In Conversation With #103 - Saint Saviour
Saint Saviour returns to the music world with her first album in six years with ‘Tomorrow Again’, an incredibly intimate and personal release that takes you on an empowering journey. She took a moment to talk to us about what happened in that six year gap and how the album came together.
Hey there! How are you? So the album is out now, how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Honest answer - it feels a little sad. I have had such a wonderful time releasing the singles but the album release seems to be the end of a campaign, and I can’t gig it, so really I feel a bit depressed that it’s ‘over’.
It is titled ‘Tomorrow Again’, does that hold a certain meaning to you?
Yes, the album represents a time in my life where I began to face my mortality. I had two babies and lost my mother in the space of three years, so I’ve been caught up thinking about my place in a series of cycles. It began when my mum died very suddenly, my daughter was just one, I was lost in new motherhood with no idea what I was doing, wondering if this is how my own mum felt, searching for answers in my memories of her. ‘Tomorrow Again’ felt like a good way to express what I’d come to feel was an inevitable rhythm I felt caught in, as if I’m just repeating not only my own patterns but also those of my mother. I’d like to break free from some of them.
It has been six years since your last album, what took you so long? And how does it differ from your other music?
Lots of things meant that it took a while. Initially after my first baby I had a bit of an internal struggle to reconnect with creativity. Then once that was unlocked it just took an age to fit recording sessions around a young baby, a day job, then another baby being born. I wrote it whilst pregnant with my second, recorded vocals until his feet were in my lungs, then finished recording and mixing once I could get him into a routine to feed and sleep in the studio. The album has been pulled together in a painstakingly slow and piecemeal manner and i think it’s all the more beautiful as a result.
Since your last album, you have become a mother. Do you feel that has influenced you this time when it came to writing this album?
Yes, profoundly so.
This album feels very personal, what are the key themes and influences?
Like any songwriter I guess I have just written about my experiences. It just so happens that this period of my life has been the heaviest one so far! It’s about me being forced to face up to my nature as an individual. Motherhood holds up a giant mirror to your fragility. The songs are about me trying to work through this and gather some new strength, which is why the music is actually more upbeat than my past work. Part of recovering from difficult experiences is holding on to the small moments of joy with all of your might. I am not someone to naturally do that, so these songs are my own personal reminder.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
An early morning cry
A river view stuck in my eye
Everybody told me you were all mine, all mine
But I had to get to know you
It’s from Rock Pools. It’s about the moment my daughter was born, in a room overlooking the Thames, and the odyssey that came next. It sums up the whole album. It’s still ongoing!
Now the album is out there, what next?
I’d like to do soundtracking. I’d love to do some music supervision. I’ll always write songs.