Toronto, ON-based artist, Sahati has unveiled her debut EP, Post-Kid. At 18 years old, the singer and multi-instrumentalist from Kosovo brings a new take on teenagehood to the table. With no musical confinements in her process, Sahati’s music merges and alternates between new-wave, grrrl-riot punk and indie, Albanian and English.
On Post-Kid, Sahati collaborates with a variety of Toronto-based artists, such as Molly Annelle and Selah Weekes.
Check out the EP below, and find out more about Sahati via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Absolutely! I’m Sahati, an 18-year-old artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist from Kosovo, currently based in Toronto. After opening for Miley Cyrus at Sunny Hill Festival, I was inspired to harness and expand my creative vision as holistically as possible, merging music with visuals, poetry, and other art forms. Growing up, I didn’t get to see any women as drummers or producers, and that was the first spark in me that made me want to try music out professionally. Inspired by genre-bending artists such as Gorillaz, Murakami, and Ina Bicaj, I love to work with different artists and styles. My current favorite project is the second track on my EP – a collaboration with Molly Annelle and Selah Weekes, called “natën”.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
“Post-kid”, my debut EP, is a musical mosaic of indie rock, Albanian rap, as well as angsty hard punk that embodies my teenage experience. There are a lot of ups and downs when you’re growing up, and the way I was able to embrace that was through creating these tracks. What inspired “post-kid” was being part of my band Motel 67, playing for other artists, and seeing the different processes that other creatives have. Each song had a different story of how it came to be and I think you can tell in the way that each track sounds.
When it comes to the global pandemic, how are you keeping yourself out in the public eye while not being able to perform?
I started doing song covers on my instagram and tiktok which connected me to a lot of people that were bored during quarantine. Being online a lot though, I noticed how it’s only a small portion of an artist’s life that is shown and romanticized. It sparked this inspiration to share my raw process as an artist. To capture even the moments where it’s actually just long periods of time of just sitting down and repeating the same chord progression over and over again. By sharing these moments on Instagram stories, lives, and YouTube videos, I kept the connections with my friends and new listeners still thriving.
Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so if you were able to work with ONE fellow Canadian artist, alive or dead, who would you choose?
100% Luna Li, she’s such a huge inspiration as a multi-instrumentalist, style icon, and a brilliant songwriter. She was the reason I started doing my multi-instrument covers because I genuinely didn’t know what that would look like before I found her. I think she’s already doing amazing things.
What’s your goal for 2022?
My biggest goal is to inspire at least 1 person to be more comfortable with themselves. I’m still trying to get there fully myself, but spending time alone, learning your strengths and weaknesses, and embracing those is definitely the way to go. Hopefully, on the way, I can collaborate with Billie Eilish, and Kaytranada, grab a few Grammy’s, have a top-charting album, make a film, buy a horse and become fluent in French – but that’s all optional.