From Local Legend to Internet Icon: New Saint talks TikTok, latest EP and being “too much”
Photo credit: Rasha Jules l Blue Hour Magazine
I first came across New Saint on my TikTok For You Page back in 2022 — a cool, tatted-up Filipino cracking jokes with my exact sense of humour, who, to my surprise, lived in the same city as me. It was one of the rare times I genuinely felt represented online. Maybe this is just me writing about how much I appreciated this conversation with New Saint — the moniker of Ivo Santo — but as a young Filipino creative in Calgary, it meant something.
New Saint’s work is built on representation, reinvention, and raw honesty. More than just a rapper and producer, he weaves together a multidisciplinary background in design, cinematography, and even blacksmithing into a constantly evolving artistic practice. His latest EP, IF EVERYONE ELSE IS HAPPY WHY AREN’T YOU?, confronts the contrast between glorified wealth and lived poverty, drawing from real experiences of immigration, instability, and survival. Whether he’s performing in the back of a semi-truck or creating immersive visual art, New Saint refuses to be boxed in. We talked about creative evolution, community, TikTok chaos, and why embracing being “too much” is exactly the point.
REVERIE: Who is New Saint? How would you describe yourself and your sound?
Hi, I’m Ivo! I go by New Saint, a true artist at the core. I’ve worked in hella practices and crafts, from all things music to graphic design, to cinematography, editing, directing, and photography. I’m also a hobbyist game developer, business/marketing consultant, and meme-lord. And when I have time I like to forge and blacksmith knives and other cool stuff like that. New Saint allows me to culminate all of that into one big cohesive project across audio and visual mediums.
As for my sound? It’s gonna keep changing for sure, I get bored easily. But I’m a lover and appreciator of all things hip-hop/rap, my dream goal is to help create and push forward the culture, and contribute, pay homage to all the music that made me the artist I am today.
REVERIE: How does being a Filipino artist based in Calgary shape how you are as a creative?
When we first moved to Canada, I was around six years old. We stayed in this small Alberta town called Drumheller after living in Hong Kong. We were literally the only Asian family living there, I don’t even think they knew where or what the Philippines was at that point. Growing up and moving around, I was able to experience different cities. I noticed more and more Filipinos moving to Canada, and it was weird because, as much as I wanted to befriend them, I wasn’t able to relate as easily. To paraphrase that Earl Sweatshirt like, “too Asian for the white kids and too white for the Asians.” I’m sure a lot can relate now, but it was pretty lonely back then.
After graduating, I was living and going to school in Vancouver and was fronting an indie folk-rock band. We were doing well, even about to go on tour with The Lumineers, but a mental health crashout led me to quit music for a while and find a corporate graphic design job in Calgary to be closer to family. I experimented with EDM/IDM production under random online pseudonyms and started putting out vaporwave, mallsoft, and ambient albums. From then I started making lofi beats, and when no one wanted to rap on them, I decided to do it myself. Choose the name New Saint as a call-out to my early Roman Catholic school days and experience with religion. Fell in love with the local music scene and did my due diligence.
Now we’re here.
REVERIE: On your EP “IF EVERYONE ELSE IS HAPPY WHY AREN’T YOU?,” what themes did you want to explore on this release?
The biggest and most obvious theme in the EP are money and finances, and I did that intentionally with the early 2000s luxury/club rap-inspired sound to portray the reality of how we all glorify wealth while simultaneously romanticizing struggle and poverty. These aren’t “get money” anthems, they are survival mantras. They show the reality of growing up poor as fuck, and top of of that being an immigrant in a foreign country.
I’ve been homeless, I’ve lived in my car, crashed on couches, and never knew where I could lay my head down the next day. Everyone loves a rags-to-riches story, but there’s more truth in just trying to make it to the next paycheck. And that’s what IF EVERYONE ELSE IS HAPPY WHY AREN’T YOU? represents to me.
REVERIE: Do you have a favourite track from the EP?
“COME N GO” is a pure whimsy song for me, but my favourite and closest to my heart song will be “WALL2WALL,” a track that interpolates and almost parodies that one Oasis song. One of my friends nicknamed it “evil Wonderwall” because instead of begging for someone or some relationship to save me, the song reminds me that I have to save myself.
REVERIE: What’s the most memorable project or performance meaningful to you in your career?
I always like switching it up and creating entire experiences with my performances (ie. concert in the back of a semi-truck trailer/warehouse, performing in the middle of BLM protests for Model Minority, working with a performing clown, etc etc). But my all-time favourite is when I collaborated with local music pioneers, One Big Jam on a live performance recording of my EP, “ARTIFICIAL.” It was a four-month planning/set-up process in which we transformed their new headquarters into this cult-like performance ritual to portray the surveillance culture and transhumanist themes of the project.
We had projection mapping and lighting artists (shoutout Mapperz YYC) envelop the space, the super talented LOTUS CHROME as the guest performer, and the amazing SHATTERTHEFALL DJing the entire night. We then invited several local artists to help film the entire performance in a circle around me, all wearing black hoodies. There were a total of 12 cameras, plus a drone flown by OBJ’s Pardeep Sooch. Then, after the recording, all the footage was stitched and edited together to create one big video that was live-streamed and premiered on YouTube and the Globe Cinema.
Four months of planning, two rehearsal nights, and another two weeks of collecting and editing the footage, but the result and experience were all worth it.
REVERIE: What led you to become TikTok famous?
I don’t know exactly, I’ve had my gripes with the algorithm myself, but I guess it helps to be incredibly charming, funny, and authentic.
I remember getting clowned on and made fun of when I started making videos on there at first. I was trying to use it to promote my music, but I fell in love with the process of making stupid videos for fun. It was a lot of fun to just take myself less seriously for once, and TikTok was a fun, creative outlet. But I also realized that it was a great platform to speak out about my personal experiences and important causes, especially during COVID and the Asian hate era. This got me in the target of more extremist hate groups sending death threats and doxxing my information online, but I got stronger because of it.
Then one of my random videos hit 5M views. Folks said, “You got lucky, enjoy your 15 minutes.” Like Baby Keem said, “I netted 10 million then did a little dance. Then did it again. Then did it again.” 50 million views later, they started talking less and just watching quietly from the sidelines.
I’m still making videos for fun, but my message stays the same. Look out for each other and have empathy.
REVERIE: Any bands/artists you’d like to shout out?
Currently obsessed with Samara Cyn and BACKXWASH’s new record, but I always gotta shout out the locals; Oliver Throne, Nevik, Chloe, Jon Swan, Nick Wise, LOTUS CHROME, Skinny Local, artists I’ve had the privilege to call friends for years. Also lookout for Synthwrker, Colton Leaf, and Cherub Grove on the producing/DJing side, those kids are doing some crazy shit.
REVERIE: What’s up next for New Saint? Anything else planned for the rest of the year?
I just wanna keep creating and keep the momentum going, plus some more shows to announce eventually. Keep an eye out on my Instagram because there’s gonna be a lot this year!