THE SAINT RUE

That’s where Love You Mad was born: not in the studio, but in the quiet rooms The Saint Rue avoided for years. It started as an early morning piano sketch at his father’s house, the kind of moment you only recognize as important when it’s already gone. The chords came first. Then the feeling. Then the phrase. For The Saint Rue, a multilingual Nigerian-American outsider raised between coasts and caught between genres, this song isn’t just a debut. “For me, it’s a reckoning. An admission. My truest musical statement, set to music.”

“It’s a love song, sure,” he says, “but not just romantic love. It’s about the things we leave unsaid - to our people, to ourselves, to the versions of us we are afraid to confront.”

Love You Mad feels like a love letter written by a 90s soul - restless, a little raw, and on the edge. It opens with a catchy, arpeggiated motif that runs through the soundscape from start to finish, carried by a voice that lives somewhere between Sunday soul and late-90s Britpop.

There’s a rhythmic looseness to the production, a kind of beautiful unpolish. The Saint Rue plays most of his compositions himself - piano, open-tuned guitar, fragments of strings. The sound draws on Radiohead’s vulnerability, Coldplay’s melodic sincerity, and layered harmonies befitting a classic soul band. Yet, it never stays in one place long enough to be easily named.

Songs aren’t references. They’re fingerprints.

The marks left by years of listening, wandering, and building something out of the many lives The Saint Rue has lived: children’s book author, lawyer, ghostwriter, designer.

“I don’t feel like my songs are trying to fix anything. Rather, they just sit beside you - meet you where you are.”

For The Saint Rue, music has always been a crucial bridge to greater meaning. A way to name the things we pretend not to notice - a long silence in a relationship, a memory that shows up uninvited, the ache for resolution that never really leaves.

But Love You Mad doesn’t come with answers. “It’s just what came out when everything else got quiet.”

“If someone listens to my music and feels a little more understood, more engaged with their surroundings, that’s enough,” he says. “That’s the only part that feels real to me.”

The Saint Rue was raised by two Nigerian parents who treated music the way some people treat religion - with reverence, but from a distance. Both were musically trained to a high level, but in a house where professionalism came first, music was always something you did on the side. A hobby.

The Saint Rue didn’t grow up thinking he’d be an artist. But the instruments were always there - the violin he studied as a kid, the piano in his father’s house, the tapes and CDs that filled the in-between hours. Gospel, jazz, Britpop, soul - each one became a place to escape to.

“Music felt like something I inherited,” he says. “Not in a clear way - just something I was supposed to carry, even if nobody told me how.”

With Love You Mad, what started as a voice memo turned into something fuller across time and state lines. In Austin, he tracked piano, synths, and bass with producer-engineer Justin Douglas at King Electric, joined by Corey Crawford on guitar. The rhythm section came alive in Denver with long-time collaborator Mike Mahan, who programmed the drums, added synth textures, and shaped the production alongside Rue.

The mix went to Nick Stetina in Chicago, a trusted set of ears with a musician’s instinct, and finally to Ruairi O’Flaherty at Nomograph in Los Angeles - a first-time collaborator whose mastering work sealed the track with clarity and restraint.

Through it all, The Saint Rue played most of what he could himself - not out of ego, but because he wanted to really feel the sound while the emotion was still close.

Once Love You Mad was finished, something clicked. The Saint Rue wasn’t just a name - it was a voice that had been waiting decades to be free.

What’s Next?

The Saint Rue isn’t in a rush. There’s no plan to flood the algorithm or force a sound that isn’t ready. Love You Mad is just the first note - something true enough to share, something that made it past doubt.

More songs will come. Maybe slowly, maybe all at once. But the goal isn’t speed. It’s resonance.

“I’d rather be someone people grow with,” he says. “That kind of artist. That kind of voice.”

“LOVE YOU MAD” - OUT NOW

The debut single from The Saint Rue blends post-Britpop textures with jazz-inflected chord changes and an aching, soulful vocal. Written on the family piano and produced in analog-inspired sessions, it’s a love song for the Napster era - nostalgic, buzzing, and impossible to forget.

Listen: https://ffm.bio/thesaintrue

Watch: Music video release on June 27, 2025

Press Assets: [Download Link – Cover Art, Logo]

ABOUT THE SAINT RUE

Post-Britpop. Alt-soul. Road-weathered romantic.

The Saint Rue is the sound of indie mixtapes and golden hour memories. Drawing on British alternative, 90s radio, and old soul, Rue delivers songs that feel both cinematic and intimate, songs written by an extroverted loner who has lived at birds-eye view of love.

Currently based between Los Angeles and Dallas, The Saint Rue trained as a classical violinist, composes on piano and guitar, and performs with the quiet confidence of someone who’s lived a few lives before stepping onto the stage.

FFO: Radiohead, Coldplay, Jeff Buckley, Pete Doherty, The National

Seeing The Saint Rue Live?

The Saint Rue’s live show is stripped, poetic, and immersive. For intimate shows, Rue mixes piano, open-tuned guitar, looped textures, and raw vocals. With a full band (drum, bassist, guitarist), the show is a full showcase of indie alternative Britpop. Perfect for listening rooms, indie venues, showcases, and unconventional stages (art galleries, rooftops, coastlines).

Looking to Book:

California: Malibu, Echo Park, Highland Park, Silverlake, San Francisco | East Coast: NYC, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. | South(west): Austin, Dallas, Albuquerque, Denver | Int’l: Stockholm, London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Florence, Berlin

Languages Spoken: French, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, German, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese