ON THE RISE
Emerging hip-hop artist, Saint Tatum shines light on his truth in his latest EP, Are You Awake Yet. The young rapper seeks connection with listeners by telling his stories authentically—and set to a solid beat.
Hailing from eastern Canada and raised across multiple households, Saint Tatum is a bold storyteller eager to share his stories with the world. At only 16 years old, he is on track to continue developing his unique sound as he puts out EP after EP.
Even when he’s at school, Saint Tatum is thinking up his next hit. “During free time, I’m trying to find my next beat and write my lyrics to that beat. I don’t really stop at school. I just like doing music.”
“I want to spread my love and all good intentions as other artists have done for me,” adds Saint Tatum, who is set on creating a style uniquely his own. He finds inspiration in hip hop, particularly mumble rap, but his homegrown sound infuses a variety of styles.
Saint Tatum has loved music for as long as he can remember; the confidence to make his own, however, took time to develop. “I never thought I had talent because I didn’t like my voice. But then I came to a point where I realized that everyone has their own voice and a different way to tell stories. You’ve just got to find it.”
When it comes to crafting his songs, Saint Tatum always starts with the beat. “I don’t write unless I hear the melody,” shares Saint Tatum. “It comes from my heart—it’s authentic. I have inspirations but I try and sound the furthest away from them and more of what I sound like—more like myself.”
Currently, he produces his music from a home studio. Working with a MacBook and Focusrite Scarlett Interface, Saint Tatum captures his sound and produces each track. As for software, he prefers BandLab because of one effect he loves using time and time again.
Saint Tatum’s new EP, Are You Awake Yet, contains six self-produced tracks. “I think they have their own sound. They’re similar, but not all have the same vibe—there’s different emotions to them.”
The first two tracks, “The Mirage” and “Love It Like That” have what Saint Tatum calls a “more nonchalant vibe.” “The Spot” explores a more psychedelic sound, leaning on vocal effects to set it apart. “Abominal” returns to the “nonchalant” chill of earlier tracks.
Saint Tatum’s favorite track of the bunch, “Don’t Ask Me Why,” is based off pure emotion. “I layered my voice with a negative state of mind. Every time I listen to it, I can feel it,” explains the artist.
In terms of sound, “Pretty Boy Life” shares a similar beat with “The Mirage” and “Love It Like That,” which has become a fan favorite. Overall, Saint Tatum’s voice and musicality ring true across all tracks.
“I want listeners to feel connected when they listen to my songs,” tells Saint Tatum. “When I listen to songs, it’s like some artists are explaining your life. They’re relatable. I want that relatability. Not everyone will feel that way, but certain people will see we’re the same.”
Ultimately, Saint Tatum wants listeners to know he’s made a community for them. “Feel free to check it out and see if it’s a space you resonate with,” he adds. “You can’t know about me unless you want to find out what the space is like.”
Make sure to stay connected to Saint Tatum on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
ON THE RISE
As Belle & Sebastian share their buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, frontman Stuart Murdoch has spoken to NME about capturing the feeling back home and his hopes for the team since childhood.
Released today (Tuesday June 2), the Scottish indie heroes’ bid for their nation’s tournament anthem was written after the team’s surprise 4-2 qualifying win against Denmark.
“I felt like we were watching history in the moment, like the hand of God from the old National Lottery adverts was pointing at us,” Murdoch told NME about that game-changing victory. “It was meant to be. Scotland aren’t a terrific team and Denmark are better, but it just felt that day that Scotland were destined to win. Three out of the four goals were things of beauty.”
Produced by and co-written with Pete Ferguson and premiered at the band’s recent London Royal Albert Hall show as part of the anniversary tour for their classic first two albums ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, the soaring song is intrinsically Belle & Sebastian as it morphs from a hymn to a an orchestral disco jam as Murdoch sings of a nation’s hopes and his own boyhood dreams.
NME spoke to Murdoch from the band’s North American tour, where we found him in a graveyard in Texas. “I was just looking for a park because Austin is a pretty scary place downtown now, so I’ve ended up in the Texas Cemetery,” he shared via Zoom.
Was there anyone famous buried there?
“I was looking around and I found the founder of Austin City Limits, which is pretty cool as that’s where we’re playing tonight. I’m looking at one now and it just says, ‘Martin: he loved the law’. Then underneath it says, ‘Billie Louise: she loved the lawyer’.”
We joke that there’s the opening to a Belle & Sebastian song if there ever there was one. “It’s great! It’s given me inspiration.”
For now, read the rest of interview with Murdoch below as he tells us about Scotland’s chances, 30 years of hurt, if fans will be singing it at the top of their lungs in Canada, the US and Mexico this summer, and what’s next for the band.
NME: Hello Stuart. Here we are with ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ Who needs three?
Stuart Murdoch: “Who needs three? Good question. I wouldn’t know!”
What’s the mood been like in Scotland since you qualified?
“It’s funny. I’ve noticed this everywhere: with the World Cup there’s a mixture of cynicism and anticipation. When the actual tournament starts, everyone will get excited about it. Because of FIFA, the peace prize, the ticket prices, people seem quite down about it. I found that in Mexico. They were quite fed up with the general hype about it. I’m in the States just now and you shouldn’t believe all the hype: people are people. The States are just as ‘great’ as ever. We love coming here, we love the cities. The general sense of North American optimism will make for a good tournament.”
“With Scotland though, people will definitely be excited about it. You have to understand, it’s been 30 years since Scotland qualified so I think everybody and their dog has written a song for the team.”
How do you meet the challenge of penning a World Cup anthem, when there have been so many legendary bangers and absolutely shite duds?
“I never planned it. I woke up with a tune in my head and a feeling. That’s the way it should always be for songs. I couldn’t control myself and it was quite straight-forward. I wrote this initial bit about how I felt about the current World Cup team and the qualifying game. It was more introspective.
“When it starts off with, ‘The days are dark and long…’, it’s just my general feeling about football. I’ve been going to see my own team quite a lot recently. It’s my little anthem for how I feel about football and following Scotland for the last 50 years, just the ups and downs. It’s quite a heartfelt thing. When I was eight or nine, the Scottish team meant so much to me, it the thing I was most invested in. There’s a line in there about how I used to memorise the whole squad before ‘78 and 82.”
Tell us about lyric: “This is Scotland, where everyone knows you start with nothing… where you can join an army for peace”…
“My wife made the video for it and she said, ‘I’m not sure I like that line about everyone starting with nothing’. Our first game is against Haiti and they really have nothing. Their country is pretty poor and they’re going through hard times. It was almost a throwaway line and I’m not sure what I meant by it, but in a footballing sense every game starts with nothing. Even if it’s against Brazil, you’ve always got a chance!
“The army refers to The Tartan Army, which has really been quite a remarkable institution for the past 30 years. We changed from drunken buffoons that used to wreck things to this excellent supporting brigade.”
It’s not your standard football sing-along. Can you see it being sung in the terraces?
“I’m not sure, I didn’t cynically design it for that. Many people have said to me in the past, ‘None of your songs have a chorus, you need to write one’. ‘This is Scotland’ is a chorus! They things need to happen organically. I’m sure the fans will still be singing ‘Yes sir, I can boogie’ for years to come.”
What do you actually think of Scotland’s chances right now?
“With the last Euros, they maybe got stage fright or didn’t have that tournament experience. I think Andy Robertson [captain] will be telling them, ‘We really need to produce our best stuff’. If they do and we see them actually playing football, then I don’t really care about the results that much. I just want to see Scotland exceeding our expectations of them. That Denmark game was so crazy that everything after just feels like a bonus.”
If miracles do happen and Scotland make it to the final, how will you celebrate? A free gig in Glasgow?
“Of course, yes! Free everything. If we even got close, I think the whole country would shut down for a year and the GDP would drop. We’d go into a massive recession but no one would care.
“We were playing a gig in Mexico City and I told the crowd, ‘It’s you and us, Mexico and Scotland in the final’. Mexico have never really got close either. I told them it would be five goals a piece, even after everyone takes a penalty and we have to share the trophy. I would settle for that.”
You released two albums in quick succession with 2022’s ‘A Bit of Previous’, 2023’s ‘Late Developers’ and then your debut novel Nobody’s Empire in 2024. You’ve been busy! Is there any progress on new material?
“We went through a period where we recorded a lot and we said, ‘Let’s not record for a while and give ourselves a couple of cycles off’. We’re doing these 30th anniversary shows so we’re just going to lean on the back catalogue and cruise for a while. We’re doing a year on and a year off so everyone can focus on different things.
We’re not looking at new Belles stuff for a while. I’m meant to be developing Nobody’s Empire into a film, so that’s my next task. It’s a long way off from being made but I’m going to write the script for that.”
Scotland’s first World Cup tournament match is against Haiti on Sunday June 14, before they go on to play Morocco on Friday June 19 and Brazil on Wednesday June 24.
The band’s ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ anniversary tour continues throughout the summer, performing the iconic albums in full during across the UK, Europe, North America, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Japan. Visit here for tickets and more information.
