DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR YOUR SECOND ALBUM ABOUT THE PRESSUREZZZZZZZZZ OF FAME

Santi White, aka Santogold, is hungover on the morning that we meet, having been up til 4am the night before celebrating the launch of her album in a tiny sweaty pub. She says she's "kinda fumbling through my interviews, talking in circles, distracted." We found her charming, funny and smart, talking a-mile-a-minute about everything from those "racist" hip-hop labels to why she won't mention her age. You can listen to the full, unedited 28-minute stream of the interview at the bottom, which also took in stuff we didn't have room for here: The Smiths, Nirvana, Devo, Joni Mitchell, staying healthy, trashy novels and the power of self-help books.

I read a review of your record which called it "uncommercial", which I thought was weird, because it's a complete pop album to me.

I agree. I think that people who say stuff like that are just not being very thoughtful, and that's exactly what my record goes against. It brings you outside the box you're used to being in and you have to open your eyes and look at it for what is, which is a pop record.

Every song on there is catchy.

Totally. The cool thing is that I was able to work in all these genres which are typically subcultural genres, like punk or dub or something, and then, by writing in a way that had hooks, make it accessible to everyone. So I think that person was being a little narrow-minded.

When I first started hearing about you I kept hearing about this amazing hip-hop or R&B artist. I was surprised when I heard you, because you're not like that at all.

It's racist (laughs). It's totally racist. Everyone is just so shocked that I don't like R&B. Are you shocked that Good Charlotte isn't into R&B? Why does R&B keep coming into my interviews? It's pissing me off. I didn't grow up as a big fan of R&B and, like, what is the big shocker? It's stupid. In the beginning I thought that was funny. I'm an 'MC', I'm a 'soul singer', I'm a 'dance hybrid artist'. And some guy said I looked like Kelly Rowland! I just thought it added to the mystery, because there was so much wrong stuff being written about me. It just added to the intrigue.

Are you still getting that now?

I'm not getting the comparisons as much. I knew that would be the case, but I thought, I'll wait until the record comes out and it will stand on its own and I can actually be Santogold for once.

Because the album's so eclectic, are people finding it hard to pin you down?

Yeah they are, and I love it. I love that they can't really do it, though they keep trying. Recently they've started printing my age a lot, which I don't tell. And the reason I don't tell – I mean I don't lie about my age and I'm not feeling any way about it. But I know that they do that because it's another way of putting you in a category, of putting you in a box – "this is what you can expect from a person, because she's…" It's just so stupid, so that's my battle. I'm not giving that information that you need to put me in a box. I just want to have it exist for what it is. And have it looked at from a fresh point.

This is how I am. When I go to movies, if I hear a movie's really good, and somebody tries to tell me what it's about, I'm like, "Don't tell me!" It's really good? Don't tell me what it's about. So I go and I have no idea what I'm about to watch. It's such a better experience. I don't know why people are so… why they feel this need to fit in. The other week, somebody came up to me and said, "So I don't really get it, this whole Santogold thing. Does it sound like MIA or does it not?" And I was like, do you really need me to tell you that? Figure it out for your fucking self.

Are you sick of the MIA thing?

No. I don't care. At first I was like, no I don't sound like… and now I don't care. They can call me Gwen Stefani, Nelly Furtado… whatever the fuck they want because once the record comes out, they won't be able to say that any more.

You've worked in so many different areas of the music industry, which seems like it might help prepare you for this.

I think I'm as prepared as I could have been. I've got loads of experience in different areas, like you said. I've done the business side, I've done the behind-the-scenes songwriting side, I've done the performing side and learned how to do it. But the part you can't have experience of is how fucking hectic it gets. The schedule has been gruelling. Still, I'm as prepared as I could be because I take care of my body and I know I need to eat right and I know I need to sleep. I've got this little crew that I hang out with and they're a bunch of babies and they're like "PARTY!" and then "I'm sick". They're realising it now, but there's a lot you can't be prepared for, so I'm bracing myself for that.

It sounds like you're in a good position to not be taken advantage of. If you were doing this at 21, how would it be different?

Oh god, it would be so different. I don't think I would have had the record I had, because I would have let everyone who came in the studio with an idea, do their idea. Especially working with a lot of men, you know. Men are brought up to be like, "I'm here! This is what we're doing!" I had to learn how to navigate those situations. I had to put my foot down so many times and be an asshole. Everyone against me. This whole band of boys going, "you're bugging. It sounds so much better like this." And me: "I don't like it." The key is to be really cool about it, and be like, "we're just gonna do it that way, and I'm just gonna do it myself." So as far as the label versus what I know is right, I put my foot down there.

Being experienced enough to stand up for yourself is a great gift. Like, in the States we shot a video for Creator and it was bad. The director didn't get the shots that we needed. And they were like, "get it done, get it done, we need it, we need it". And the video was not good enough for this song. And it's really important that it's good enough. They were like it's fine, and I was like, we're not gonna use it. And they were like, we just spent all this money. So we changed the single to LES, and had a video, and people loved it, and it worked. And that kind of thing is from experience of doing stuff that's wrong, and being beat down before.

Do you find that people respect you for making those kind of decisions?

I think so. I think that I have a reputation for being an absolute perfectionist and that can be kind of annoying.

The best artists have that, though. Dusty Springfield said that people called her a bitch, when she just wanted it to be right.

Exactly. And I also know that women are called a bitch way more – like a guy is "brilliant", "inspired", and a woman is difficult, a bitch. And before I was like, "I'm not a bitch". But now, OK, I'll be a bitch if I need to be. At the end of the day I'll be like, actually, I'm not a bitch. I'm really nice. Everybody who's actually cool, I've formed lasting relationships with. Switch and Diplo, I love them, and they're my friends. I really lucked out because so many of my musical peers are my best friends and I love them, so this is a really exciting time for me. I don't know what they say behind my back but mostly they're like, Santi really knows what she wants. And it comes out good.

I wanted to ask you if being confrontational was important. You've got a song like Shove It...

It's totally serious, but it's funny too. I like humour, and I hate preachy stuff, so like if I'm talking about something serious, it's just the way it comes out. It's my personality.

It's better that way anyway. Nobody likes being preached to.

And I hate people who take themselves too seriously. But I think that I can be kinda confrontational anyway, so it's not important that my music is confrontational, but it comes out as one of my personality traits. Not in bad way, it's just that if something's wrong, I can call it. Honesty is the most important thing in my music.

Press play to hear the full interview: