SAINT ∆ JAMES :
artist interview
S A I N T ∆ J A M E S is the brain child of Costa Mesa-based duo Loren Harris and David Denio. The pair come from dramatically diverse musical backgrounds and have come together with the intent of creating genre-proof, California vibes music that invigorates a sense of pride, inspiration, and outright defiance from their listeners.
After a delightfully energetic and soulful set filled with hip hop/R&B vibes in The Foundation Room in Anaheim’s House of Blues (5/6/17), I had the chance to pick the brains of these brand new and emerging artists to get a better grasp on who they are and what they do
Concert Updater: What can you tell us about your origins as artists? When did you begin getting more involved with music?
Loren: When I was 19 I got asked to sing in my first band but I’ve been singing my whole life since my family is from Detroit. My grandpa played in the circuit with BB king and all of them but as far as [David] and I go, we started in October of 2015 and we’ve been grinding ever since.
David: I got started with music when I was 20. A friend of mine had a band and needed a singer and I was like “I’ll do that shit” then I realized my voice is awful [laughs] but I was going more towards the creation side. Not having others make the music. I wanted to create it and that’s kind of where I went from there.
L: - He’s got a great mind for it for sure
CU: How did you guys meet?
L: Through some mutual friends. The guy I was in my first band with had little brothers. Those little brothers made a band and Dave was asked to play guitar for them.
D: Well it was actually a similar situation to our current set up as Saint James. I had a handful of songs written and I shared them with my good friend Adam aka Truth, he took a liking to the songs and asked if he could start writing to them. Next thing I know Adam put together a band and we were playing shows.
"A match made in heaven."
L: Then in 2015 they asked me to come out and jam as they were trying to start something new. They invited this cat but he didn’t show. But one of the guys said “If I were ever to start a band, I would get that guy Dave. The stuff he makes is just crazy” and I just needed to meet this cat. We were all the way in Ontario and it turns out that [Dave] lived just around the corner from my house. A match made in heaven. We sat down and had some tacos one night and shared some urban souls and influences and got started
CU: How did you meet your fellow band mates?
L: I was getting myself ready to be singing again so I got into a gospel choir and these gentlemen were playing bass and drums with them. So I made friends with them and let them know I had a project that I was working on and when the time came they dove in head first. They’re good men.
D: Not only good, they’re phenomenal.
CU: You’ve said before that you come from different musical backgrounds. What’s the chemistry there and what do each of you bring to the table?
D: I’m like the super obscure guy and Loren’s a bit more polished but we have a lot of shared influences as well. Growing up in Michigan I was around a lot of soul and Motown and Loren had a lot of family in Michigan too. So we share that.
L: There are a lot of shared connections but mostly, it’s the mentality. His mind just sees music with a different set of lenses. He sees colors and kicks and snares and I see emotions. The emotions I speak with are different than the emotions he creates with so trying to find a home for them is challenging but overcoming those challenges is what gives us our sound. It’s what gives us our identity.
CU: What would you say your biggest influences are?
D: Definitely A Tribe Called Quest on the hip sop side but there’s also all sorts of soul. SmokeeRobinson Is still a staple for me. A more relevant influence would be UMO’s [Unknown Mortal Orchestra] early stuff but there’s too much to list. My library is just ridiculously huge so to sum it up is really difficult.
L: The artists that shaped me when I was young were Rage Against The Machine, James Brown, Sublime and Incubus. They shaped me the most and made me want to create. But then now as I’ve grown up and started becoming a lyricist and a wordsmith it’s Jay Z, Kendrick, J Cole, Lauren Hill. They all touched me but there’s so much
D: I also should admit though that Modest Mouse is one as well. I probably listened to them for like three years straight with no breaks [laughs]
CU: Would you say that you have any influences outside of music? Such as literature, film or anything like that?
D: We can draw inspiration from almost anything really. For me I love colors, light, the way light shapes things, architecture, painting, and even other countries and other cultures.
L: Yeah culture is a huge influencer but there’s also film. Like the way Hanz Zimmer paints a film. There’s also E. E. Cummings and Alan Watts that really help me think outside the box.
CU: Do you have any activities outside of music that help you in your creative process?
L: Yeah, I ride my bicycle a lot and I also play basketball. Those are the two things that help exercise my creative process.
D: I definitely do enjoy exercise like hiking. But also switching up the routine is critical. Just breaking routine and breaking habits but also coming back to it. Keeping life fresh and having no standard approach to anything.
CU: What was your creative process for your latest EP, Rise? How did that all come together?
D: Loren was working with his guitarist from his old band then we got introduced and I just flipped the script a bit.
L: Yeah he did. Originally I had this vision about what I wanted to do and when I met Dave a lot of things changed as far as what was going to be next, where our sound was going to go and how far we could push the limits of creativity and what was going to happen when we started blending our vibes. There was a lot of smashing clay together. We’ll see what happens. For our next release we really want to evolve and shape it a lot more and polish it. It’s going to be wonderful.
D: We’ve had a lot of time to get to know each other a lot better but we still bump heads and it really adds to our creative process. It’s what makes us work harder for it.
CU: What would you say was the biggest challenge in writing Rise?
"...this is not an 'I' thing but it's actually an 'us' thing."
D: It was crazy because I was laid off from work which allowed me tons of time to build songs but we flip flopped a little bit.
L: For me the biggest challenge was being able to check my ego. Realizing that this is not an “I” thing but it’s actually an “us” thing. Turning “I” into “we” was challenging but as we started to trust each other it stopped being a problem.
D: Mine was kind of the same because I’m such a control freak with my music and we’re trying to do it together. I’ll be making a song and saying “This is exactly what I want” and Loren will come in and say he can’t really work with that. So I started to understand that and we started to flow together better.
CU: What’s your favorite song to play live?
D: I’d say “No Love”. “Lighthouse” is great too but “No Love” just has that bounce and groove. I had no idea that it was going to bring that much life to the room live.
CU: If you could attach one emotion or word to Rise, what would you choose?
D: One word to the record?...Mixtape [Both laugh]
CU: What is the significance of the pyramid in your logo? Where did that come from and what does it mean to you guys?
L: The pyramid is the goal and the legacy. The Pyramids of Giza were commissioned by pharaohs but built by slaves so who really owns them? The guy who decided to have them built or the hands that actually built it?...It’s something that’s monumental, it’s a legacy for those men that sweated their lives away to build that and it still stands today. So it’s a concept that says we want to build something that’s going to last forever and how do you do that? You have to do it with blood, sweat and tears.
D: It also shows the beauty and complete ugliness that’s involved with the building of it. It’s not just a beautiful landscape.
L: We had a choice and we decided that we needed to do something for ourselves and we wanted to make music. We both walked away from music but had an opportunity to come back. I always promised myself that if I ever got another shot, I was going to take it and this gentleman [Dave] helped me do that.
D: And Vice Versa
L: So the pyramid represents our legacy and how committed we are to it building it.
CU: In the track “Pyramid King” there are spoken word segments in the beginning and end of the track. Can you tell us who that is and when it was recorded?
L: That's my old man, my dad. He sent that to me about two months before we went into the studio last summer and it's based on another conversation we had about how he would want to be remembered.
CU: In those segments a student/teacher relationship is mentioned. If you’re the student then who is the teacher?
L: The teacher is always everything else. Since that’s what we ultimately learn from. "The teacher arrives when the student is ready..." ready to see the world as a teacher and start listening to what it's trying to say.
CU: The verses sound like a conversation between two people. Who are these people?
L: Old me and young me. I'm scolding myself for "killing time", making "empty promises" and investing myself into fleeting endeavors that ultimately don't help us out. In life we allow our experiences to either fortify us or decay us, build us up or tear us down. You always have a choice, you just gotta decide.
CU: How do the comments on the future at the end of the track relate to something as timeless as these metaphorical pyramids?
"The goal is ultimately not the pyramid but to build a journey toward the life you've always wanted to live."
L: Pop is telling us to be present. Not to cling to the past that you can't change or be anxious for a future that isn't even here yet. The present is the only point in time in which you can be effective. So live in the now and build as consistently as possible. If the goal was to build a pyramid we may never start for fear of the size of the project. So if I'm being present, I focus instead on laying one brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid and not until it's complete do I move forward. The goal is ultimately not the pyramid but to build a journey toward the life you've always wanted to live. And after all of that is said and done, perhaps it will be a life worth remembering. Perhaps after all those perfect bricks are laid we might just have our pyramid. You gotta take a shot to find out, right? Why the hell not?
CU: Lastly, what can we expect next from you guys?
L: A lot more soul, a lot more funk. We’re trying to push our own envelope and boundaries and settle in to what it is that we created. Imagine building a ship. It’s so hard but you’ll eventually get wind in the sail and let it go. That’s kind of where we are at right now. Our first record was just the foundation to build off of and we’re about to get wind in our sails and take off.
Their first part of their double album Rise is available to stream on iTunes, Tidal, Spotify, Amazon, and you can catch them LIVE in Utah for Alpine Days Festival on August 12th, presented by Steve Young!
REPORTING & PHOTOS BY
HECTOR VERGARA
