Spotlight: Zella Day 'Where Does The Devil Hide'
☆ By Saachi Gupta ☆
Photo By Samuel Hess
IT WAS ONLY 2015 WHEN ZELLA DAY RELEASED HER DEBUT ALBUM KICKER – a captivating record featuring the songstress's powerful vocals, along with haunting lyrics. Strikingly unique and passionate, “Kicker” proved that Los-Angeles based Zella Day was a force to be reckoned with. The album garnered over 200 million streams and gained acclaim from several press outlets. However, Zella Day believes that she has changed a lot since her last record.
“I’ve grown immensely as a woman in the music business since my debut record,” she states, “I have more of a grasp on my own business and how to create boundaries when it comes to creating work and how to protect the space of creation. I hear freedom coming through my new songs, they are unafraid to be who they are.”
Zella Day's upcoming EP Where Does The Devil Hide, out this Friday August 28th, marks this new era of freedom, highlighting her evolution as both, a musician and a visual auteur.
Speaking fondly of her memories of creating the record, Zella says, “The first day in the studio with Dan was particularly memorable, we sat across the kitchen table and began writing songs together over coffee. We would jump around like bugs caught inside the web of ideas until one would break free. I cut an apple on the table while we were writing ‘Purple Haze’, it was so delicious, we decided to put it into the first verse.”
“Purple Haze” is one of the psychedelic singles from the impending EP and was met with glowing reviews, declaring the song to be “a psychedelic stoner anthem that would be right up Hendrix's street.”
The video for the track is perfectly fitting, conveying the same dreamy, kaleidoscopic emotions as the song itself. Directed by Neil Krug, the video’s creativity amplifies the essence of the song. Zella shares about the filming process, “We joked about how funny it would be if the entirety of the music video was just me smoking a fat joint. A few days later, I grabbed the beaded top out of my closet and drove down the street to Neil’s studio to shoot the damn thing. As much as the idea was birthed between the friends, I can’t take credit for what Neil does in the studio or in post; he’s incredible and entirely his own.”
Zella Day's newest single, “Only A Dream” is gentler and more mature, with an equally breathtaking video directed by Samuel Richard and Gianennio Salucci.
While both “Purple Haze” and “Only A Dream” are distinctive and entrancing, they do have some similar themes, as do the other tracks that feature on the EP.
Lyrically, Zella says, the EP focuses on a few common narratives, “The pursuit of self love. Speaking the truth when it hurts or might leave you lonely. Finding room to breathe. Not taking myself too seriously.”
Musically, meanwhile, the influences that shaped the sound of “Where Does The Devil Hide” are more old-school classics that leave a deep sense of nostalgia in their wake.
“On the first day of recording the EP, the Everly Brothers were singing a song on vinyl when I arrived to the studio. A thick nostalgia settled into the pit of my stomach that stayed with me throughout recording. ABBA, Carol King, and the BeeGees were brought up regularly during recording sessions. Where Does The Devil Hide is what I would perform if I was going live on The Midnight Special,” Zella explains.
The artist has spent most of her time in lockdown creating content for the singles she has been releasing off the EP. Several parts of Where Does The Devil Hide have been created and released during the lockdown, so it is only normal for the themes to have been influenced by everything going on in the world, if only subtly. She is grateful, she states, to have had a place to put all her energy into.
On the flip side, Zella notes that lockdown has been affecting her creativity, “It’s never been more quiet outside, I don’t remember it ever being louder on the inside. My thoughts feel like mud castles, there’s almost too many ideas dripping down the side of the house. Writing hasn’t been coming easily lately.”
When asked what she wants her listeners to take away from her music, Zella replies saying, “It’s not up to me what they take away. All I can do is give.”
Speaking of future plans in the work, Zella Day states that only a few days ago, she returned home after driving 36 hours from Nashville– where she was, most excitingly, recording her full length album at the Neon Church. The record, much like every song Zella Day has ever put out, is sure to be a thrilling listen, and worth the wait.
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slowthai by Rosie Matheson 🤩 https://t.co/z7SDfFQ5iF
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RT @i_D: Ian Kenneth Bird photographs young punks on Polaroid: https://t.co/MKT0tMUqO9 https://t.co/a0tTl12ML5
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RT @AnOtherMagazine: #DreamHome – this isolated idyll in the mountains of Lanzarote 🌵 📸 via Nowness, photography by Clemence Blr 🔁 https://t.co/GUusdxD0cg