because working on the EP has taken all of my focus, but now that it’s out in the world I’m definitely gonna go back to it. When I’m not performing my own songs, I love doing back-to-back sets with my DJ friends, and since I’m gonna be in Europe the entire summer that means I’ll be able to play lots of hard techno! Oh yeah!
Thank you so much for joining us today before heading out what is one fun fact you know?
Thank you so much for having me! One fun fact is that listening to “post-kid” is supposed to have scientifically proven people’s health, given that “stop wasting my time” is at 115 bpm, the perfect bpm for a run. Totally kidding. Or maybe not. I don’t really know any fun facts, but this was really fun!
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