FEATURE: Spotlight: Zuzu — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight:

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox

Zuzu

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ALTHOUGH she is not a newcomer…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Bentley for NME

and has been in the industry for a while, I was keen to shine the spotlight on Liverpool’s Zuzu. I have been a fan of her music for a few years now. I am always looking out for what she is releasing and where her career is heading. She is a terrific artist who keeps evolving and delivering sensational music. I will finish with an interview from NME conducted recently that relates to an interesting project Zuzu has been involved with. Before that, as I do in these features, I want to go back in time and produce some background regarding Zuzu. I will drop in a few of her songs through this feature, though I would encourage people to check out her catalogue and follow her on social media (all the links are at the very end). Apologies if there is some repetition regarding Zuzu’s background. She was tipped by The Guardian back in 2018

“Cilla Black. Sonia. Sporty Spice. Heidi from the Sugababes. While pop was made in Liverpool’s image, there have been scant female voices carrying forth its lineage. That’s one reason why 23-year-old Zuzu – no other names offered – is so captivating. “I don’t speak the language nor the tong-guh,” she sings on All Good, her scouse accent flying as proudly as Courtney Barnett’s Australian brogue does in her songs. Like Barnett, Zuzu excels at the kind of guitar music that shifts easily from hangdog to heroism, though she has a stronger inclination towards pop – her choruses tend to light up like a match dropped in a box of fireworks. Beauty Queen, in particular, has that electrifying Taylor Swift thing.

A sci-fi enthusiast, Zuzu’s songwriting is littered with space references. Dark Blue, a rich, slumping rock song, starts out maudlin but vaults into an unexpectedly euphoric chorus about shared self-pitying tendencies: “Just like everybody else on the planet, we just fell from the sky and act as if we found it,” she sings. It’s the lead single from her next EP, which she’s self-recording despite signing to Virgin earlier this year.

Zuzu learned her craft as a lonely kid, filling time: she also directs her videos, makes comics and promises a Cardi B cover and Christmas single before the year’s up. Why stop at carrying the future of Liverpudlian pop?”.

I think it is important learning about an artist’s upbringing and early life in regards their music and current aspirations. It can provide the listener with something they might not get from the music. I feel Zuzu is a fascinating artist whose story and experiences will resonate with many others. In this interview from The Independent from back in 2019, we discover more about the amazing Zuzu:

“The ways of the south have always felt a little alien to Zuzu. When she was 13 years old, her family moved from Liverpool to Oxfordshire. “I went to school in Chipping Norton, and David Cameron was the local MP there, just to give you a little idea of the political setting,” she says, rolling her eyes. “And we were Scouse kids from the north. My accent was so much stronger than it is now.”

She was furious with her parents, writing in her teenage diary about how her life had been ruined. “It’s so melodramatic, but that’s how I felt at the time,” she says. “A lot of people were really welcoming, but it was just weird. Honestly, I’d never really hung out with anyone southern. I thought everyone who spoke in a southern accent was rich, automatically. I remember my dad having to say to me, ‘Not everyone’s rich, that’s just how they speak!’” Being a newfound teenager in an unfamiliar place wasn’t easy. “I had like, no friends, so I just played a lot of Sims, watched a lot of Hannah Montana, and played a lot of guitar.”

That’s how she got into music – and with a little help from her older brother. “He was really into Arctic Monkeys, The Libertines, Blink-182,” she recalls. “I just wanted to be him. And he joined a band and started playing bass, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna play guitar too.’ He left his band after a few weeks, but I was like, ‘Nah, I’m digging this!’”

She doesn’t quite know why she spent her early twenties denying her “undying love for pop music”. “When I was a kid, it was like, ‘Oh we’re emo,’ or ‘We listen to indie bands’,” she says. “There’s less of that now. People listen to trap, rock and pop in the same playlist. Those days are kind of done, and I’m glad about it. Does it drop hard? That’s what people really want. Like whatever you want. There’s no rules.” She takes a final swig from her bottle. “What a world. What a time to be alive”.

2019 was an important and big year for Zuzu. She released incredible songs like Get Off and Money Back. I will pull in a review of her 2020 E.P., How It Feels, a bit later – to me, it is her most compelling release, as she collates songs from previous years into this cohesive and incredible whole. I reckon we will see quite a bit more music from Zuzu before this year is through. She will be aching and despereate to get on the road and reach as many people as she can very soon.

Before coming up-to-date, there are other interviews that make for engaging reading. The Line of Best Fit’s chat from 2019 gives us more information and revelation from an artist, even then, who was turning heads and being talked about as a wonderful talent with a clear future:

“In addition to Blink-182, Zuzu grew up listening to The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys, bands loved by the older brother she idolised, and mid-noughties pop-punk queens like Pink and Avril Lavigne. "I went to see her when I was ten, too," she says of Lavigne. "But even people like Kelly Clarkson had a rockier edge back then, and they were very popular, so it all made me wanna pick up my guitar."

So she got her first guitar when she was 11, a "heart-shaped bass guitar that I still have", and taught herself to play in her bedroom. When her family moved down south the following year, she struggled to make friends at her new school, and music became a kind of salvation. "A lot of the time I was kind of alone and just in my room learning stuff," Zuzu recalls. "So that's really how I started learning music – just by the will of wanting to be able to sing and play songs.

"I was obsessed with all of my favourite songs and it wasn't enough for me just to be able to sing along. I wanted to be able to play the songs, too."

Zuzu was clearly super-talented and made inroads into the music industry pretty quickly, but says she "was still trying to please other people" at this stage in her career. "When I was 16 I was doing some really weird pop-punk songs... and it wasn't me," she continues. "You know, I'd kind of just go along with what [other] people wanted or saw in me. It's weird when you're a kid, because people don't very often, and certainly with me, they didn't give me the opportunity to even know what I wanted to be. They already had this image in their head of what they thought I should be."

Even though music feels like Zuzu's destiny, it's clearly taken a substantial amount of grit to make that destiny into a reality. "Even in those darkest moments, I was just, like, 'I've gotten this far, so I'm not gonna give in now,'" she adds. "I always had it in me that I gotta turn this shit around. And in a way, I'm glad I went through, like, all that stuff when I was younger because I know who I am now and I know what I want."

PHOTO CREDIT: Burak Cingi for The Line of Best Fit

Zuzu's tattoo inspirations

Diana Ross: "I adore Diana Ross – she inspires me so much with her stage presence. She's just so fabulous, you know? I love the way that she uses her arms when she performs; she's such an expressive singer and performer. And she has a really unique [vocal] tone which I also love and can relate to. I've covered "Where Did Our Love Go" – check out my Instagram. And I’m dying to see her live. One day soon I’ll make that happen.”

Emmeline Pankhurst: "She helped to win the vote for women in the UK, so every woman in the UK has her to thank in some way. She starved herself in prison as a protest and they force-fed her – and she was well into her sixties at that point. She's just badass, d'you know what I mean? Who wouldn't want a tattoo of Emmeline Pankhurst on them?"

Audrey Hepburn: "I loved her growing up; I idolised her. I thought she was just the most beautiful, kind, cool woman in the world. And she wasn't just gorgeous on the outside; she did so much good stuff for UNICEF and humanity and animals. She was just a top, top woman."

Her mum: "She's literally the reason I'm here and my best friend in the world. I adore my mum more than anything. And she’s so supportive of my music”.

There is so much to unpack and love when it comes to Zuzu – one reason why I included that section about her tattoo inspirations! There are a couple of 2020 interviews that are crucial to include before I move on to 2021. I am a little late to the game when it comes to spotlighting Zuzu. Last year, Spotlight highlighted her ahead of the release of the How It Feels E.P. This was conducted not long before the pandemic hit the U.K. You can feel the buzz Zuzu gets from audiences who come and see her play:

“The future superstar is set to release her new EP ‘How It Feels’ early next month, with a live streamed launch party no less, and we caught up with her before her final night of her recent UK tour.

This tour saw her come to Newcastle in a headline slot for the first time, after playing in support of Gerry Cinnamon and Yonaka across one weekend previously in 2019.

“Support tours are important obviously because you pick up new fans and get your music out to new people, but headline shows are sick because people are out there to hear you.”

She said, before adding:

“It’s mad, it’s like the crowd knows all the songs which is crazy. I didn’t expect them to know every single song. The only song they don’t know is the one that’s new so that’s incredible, people singing your song back to you.”

Still at the early stages of an inevitably huge career, the indie-pop artist’s personality comes across so easily. There is no disputing the fact that she is set on making the atmospheres at her gigs unforgettable, and this is assisted by meeting every fan after her shows up and down the UK:

“I’ve had an opportunity to meet everyone as well. Everyone who wants to stop and say hello, I’m there until the very last person because it means so much to me.”

How It Feels, her 2019 single, is one of a plethora of new releases in a short amount of time but there are still older songs only being released now after years of sitting on them, one of which being her most recent single ‘Skin and Bone’:

“Some of the older songs have been re-released and are being put out that I wrote when I was a bit younger.”

“The newest song I wrote when I was like 14, 15 but it took me a long time to work up the courage to put that one out. But some of them, like ‘How It Feels’, I wrote last year. ‘Money Back’ I wrote the year before and some of the new ones I’m playing now I wrote a few months back”.

I think my favourite song from How It Feels is the second track, Skin and Bones. It is hard to say why. It just hits me for a reason. Because of that, I want to source this interview - as some time is spent around that song and why it is so resonant and important:

“With a new single out, Skin and Bone, there was the obvious starting place for our conversation. If you have not heard it yet then Skin and Bone is definitely worth your time. The track feels more personal than previous Zuzu releases due to the more elegant, dream pop musical overture, yet when you look at lyrics to songs like Beauty Queen and Money Back they dig straight into your heart. “It’s way more personal and dark than anything I’ve released before for sure. I started writing this song when I was fourteen, and I only finished it when I started looking at it again last year. I’ve always had it there, but other people around me and the label heard me playing it and wanted to know why I’d never done this song before. It’s taken a lot of time for me to pluck up the courage to do it. It’s a weird way for me.

Zuzu 5“I was in a really intense mindset as a teenager, really intense, and looking back over that time and reading my diaries I was super emo. I had a lot going on in more ways than one. As well as all this, I was in the music industry at a very young age and people I dealt with then left me feeling trapped. It was a far too stressful time for a fourteen year old girl to be involved in

“But this song has always been there from that time onwards. I think it’s probably the first song that was written to try to put into words how I was feeling. That song was the first song that felt special to me because of what it was about. Weirdly though, as much as this song has been with me, it didn’t feel special or magical hearing back the full completed version. Especially with this one, when the record was done that was the time for the fear to set in. I start thinking ‘Oh my god, it’s going to be out there. What will people say? What will they be thinking? Am I going to have to answer questions about it?”

“It brings on a lot of anxiety to be honest with you. But you’ve got to be brave in life. And if I can be brave, hopefully it’ll encourage others to be brave too. This is what I want to do with my music. I’ve grown so much from then to now through this song and all the other songs that I’ve put out in the last year. I’ve gone from being shy and timid, only dressed in black to like a whole new person. I feel like myself now more than I have ever in my life. I did that through my music, and if it can do that for others too well…. I just want to give out Lizzo vibes to people. Self-worth for all”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ellisha Jade

This introspective, timid version of Zuzu is completely at odds to the young woman who has been blasting out and dominating on stage, and to the one I met at the front door of Motor Museum. “I still have moments of complete insecurity and panic just like everybody else. It’s important to accept and acknowledge those sides of yourself. I am confident when it comes to music and telling people how I feel and what I think. But we all have people in our lives who we respect and look up to, and the dynamics are different with those people. You have to allow yourself to feel both ways. It’s human. Some days you feel shit, and other days you feel like a fucking queen. And it doesn’t have to be days. You can change hour to hour. It’s the ebb and flow of being alive”Zuzu 4

Skin and Bone forms part of an EP due to be released soon. “Skin and Bone is one of two brand new songs on the EP, with the rest being singles that have come out in the last year. It’s called How It Feels which is obviously one of the songs on there. That’s one of my favourite songs, and it really encapsulates what all the songs during this period are about. It is how it feels to me. My friend’s dad once told me that people shouldn’t get upset if you tell them how something feels to you as you’re not attacking them, but explaining it from your perspective. All of these songs have made me feel something, or at the time I’ve been going through something”.

Just before coming to the 2021 interview/story, I am eager to spotlight this positive and insightful review of Zuzu’s E.P., How It Feels:

“Liverpool musician Zuzu released her debut EP ‘How It Feels’ this month and words cannot describe how good this EP is.

Since bursting out onto the scene in 2018 with debut single ‘Beauty Queen’, the gifted musician has crafted her spectacular grungy and melodic indie rock to perfection.

Hotly tipped as an ICM Ones To Watch 2020 artist, Zuzu confident, charming and charismatic in character as well as an accomplished songwriter, producer, director, actor and comic book illustrator; starring and orchestrating all her videos, recording a considerable amount of her music at her home studio in Liverpool to collecting vintage guitars.

Kicking off with ‘Cool With Me’, it’s one of Zuzu’s peppiest tracks with a penchant for Cardi B. It’s a cleverly written song about trying to break into the music industry when you don’t fit into a certain ‘box’.

Singles ‘Skin And Bone’ and ‘Get Off’ are personal, dark and super-snappy. Both tracks are meaningful and have been hiding in her music catalogue before they were released.

On ‘Get Off’, Zuzu said: “The sentiment of the song is about getting frustrated with other people’s judgements and criticism on how you choose to live your life… It’s me trying to speak my mind at a time when I felt super judged. It’s been an important song in my life for a long time and is just as relevant to me now as the day I wrote it.”

‘What You Want’ is a whirlwind ooh-ed harmonies, vivid riffs and heart-busting lyrics, Zuzu possesses a certain endearing oddity which manifests itself in all aspects of her art. Final track ‘How It Feels’ is an emphatic anthem that ventures into a slacker rock ethos.

Overall, How It Feels EP is boundary pushing for female musicians and guitar-based music. Zuzu’s concoction of styles and influences have put her above the rest. Filled with quick-witted lyricisms and hook-laden choruses Zuzu is certainly smashing 2020”.

This brings us to this year and a story that broke a couple of weeks ago. Not only have festivals been threatened this summer and there will be a deficit of big live events. Venues are also struggling and under threat. As NME reported, Zuzu contributed to a cover version in support of a very worthy cause close to the hearts of most music lovers:

“Zuzu is among the acts to have contributed to a new cover of The Farm‘s ‘All Together Now’ in aid of the Music Venue Trust’s #SaveOurVenues campaign – you can listen to it and read NME‘s interview with Zuzu below.

The Liverpool singer-songwriter, who opened this month’s Sefton park COVID pilot, joined The Lathums, Lottery Winners, Trampolene and more in recording a new version of the 1990 classic at Elevator Studios.

“There are so many cool musicians from Liverpool involved as well as it being for such a good cause so obviously I was down,” Zuzu told NME of the Artists United Collective song, proceeds from which go towards saving venues from closure post-coronavirus.

An enduring anthem of hope and union, ‘All Together Now’ was re-released by Everton F.C. when the club reached the 1995 FA Cup Final (they won 1-0 against Man Utd) and later re-emerged as part of England’s Euro 2004 campaign (we weren’t so lucky).

“My dad listens to that song: we’re big Evertonians and I guess he’s always associated it with Everton,” Zuzu said. “It’s a classic old Liverpool song by an old Liverpool band.”

While being inducted into the NME 100 at the start of 2020, Zuzu told us she was partial to “hug-pits” at her shows and getting up close and personal with fans – a concept sadly lost to the pandemic. How did she deal with this sudden change?

“I’ve been writing letters, I’ve got lots of pen pals now and there’s a very active group chat on Instagram with a bunch of people who listen to my music,” she told NME. “I know them all by name – I know their birthdays!

“It’s been really good because even though I haven’t had chance to physically hug anyone, I’ve actually gotten more of a chance to really get to know them than I think I would’ve if I was on the road and busy every day.”

Zuzu told NME that the first taste of her new material will emerge “very, very soon”, adding: “There’s something bigger coming afterwards and I’m putting out a big body of songs this year. I’m excited to get them out.

“It’s been a long time but I’ve just been busy writing and making some cool stuff.”

Meanwhile, Zuzu is set to perform at this summer’s Y Not, Neighbourhood Weekender, 110 Above Festival and Liverpool’s Festevol all-dayer”.

I am excited to see what arrives next for Zuzu. Yesterday, she announced via her Twitter that the first single from her debut album is arriving on Friday (11th June). The single is called Timing. She is such an engaging and fascinating artist who is not only carrying Liverpool in her blood. She is reaching the wider world and she has this amazing voice. Not only does it make her music so compelling. I feel she has this ambassadorial role regarding live music, venues and so many other important issues. Keep your ears peeled regarding new music and what Zuzu has up her sleeves. As one can hear from her previous tracks, she always delivers…