Openly gay and passionate about music, Jay Saint has never been one to shy away from intense expressiveness. This year, NewYork based R&B artist transforms the pains of heartbreak into ExCommitted, his latest album.
The emotive 11-track project is led by the lead single, Push Away, an island-infused bop proclaiming the end of a relationship and the realization that it’s time to share your love with a partner that truly deserves it. This single sets the tone for the sound of ExCommitted. The album is a confident, bass-filled vibe with hypnotic harmonies and breakup anthem worthy lyrics.
When asked about the album, Jay Saint said, “The state that I was in when I wrote all of the records on this LP was a very vulnerable state. The sound of this body of work is…you hear a lot of ‘island’ in my tone. I’m Caribbean and Haitian and I wanted to have a lot of that influence in my music, but I didn’t want it to be on the nose. It’s a little bit of everything.”
Speaking further about influences and skills, Jay Saint spoke about how his first break in the music industry; writing for music artists at Bad Boy Records, led to him being a contributing writer on Danity Kane’s second album Welcome to the Dollhouse, which reached number one on the Billboard 200. “I remember going into a room and seeing all the writers. I had been studying all the successful writers and I remember seeing this one writer because she wrote Beyonce’s Halo, he said. “Every time I wrote in that environment I always thought about a climax – something that’s going to stick. That melody has to stick. If you didn’t remember anything, you would remember my chorus. She listened to the song that I wrote for the girls and she loved it! Everyone had a hand in it, but I remember her asking who wrote the chorus and of course I let her know. The chorus ended up being Danity Kane’s Pretty Boy. I wrote a few other things, but that’s one of my proudest moments.
Having honed his writing skills, Jay Saint wrote every song on ExCommitted. It’s a testament to his talent and commitment to articulating his authentic self through his music.