Continuing our artists from South By SouthWest 2016, we ran into our old friend, singer Salt. We’ve seen him at every SXSW we’ve attended so far, always hustling his self produced music on the streets of Austin (and New Orleans apparently). We got the opportunity to interview Salt via Zoom as he traveled through New Orleans sharing his music on the soulful streets of Louisiana.
Check out the interview below, and find Salt online and in your city, at www.saltysalt.tv
M4B: How you doing?
Salt: Pretty good. I’m out here in New Orleans on the street, on my music. As you can see…
M4B: Pretty nice. I’ve never been out to New Orleans.
S: Really?
M4B: Yeah
S: It’s an incredible little city.
M4B: Yeah I’ve got to get out there.
S: Yeah. (laughs)
M4B: So I wanted to start out, if you could tell us a little bit about your project. A little bit on the background on you and what you do. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
S: Well, I’m a real artist. I’m a musician as well; I play all my instruments – I play bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, and um, I do hip hop-R&B, soul music. Put like three to four sounds and then create my style, plus pop. I’ve been doing this for like 12-13 years I’m an independent artist, and I’ve got fans all over the world. And um, I’ve probably met ten million people already through the streets; ’cause I started in Venice Beach, California.
M4B: Ok. Yeah, I love Venice.
S: Yeah. I’ve been pushing my music, all across the country now for the last 12 years, you know, just independently, doing it myself. Not waiting on nobody. Just proactive, pro marketing. Everything’s about doing it for yourself, and not waiting on the record labels. And doing what I have to do to get the word out, and just survive off of the music ’cause that’s what I love. So, figure out a way to make a living with my music without having to go work a 9 to 5, so I figured that out pretty much on my journey now, you know. But I’m working on some new music right now, new album, new video, new tour, new movement, and recently I moved to Las Vegas, so I’m in a real live capital for shows and stuff. So, just looking for the right people to network, and just keep going to the next level. Never satisfied. Its always about people stepping up and looking out for the next man. I always stay, you know, on the go, looking for the next big music festival so I can promote and talk to people that love music, so I’m just an independent boss who get it done regardless. I live the life of a rock star, but I’m all independent. And I’m loving it, you know, because I’m my own boss, I call my own shots, I go anywhere I want to in the world. In one month, I’ll be in Vancouver, Canada on the radio. And it’s all about being self motivated. You can’t wait on people. My motivation and my purpose in life is not to motivate. I’m here to inspire, to motivate and to create, that’s why I’m here. That’s what I do.
M4B: Nice. Ok.
S: I show other artists how to get up and get stuff done.
M4B: So how did you first get started making music? How old were you?
S: I was like about 18 years old. My dad, he bought me two keyboards, and I started a band. We was in Birmingham, AL. We started back there, years ago, in the 80’s. And uh just doing music as a young kid, and got lucky, got a song on the radio, on Power 106, and boom, moved over to California. Then I met everyone in the industry, you know. The biggest legends; Smokey Robinson, Norman Wittfield, Mark Davis, some of the biggest execs, some of the biggest producers in the game, I worked with them. But you know, the music industry is kind of shady, and everybody’s really just cold blooded, so a lot of people took advantage of my kindness, because you know I’m from Alabama, and they stole a lot of my music. So, it kind of gave me a bad taste for the industry, so I decided to go independent. And I’ve been independent ever since. I stay away from a lot of people that don’t really care about the artist, they just trying to take advantage of the artist and take everything that they have, ’cause most artists don’t know the business, you know what I mean.
M4B: Right. Very true. So, I always like to ask every artist, tell me about you – some of your favorite brands. I know you probably have some fans that want to get your look; want to look sexy and fly. What do they have to do to do that? What’s some of your favorite brands? What’s some of your favorite stuff to wear?
S: Actually, you know, I really don’t get too much in to brands. Other than, you know, Nike and Jordan, I like that kind of stuff. You know, Under Armour. Everything I wear is like white. As you can see me right now. I’m always in white. It’s hard to find brands that I can really relate to. I’m creating my own brand this year. I’ve got my own clothing line coming out. I like to wear white. I wear white everyday, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, so for me, it’s hard to find what I want. So I have to make it. So, you’re going to be looking for my brand. The salty-Salt brand. (laughs). Everybody’s always noticing – you’ve got all white, all white everything. That’s what – everyday all day. People recognize me all over the world. I’m here, literally, I’m walking around New Orleans today, and a guy walked up to me, ‘Salt you everywhere man. I saw you in Venice Beach, man you famous down there. All my friends wondering where you was at’. I’m like, ‘Man I can’t stay in one place too long.’ You know what I mean? I got to go see the world ’cause the world is so big and diverse, and I just have so much fun traveling. I knew the guy when I saw him I seen his face a million times in Venice Beach, California, so it’s just a beautiful – it’s like a reincarnation. I’m recreating myself everyday, you know cause they can’t get used to me in one market. I’m everywhere. Salt’s everywhere.
M4B: So what’s been the hardest or most difficult thing about what you do? What’s been your biggest struggle as an artist?
S: Um, just being away from my family. Being on the road all the time; different cities. Getting lonely. That’s about it. I like to stay focused. I don’t like to play around and stuff, I like to stay focused on what I really do, and just being by myself. Me, myself and I. That’s the only thing. Just loneliness.
M4B: I feel that. Do you have kids?
S: I got two kids. I got two beautiful kids. I got a beautiful wife, and they back in Las Vegas. They’ll see me in about five days or so. I’ve been gone for a while, but dad gotta go out and make it happen, you know. I love what I do so, it’s not really work for me. It’s like having fun.
M4B: I feel ya. Ok, so since we’re music for breakfast, I always like to ask what’s your jam to wake up to in the morning, like what do you like to listen to, when you first wake up, and what does your breakfast look like?
S: What do I like to listen to in the morning? It’d be some Prince. That’s one of my favorite artists in the world. Rest in peace to Prince. All the people that he inspired – I’m one of the people that really, I really loved Prince. So it’s been hard this whole week, since he passed away, I love listening to Prince music. I got his whole discography, and on top of that, the things I like to eat, you know I love my bacon. I sure love my McGriddles. I love the McDonalds McGriddles, you know with the cheese, sausage and egg on them, and some good old OJ (laughs). Some good orange juice.
M4B: Alright. Well that’s about it for us for today. Is there anything else you wanted to tell your fans?
S: Yeah be looking out for my new single dropping next month. Check out www.saltysalt.tv, and check out my new single, my release dates, and um, be looking out ’cause I got an incredible album getting ready to drop, hot new singles, videos dropping and uh, my fragrance line is dropping. Be looking out for me and you’ll see me in a city near you. And stay focused and keep working hard.
Find Salt online @: http://www.saltysalt.tv/
