Know Your Saints: Saint Raymond, Saint Pepsi, and Saint Motel

From Saint Pepsi to Saint Raymond and Saint Motel, all of the sudden, there are a handful of bands that have Saint in their name. Why now? Who are they? Is there anything vaguely religious about their music? Have they earned the right to call themselves saints? Will their music save your soul? We investigate.

SAINT RAYMOND
Who: Callum Burrows
Where: Nottingham, England
Why: He once lived on a road called Saint Street and his grandfather’s name was Raymond.

This 19-year-old Brit has drawn lots of comparisons to Beatles-lookalike Jake Bugg, but their similarities stop at an ability to strum a guitar and sing into a microphone. Callum has dropped three EPs under the Saint Raymond moniker, the first of which he wrote and released independently. Now signed with Atlantic Records, he’s working on his debut album with Jacknife Lee, who’s produced for everyone from Two Door Cinema Club to Crystal Castles to One Direction.

Last spring, he hit the road with HAIM, and he just signed on to open for the European leg of Ed Sheeran’s Multiply Tour, which will put him in front of more than 400,000 people. In other words, he’s about to have an enormous fanbase of teenage girls who scream loudly and declare their undying love in strings of 140 characters.

SAINT PEPSI
Who: Ryan DeRobertis
Where: Farmingville, New York
Why: The name popped into his head while drinking a—you guessed it!—Pepsi.

This 21-year-old Boston College dropout makes electro-tinged feel-good pop. His sound is experimental, but also goes down easy. A tall order, sure, but we’re talking about the guy who managed to turn Carly Rae Jepsen’s candy-coated hit “Call Me Maybe” into a heartwrenching slow jam.(Seriously.)

For never releasing a studio album, Saint Pepsi has an impressively deep discography. But he just signed to Carpark Records, so his full-length debut will be coming soon. In the meantime, fire up his most recent, and most riveting, single (above).

SAINT MOTEL Who: Where: Why:

Casey Lewis is pretty at peace with these Saint bands. She’s on Twitter – @caseymlewis.

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Want more Saints?

Celebrate Making Out in the Summer with Saint Pepsi’s Remix of Teen’s “Not For Long”

Here’s Saint Pepsi’s Remix of Erik Hassle’s “Talk About It”