Santi is ready for the world of pop music, but is the world of pop music ready for Santi? He doesn’t really care, because he’s going to make space for himself, regardless. Santi—a Venezuelan-born Miami resident who already had his transformative New York years—is an unapologetic, self-described “super gay” pop star who isn’t afraid to make a splash. He embodies “move, I’m gay!” energy, but he’s wearing a jockstrap under a wedding dress while singing about his sugar daddy.
And while his work might seem designed to shock and titillate the straights, he also wants you to know that this is also just his point of view on the world. It’s his self-expression, and he could go even further if you dare him to.
We chatted with Santi ahead of the release party for his EP DADDY in Miami, where we gabbed about finding inspiration from Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears, high school fantasies and, yes, daddy issues.
SO.GAY: Hi, Santi! Are you excited for the release party for your new EP DADDY tonight?
Santi: Yes! After this, I’m gonna have to prepare a bunch of things. I have to sew one of my costumes for my daddy moment…
SO.GAY: Your daddy moment!
Santi: Yes, I have a daddy. He’s an amazing dancer and performer, and I have to sew his costume and just prepare a bunch of sh*t.
SO.GAY: What are you going to wear?
Santi: Actually, I’m going to wear a wedding dress, because I’m getting married. It’s our wedding celebration, and I bought this beautiful dress at a thrift store. I’m super, super excited about it. I was inspired mainly by Anna Nicole Smith, but also Madonna, of course. Like when Britney married Madonna at the VMAs… I loved that moment.
SO.GAY: Anna Nicole Smith being your inspiration makes sense, given that she married a daddy of her own.
Santi: She’s a real [one]. Like, she kept it real. She was like, “This is who I am, and I don’t care what you think about it.”
SO.GAY: Are you going to perform at the party?
Santi: I’m going to perform at the party, and I’m going to show my new video for “Bukkake.” I’m super excited about this video we shot in July. I directed it, and we produced it with not really a huge team.
SO.GAY: In the music video, you’re in a high school, you’re in a locker room… and given the title of the song, you’re kind of living out a lot of gay guys’ teenage fantasies.
Santi: It’s mainly inspired by Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time.” It’s kind of a tribute to that song and its iconic music video. When I made this song, I didn’t want it to sound dirty, but it is very dirty. I wanted it to sound fun, and I feel like most early 2000s songs were like that, where they were kind of innocent, but it’s like, “hit me one more time, baby!”
So I was really inspired by Britney, but a lot of us didn’t get to experience being gay in high school, so it’s really fun to create this world where we were all gay, living our best life in high school and just being our full selves. I didn’t have an American high school experience. I grew up in Venezuela, and it’s very different. It was a very different high school experience, so I was also just living out my general American high school fantasy. My younger self was definitely healed by it.
SO.GAY: I want to know a little bit more about taking so much inspiration from Britney. I’m a big Britney boy just like so many other gays and she’s such a gay icon. Why does she inspire you so much?
Santi: In my brain, you cannot play with her. I read her book, and it’s my favorite book. I relate a lot to her with everything that she went through and you can just tell when people are genuine and they love what they do. I grew up listening to Britney Spears, and she was a very important part of my life. I think she’s one of my favorite artists ever, and she’s the blueprint of pop music. I feel like when it comes to pop music, everybody wants to embody what Britney did, but what she had can never really be replicated because she’s Britney fucking Spears.
There’s also just not a lot of representation for gay male pop stars. I mean, maybe more so in the past five or 10 years, but before that the only one I remember was Adam Lambert. He was the first gay person I saw in the media. So, it was really exciting also to do this video inspired by a gay icon.
SO.GAY: And what you’re doing feels very gay. It’s very provocative and titillating and hot. Do you want people to have that reaction to your work? Are you going for shock and awe?
Santi: Yeah, because when I personally think of pop music, I think of things that are controversial but also create a conversation. Also, like, some people think things are controversial that I don’t. Like, to me, the “Bukkake” music video is very light, this is my PG version. I’m a Scorpio, so sex is a really big part of my life. I’m a very sexual person.
I lived in New York for a few years, and I always come back and forth between here [Miami] and New York, and there you live your experiences to a maximum and there’s so much freedom of sexual expression. But, yeah, having the element of controversy is important, because it’s daring to just go for it and it comes naturally to me — the sex part. I love sex. I don’t necessarily have as much sex as I would want. Like, I haven’t had sex in like a month. I’ve been working. But I love sex, and I love expressing my sexuality, because we’re fed all of this straight propaganda all of our lives.
Am I showing my sexuality because somebody else would be bothered by it? No. I’m gonna show what I am and what I like and the way that gay people are. No, I won’t represent every gay person, but I can represent myself, and I am a whore, and I love sex.
SO.GAY: So if you had it your way, would the “Bukkake” video feature a literal bukkake?
Santi: [Laughs] I wanted it to be super PG for YouTube or whatever, but we’re considering doing an OnlyFans version. We can figure something out. Honestly, I have a Polaroid — this is funny — because I went to this really crazy cabin birthday party, and it was just such a free experience. Somehow we all ended up naked, but it was not sexual. We’re just hanging out, and we were taking Polaroids, and we have all these crazy Polaroids of just us in the house, naked and there was a moment that I was like, “Bitch, I need to get a picture of me doing a bukkake.” So I have a picture of me getting a bukkake with everybody standing around me, and I actually put one of my friend’s dicks in my mouth a little bit. So, it looks very real, but we didn’t actually do one.
SO.GAY: Maybe you should include that Polaroid in the “Bukkake” OnlyFans package.
Santi: That picture will never see the light of day, okay? It’s funny because it’s not real. I wish it was real, but we were just having a good time.
SO.GAY: So, you‘re the So.Gay December cover star…I’d like to know what makes you so gay?
Santi: I’m so gay, literally, super gay. All of my friends are gay, and I feel like what makes us gay people so different is that we have a different approach to life, because we share similar experiences. So, I think my outlook on life is what makes me so gay, because we have a different point of view on life.
Being gay here in America is such a different experience, and it’s just so freeing to live yourself to the fullest and not be ashamed to do what’s natural to you. I respect the people that are the most authentic to themselves and have never changed anything about themselves throughout their whole lives. I think about gay people who were so gay and out in high school… they were always that way, and I have so much respect for them. Because for me, in high school, I never got to express myself to the fullest. I was always holding myself back. I was a little ashamed of myself and of who I was, but at this point in my life, I put out a more authentic self than I ever have. And I love that.
SO.GAY: Alright, let’s talk about your EP, DADDY. The song titles are amazing: “Daddy Issues,” “Bukkake,” “Papi Killer”… talk to us about the overall concept and how you want people to interact with and respond to the music.
Santi: It is just such a personal project for me, even though it’s pop music and meant to be taken with a grain of salt. It’s meant to be campy. It’s meant to be non-serious, but sometimes when I write things that are really unserious, those are still a reflection of myself. So I think of this as a little mirror to society, where the things that I’m suggesting might seem a little superficial or dumb are actual questions that I might ask and actual, meaningful conversations I might have with myself.
This project really started with the first song, “Daddy Issues.” That’s where the title of the project comes from, and where this whole world started. It’s obviously about daddy issues, because my father died when I was 10 years old. So, of course, I have the daddy issues, and I feel like the first song represents how I navigated my relationships with older men ever since I was growing up as a queer gay man, how my issues played into my relationships that I had with other people. I’ve always been surrounded by older men, even when I was like 18, I was hanging out with older men, so I feel like I had to grow up really fast.
So, yeah, I started with this really personal thing that I have never really talked about, and it’s something that might be one of my biggest traumas in my life — the death of my father. I’m posing these questions and this reflection of me that can also be a reflection of anybody else who asks themselves similar questions. That’s why I said it’s a mirror, and I want people to take it as they want. At the end of the day, people are going to listen to the music and experience it through their lens and through their outlook on life and how they live and what they’ve been through.
At the end of the day, this album is just a reflection of my point of view. We’re excited about it because it’s the first EP that I took my time with, and we really put a lot of a lot of love into it. I did it with my collaborator, this other collab EP with my producer, Sam J. Garfield, who really made all of this with me. I couldn’t have done it without him.
SO.GAY: I love that. Well, Santi, have fun tonight at your wedding—I mean, release party.
Santi: Thank you so much.
