FEATURE: Spotlight: Zsela — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Luke Abby

Zsela

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THERE is quite a lot…

that I need to pack into this feature about Zsela (Zsela Thompson). She is an artist I discovered recently who, by all accounts, had a busy 2020. It was not an ideal year to release a debut E.P., Ache of Victory - but it received a lot of attention and brought joy to so many people. I am going to get to a couple of reviews of that E.P. Before that, I want to quote a few interviews. The first interview if from The New York Times is from April of last year:

“Zsela has been in no rush to release her music. Her debut EP, “Ache of Victory,” is due on Friday, yet she has been tinkering with its five songs for years. It arrives not as a sampler of possibilities, but as a single-minded statement: a group of songs that are emotive yet elusive, slow but infused with undulating motion, at once earthy and otherworldly. Her voice clings to her melodies like liquefied amber, in a low, striking contralto range.

Zsela, 25, came only hesitantly to performing her songs, although she grew up surrounded by music and the arts. Her father is Marc Anthony Thompson, a songwriter who has been recording since the 1980s under his own name and as Chocolate Genius (and with whom Zsela has lately been singing live on Instagram); the actress Tessa Thompson is her half sister. Her mother, the fine art photographer Kate Sterlin, came up with Zsela’s name, which is pronounced ZHAY-lah; she took the first syllable from the glamorous-sounding Zsa Zsa Gabor. When Zsela asks her mother what it means, “It’s always changing,” she said. “It just is.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Gioncarlo Valentine for The New York Times

Zsela was a shy child who avoided singing in front of anyone, though she wrote songs with a guitar. Her parents urged her to go to college, and she attended SUNY Purchase, where she studied studio composition and production before deciding to drop out. She moved to New York City and started writing and recording songs, collaging snippets of words and music. “I have this whole bank of lyrics, and they’re from different times and they’re from different things,” she said. “So drawing from it is telling a story that’s not like linear time at all.”

For a while, she recalled, “I was not sharing them with anyone. None of my friends that I would hang out with knew that I could sing.”

Still, her secret slipped out. One friend sent her demos to her future manager, who arranged for Zsela to meet a producer, Daniel Aged, who has also worked with Frank Ocean and FKA twigs. She visited his home studio, he started noodling on a baritone guitar and “eventually she started to sing,” he said by phone from Los Angeles.

“I was immediately touched by the sound of her voice,” he said. “I heard a command, a certainty in her voice, a strength. Obviously she has an amazing tone, vocally and everything, but just the intention around the melodies and around the words is what really touched me. There’s certain singers, the tone of them — it feels good to my heart.”

They began the lengthy process of refining Zsela’s songs into recordings, painstakingly constructing them from the top down. Zsela and Aged sought out the harmonies and instrumentation to cradle her melodies and lyrics. “He was giving me the space to take control and find my voice,” she said. “Through the whole process it was like, ‘Oh God, this is what I wanted to do.’ But I still was like slow and steady with the music, ’cause I was like, ‘If I’ve waited this long before I put something out, I’ll just dig into this and have it be the best that I can make it.’”

The tracks they built rely on imperturbably sustained keyboards, layers of Zsela’s voice in unison and harmony, subdued electronic percussion and myriad near-subliminal sounds. They tried various tempos but eventually decided that the songs all worked best at an almost monolithically slow pace. In February 2019, they finally declared one finished, and released “Noise,” which contemplates “packing up the pieces of a broken love affair,” as a single and video.

Zsela had also started playing her music live: at clubs like Joe’s Pub and Baby’s All Right, at fashion events, and at art museums including the Whitney and MoMA P.S. 1. Onstage, she said, “I channel a different kind of confidence or something.” She interspersed her own developing songs with favorites from Nina Simone, Tim Buckley and Madonna; she would often begin her sets with a deep electronic drone, and end them singing a cappella to the audience that she had brought to hushed attention. In fall of 2019, she toured as the opening act for Cat Power, another languidly pensive songwriter.

“When I first met Zsela I didn’t know what was coming, what she was capable of,” Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power, said via text message. “When I finally heard her soothing timeless voice, her depth of frequencies and vocal toning were a healing unchained vibrant triumph.”

Though it was by no means planned that way, “Ache of Victory” is fitting music for self-quarantine: a richly introspective, solitary reverie on connections made, lost and remembered. The music wells up around Zsela, mysteriously opening out from sparse beginnings to boundless depths, as her lyrics wander between the oblique and the starkly exposed: “I know how to lose/I taught myself when I found you,” she sings in “Earlier Days”.

I feel sorry for artists who released debut E.P.s and albums in 2020! It must have been strange trying to find a footing and get the work out there at a time when things were shut down. There were challenges for Zsela. She spoke with CLASH at the end of last year about the challenges of the pandemic:

“The pandemic has presented unique challenges for musicians at every level, but it’s been a particularly fraught time for new acts trying to figure out how to get their art into the world in a way that feels both true to them and appropriate for our surreal reality. New York singer-songwriter Zsela grappled with those issues around her debut EP, ‘Ache Of Victory’, but in deciding to go forward with it she gave us one of 2020’s more thoughtful, wondrous projects.

“This time is so crazy, we were wondering if we should put it off or wait, but I felt like I had a lot of security and since there’s so much up in the air with everything going on in the world,” she says. “Keeping the date just felt like something I could have and say, ‘Okay, this is a secure thing in my life right now that I have. I can release this thing that I have been working on forever.’”

On ‘Ache Of Victory’, Zsela touches on a wide variety of sounds and songwriting styles. From ‘Liza’, which is spacious and abstract (“When the quiet comes / And they don't know your name / In the houses where the money's made) to the hyperspecific, elegiac ‘Drinking’ (“I've been drinking again / I've been losing all my friends”). Zsela’s voice is expressive enough to portray a myriad of emotions.

The EP running the gamut of feelings is fitting given it was written over a period of several years by Zsela, alongside her producer and primary creative partner Daniel Aged (a Frank Ocean collaborator).

“It’s funny to have it span a few years of my life, but those few years I did so much work on myself and so many changes happened that it feels like these songs really spanned centuries for me,” she says.

The constant is her magnetizing voice, which forces a music writer to consider seriously using the dreaded adjective “ethereal,” due to the way it phases in and out of phrases like a ghost through a wall. That quality is put to stellar use on Zsela’s 2019 single ‘Noise’, which rightly showed why she’s gotten multiple Joni Mitchell comparisons, and the EP closer ‘Undone’, which was the only ‘Ache Of Victory’ track that really fell into her lap, creatively.

Being an independent artist meant Zsela mostly recorded on ‘Ache Of Victory’ in fits and starts when the people she was working with could carve out time. Despite that, the body of work that came from that more erratic process is remarkably fluid. The songs flow into one another like bleary recollections of long nights gone by.

“I was always on other people’s schedules due to the fact that this was a labour love on a lot of people’s parts,” she says. “It’s hard to call anything ‘done’ when it’s in your hands and you can keep tweaking away if you wanted to, but once we got ‘Drinking’ to a place where we were happy with it, everything else was pretty much there”.

I will stick on the subject of the pandemic and what it was like for Zsela. Although things are starting to open and get back to normal, last year was one where music played a huge role. I discovered Zsela fairly recently - but I have tried to make up for lost time and am digging everything she does. Office chatted with Zsela about her gorgeous E.P., Ache of Victory:

“Where are you holed up for quarantine?

I live in New York, but I'm in California right now, staying with my family. I flew out to be closer to them and help them. As much as it's been hard with space and everything, it's been really beautiful to be close with them.

Have you been keeping busy?

I somehow always feel busy. I'm with my parents and little brother, and somehow there's always something we need. But personally, I have this EP coming out, so I've had to get creative. I want to do something for the day it comes out—some sort of live performance online, so I've been thinking about how to do that. I want to record a radio show, too, so I've been trying to get my dad to help me with that. We also have a game night every week that we do. My sister comes over; my brother MacGyvers a ping-pong table on our dining room table. We've gotten super into it. Everyone LOVES it. We've been playing until 1:00 a.m. I'm pretty steady—I'm trying to get better at those hard, slam dunk moves—but my dad and my brother are the best.

Are you doing anything to celebrate the release of the EP?

I feel lucky that I can have my sister come over, so maybe we'll do dinner or something. Daniel Aged, who I did the EP with—he's in LA too, and he's been quarantining for awhile, so it'd be great to have him over and do a performance. Even just having him will be a celebration, I think.

How'd you get connected with Daniel?

I met him, when was it? Two years ago? Through my manager, we met in LA. When we first started working together, we were still trying to find our footing. I think there was a lot of newness for both of us. He has produced for people, but I don't think he’s done a whole project with just one artist. It was mainly just me and him shaping it all.

PHOTO CREDIT: Gioncarlo Valentine for The New York Times

You told The Cut that the best album ever made was one of your father's, called Truth vs. Beauty. You must have a lot of respect for him.

I do. I really do. For his music, especially.

What was it like growing up with a career musician as a father?

Both of my parents are artists, and growing up in a home that was super supportive and fostering, a real creative environment—I feel very lucky to have had that. They were never pressuring me to pursue music as a career. They weren't trying to send me to law school or anything, but they weren't telling me I should do this. My dad, having a life in music, knows the hardships of it, the finances and inconsistency of it. He would always be supportive of my voice, and I would sing on stuff as a kid, but it always came to me to put that pressure on myself.

Knowing that it's such a hard industry to be in, was he concerned at all when you began pursuing music full-time?

I think he was reserved in a way. He wasn't wanting to put too much of an opinion on it. I think he wanted to see how I was going to go about it. It took me a minute to even be really confident and say this is what I wanted to do. I only started calling it my “career” like two years ago when I got a manager and met Daniel. If any of his concerns came through, it was when I wasn't that confident in it—which is probably fair.

You've spent some time upstate at a SUNY school, but you left before you completed your degree. Why'd you feel compelled to leave?

I really went to college very much to appease my parents. My mom never went to college; my dad never graduated. I was like, "Oh, I should do this." But I went in very undecided. I went from Hawthorne Valley Waldorf High School, which is on a farm with fifteen kids in my graduating class, to a huge SUNY school. I was just really unsure of what I was trying to do. But I made close friends, and then I was going to drop out, because a lot of them were graduating, but I thought, "You know what, let me just try to get into the music conservatory." So I applied, I got in, and they made this major for me. I was super excited about it. But, I don't know. At that time, I just started to get more excited about visiting the city. And then, I started recording in the city and ultimately dropped out, because I felt more inspired doing that.

PHOTO CREDIT: Rob K ulise k for Office

You started by singing at a lot of fashion events. How'd you get connected with the fashion world?

Mainly just through friends when I moved to the city. I was kinda in the downtown, art-kid scene, and people like doing non-traditional fashion shows.

Do you find that performing at these events is different than performing on tour?

Well, it all kind of hit me at the same time. I had no experience really performing anywhere else. I was at a lot of these really untraditional places, because with my music, we were trying to get creative with where it made sense. I would get hit up by friends who would say, "Oh, you should play at this party." But I'm not really singing party songs, you know? They don't make sense in a club setting. The first show I played at was this lounge bar in Bed-Stuy, and then there was MoMA PS-1. Those spaces made a lot more sense at the time. And when I got the tour—which was a dream tour for me; I love Cat Power—it also made a lot of sense for the music, because the venues were all these small, seated ballrooms. These coincided with the same level of intimacy that the art and fashion shows did.

Your debut EP starts right off with a really poignant song about the effects of alcoholism. Is that a metaphor, or are you pulling from first-hand experiences?

It's pretty specific; it's not really a metaphor. I mean, it was kind of a metaphor for the time I was in; I wrote it during a time when I was going through a lot of things, and a lot of friends around me were going through a lot of things. But it's also been a kind of theme in my life... with family members in my life. So... yeah. [Laughs]

A lot of your music is quite personal. Do you ever find it hard to share it?

In the beginning—well, actually every time I perform it, it's really intense for me. But I've also lived with these songs for a while now, and they're so much a part of me. So much of the EP is about moving on, learning from loss, learning from change, and finding your own success from something that was really toxic and challenging. So, every time I perform or put them out into the world, it feels like I'm exercising some sort of release. In a spiritual and emotional way, it feels like a release. It's wild—I've always made music in a super private way. Like I didn't think about what it means to let people inside of it, but now, I've finally gotten to this comfortable place of really wanting people to be inside of it.

What are some things you've learned while making this EP?

I've learned a lot of patience. I've learned that I need to take my time, and I've learned that that's okay. If I didn't take my time, I don't think I would've liked what these songs would have been. I took care to get them to a place that I feel good about. Also, I feel really good about letting myself get to a place where I'm ready to share with the world. I don't think I was before. So yeah, I guess I've learned a lot of patience, and that time is my friend. That's always something that my dad has said, but I finally figured that out on my own”.

Just before getting to a review of the E.P., there is another interview that caught my eye. W Magazine spotlighted Zsela back in May. She was asked about performing at fashion shows and some somewhat unique venue spaces:

“You released your debut EP, Ache of Victory, in April 2020, without being signed to a label. It’s a melancholic, five-track R&B project enriched by your deep vocals. Why was it important for you to release the album then, just as the pandemic was peaking?

I had the date before the pandemic. I was really doomsday about everything when it started—I was with my family, and we were just spiraling, going nuts, so I kept the date. I was thankful that I kept it, because if I can just communicate with people through my music, and hopefully provide any kind of stillness in this time, it can slow people down for a second.

The EP was produced by Daniel Aged, who is known for his work with Frank Ocean. What do you look for in a collaborator?

Passion and excitement. I’ve had a lot of egos in the studio in the past, and I’m not looking for that, because I feel that’s what has held me back from really finding my voice. With Daniel, there’s so much freedom, respect, and trust. He’s just down.

PHOTO CREDIT: Louisa Meng for W Magazine

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Kate Bush. I’ve always been obsessed with her, but now I am in a new way. I’ve been reading this book that’s a collection of her lyrics. It’s challenged me to want to write more stories into my songs, because the people that I’m inspired by, like David Bowie, have real stories.

You’ve performed at fashion shows for Vaquera and Collina Strada. How did you get into that?

I’ve always loved fashion and its relation to music. Playing at fashion shows made sense at the time, because with my music it’s like, where do I play these? I would get hit up to play clubs or parties, but I’m not going to make people stop dancing for a ballad.

What do you do in your free time?

I’ve been going to estate sales a lot. I’m fixated on buying tablecloths and doilies. What else do you do in L.A.? You go for a hike. But we also got a piano, so I’ve been trying to write.

You’ve performed at MoMA PS1 and the Whitney Museum, and in theaters in New York. What’s an ideal performance venue for you in the future?

There’s a place in Santa Fe my stylist keeps talking about. It’s like an amphitheater. Or someplace crazy, wild, where no one has ever performed—put me in there”.

One review for Ache of Victory came from Pitchfork. I really love it as a piece of work. It hints at a very promising, bright and interesting future for the American artist. I cannot wait to see what comes next for Zsela:

“Judging by this EP, she belongs to her generation’s modern R&B cohort, marrying the bedroom-pop idiosyncrasy of Okay Kaya with the intimacy of Moses Sumney. In the opener, a synth-backed piano ballad called “Drinking,” the singer admits that she’s been “drinking again,” perhaps a nod to the bluesy sentimental standard of the same name. Alternating between the melancholy and maniacal euphoria that comes with ruining your own life, the song charts the ambivalence of falling off the wagon. Zsela’s voice vacillates between sulking and sprightly: “I’ve been drinking again/I’ve been losing all my friends.” The lines are sung from the bottom of a bottle, then from on high in an angelic chorus, then from back down again, before the song ends abruptly mid-sentence, jolting the listener from their vicariously drunken stupor.

The strongest songs here remain the singles. “Earlier Days” shows Zsela singing breathlessly over gauzy ambient synths punctuated by laid back percussion. On “For Now,” Zsela is backed by synth arpeggios and slow-rolling drums. Her vocal range is astonishing; on the chorus, her voice dives to a bellow, then climbs into a weightless falsetto. When the drums are pared down, her layered vocals produce a stunning, Enya-like choral effect.

PHOTO CREDIT: Rob K ulise k for The Face

The album’s last two songs, though they use similar stylistic quirks, do so with less precision. “Liza,” a torch song backed by a lovely undulating synth, offers little lyrical complexity compared to the rest of the album, and relies a bit too heavily on Zsela’s peculiar voice and vocal layering to carry it. Like “Drinking,” it ends abruptly, but rather than adding to the dizzying quality, it just sounds like someone’s pulled the plug. “Undone,” the album’s most stripped-down song, feels like a return to the piercing simplicity of “Noise,” but it’s so short that it feels unfinished.

Perhaps the first cut is the deepest. Where singles like “Noise” reveal a distinct sound, the other material succumbs to generic, murmured any-R&B—imagine Rhye, the xx, and Aged’s project inc., all blended into autoplay monolith. But Zsela is too interesting to become a casualty of the “beats to chill/study to” playlist, and there are plenty of signs on this short, promising project that her formidable voice will enter the pantheon of greats in a matter of albums”.

If you have not discovered Zsela, then check out her beautiful music. I hope that, when she can tour internationally, she comes to the U.K. She is a remarkable talent who is going to be a huge name soon enough. Go and check out Ache of Victory and everything she has recorded so far. It will not take long until you are…