Having started my career as a music/arts/culture writer up in Seattle, the Emerald City’s Afrofuturist artist Catherine Harris-White, AKA SassyBlack, has long been on my radar as someone I sought to cover and, eventually, interview. Harris-White’s musical alter ego makes space-age electronic soul that’s a breeding ground for radical self-love. The unapologetically Black and queer artist who studied jazz vocals and graduated from Cornish College of the Arts works the same vein as Lizzo’s self-care-focused Coconut Oil. On Ancient Mahogany Gold, Harris-White’s new LP as SassyBlack, she sometimes flirts with the idea of having a partner, but the object of her affection and protection is usually herself.
I recently fulfilled my destiny and spent some time on the phone with Harris-White, discussing her evolution, her creative process, and the many opportunities she’s seized on her journey to becoming a successful, self-made independent artist, starting with her time as one-half of the hip-hop/soul duo THEESatisfaction.
“Oh gosh, so much has changed, because when THEESatisfaction started I was really young,” says SassyBlack. “I had just graduated from college and I was like 21 going on 22, and I was just like still super fresh. I had been training to perform and I was in bands, so I had already been performing a ton, but I wasn’t super confident about performing by myself because I always leaned on other people. And that’s a typical thing for a vocalist: to just kind of lean on other people to kind of highlight what you do. Especially because I don’t have an instrument besides the one that lives in my body.”
