Posts Tagged Saul Williams
Award-Winning Interview with Saul Williams
DJ Matt Werner’s award-winning interview with the ground-breaking poet, musician, and actor Saul Williams was recorded on November 21, 2008 and originally aired on Fresh Air: The Alternative on December 9, 2008.
Topics and ideas discussed in the interview include Saul Williams’ third album, the Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, collaborating with Trent Reznor, esoteric religions, William Butler Yeats, poetry as an intuitive artform, what is beyond words, Walt Whitman, how we are so much more than how we are perceived, and Barack Obama. This hour-long phone interview and feature on Saul Williams also features much of his poetry and music, including: Sha Clack Clack, Black Stacey, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Wine, Twice the First Time, Release, Amethyst Rocks, 1987, and Children of the Night.
A PDF transcript by Korin McGinty of this interview can be downloaded here.
You can download this podcast from iTunes by clicking here.
For more on Saul Williams, please visit http://saulwilliams.com.
(Right click and select “Save Link As” to download the large, 139 MB mp3 audio file)
Click on the player to listen to the hour-long phone interview and feature on Saul Williams.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Interview transcript with Saul Williams
Saul Williams Interview
with DJ Matt Werner on Fresh Air: The Alternative
http://freshair.org.uk, http://mattswriting.com
Phone interview recorded on November 21, 2008, show aired on December 9, 2008.
Transcript by Korin McGinty, edited by DJ Matt Werner
This transcript can be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here
The audio of DJ Matt Werner’s interview with Saul Williams can be found here
DJ MATT WERNER: Saul, I was wondering if you could come on the line now and discuss a little bit about your latest album Niggy Tardust.
SAUL WILLIAMS: Sure, well the name of the album is The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! And it’s a concept album where I am essentially exploring the idea and reality of liberation, of freedom, and what it means in the face of, or under the context of our existing definition of race, and how that relates to music and identity, and what have you.
It’s essentially a very danceable dialogue, you know, self-exploration, and the need to step beyond the boundaries imposed by society as far as what people come to expect of someone when they assume that they’re from a particular place or look a particular way or talk a particular way, or what have you. So yeah it’s basically me finding the freedom to just break out of my shell and make the music that I want to make regardless of the executive who says, “Well this doesn’t actually fit the formulaic mold of what we’re expecting from you, of what we would need in order to get this to these people over here.” It’s about just breaking those boundaries.
DJ MATT WERNER: How was it collaborating with Trent Reznor on the album?


