Nature Girl
ZADA Feature Interview
For the video to the Balearic style chill-out R&B of "Atlantic Times", the first single from ZADA's debut album Water in the Desert, she can be seen at dusk, adrift on a small dinghy with a sail — the twist being that she's only wading distance from the shore. Used to all manner of outdoor pursuits, ZADA, a keen surfer, thinks nothing of dangling her legs in shark-infested waters, so the open sea normally would not hold many fears for her.
"One time I saw my dad's boat from the house on Vancouver Island. So, I quickly changed and thought I’d swim out,” ZADA recalls, via Zoom. “I took a step, and it was not a scary fish or anything, but it's this weird sensation because the fish moves your foot up and you're like, ‘Oh!’ and it was so shallow, so I swam really quickly to the boat!"
From the comfort of her home, ZADA is looking relaxed wearing a black fluffy off-the-shoulder jumper and a paisley headband to hold back her hair, the sunlight glimmering through the trees outside of the clerestory window in the shot behind. Ethiopian-born, ZADA (pronounced “Zay-dah” and all caps, coming correct on the branding) spent her summers on Vancouver Island but was raised in the snow-capped mountains of Whistler, British Columbia, a two-hour drive inland. A popular resort, ZADA is as adept at skiing as she is at surfing (and horseback riding for that matter). The surroundings offer refuge should she ever need to take time out.
"Whistler was a good place to be,” she says. “In the sense that if you ever got overwhelmed, you could escape to nature and kind of take a step back."
Emigrating to Canada when she was only four years old and growing up in British Columbia, the family only knew one other black person when the arrived, whom she and her siblings affectionately called Uncle due to the age gap. "It was rare to see someone like us," says ZADA. "It was not overtly racist in Whistler, but it was definitely intense for the first five years, getting into the school system and learning a new language. But then, once people got used to us and we got used to them and the culture, it was a breeze."
Her parents had a rule when she was younger that you could stick things to the bedroom wall, but if you did, you had to learn how to repair it afterwards, which seems a little strict. "I know, right? I didn't understand. Talk to my parents..." says ZADA, with resignation. Consequently, she never bothered to put-up posters of her favourite artists, and luminaries such Erykah Badu, Prince, and Regina Spektor, all of whom were an enormous influence during her adolescence.
“We all had that misfit energy - it united us & inspired us.”
Initially, she picked up the guitar, and once that was squared away, she learned piano. After working with distinguished vocal coach Liz Lewis (Rihanna, Demi Lovato, Britney Spears), ZADA took a course at the Songwriting School of Los Angeles, while her mum enrolled in a course on Artist Management next door.
Eventually, ZADA started hanging out at the Hipposonic Recording Studio in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver, which is where she met and gravitated towards the award-winning production duo Chin Injeti (Drake, Eminem) and Brian West (Sia), whom, despite being older, she considers kindred spirits. "All of us, the whole crew, are kind of misfits," She says. " We felt that misfit energy; it united us and inspired us. And we were able to tell more truthful stories."
The dual realities of connection to, yet independence from, her environment are ingrained in the lyrical perspective of ZADA's music. This is evident even in songs created before work started on the album, with early tracks featuring revealing titles such as "Nomad" and "Be Somebody Else." There is also a touch of melancholy throughout Water In The Desert, which could be attributed to the Twin Peaks/True Detective-Dark Country vibe of living near wilderness, or perhaps - particularly on songs such as "Sweet Things in Life" and "Highways & Borders” - is an indicator of a heavy Frank Ocean influence. ZADA admits that Ocean "reigned supreme," on her end-of-year Spotify Wrapped Top 5.
“Water In The Desert” album cover 2024
On "Walls", the fourth single, and one of the standouts from her debut, ZADA is at her most vulnerable, expressing her desire to tear down the walls that keep her apart from others. Powered by a shock-and-awe production akin to Jeff Bhasker’s work with Alicia Keys and Fun, the team felt they needed a dynamic sound to get the message across.
"We were feeling something that day," says ZADA, nodding. "I had this poem I'd written a really long time ago, with like six verses and it was just full of words, sentences and whatnot. But I didn't share it because I thought it was just a little too intense. But then we wanted to make it sound really explosive. We were in the kitchen and Chin did this crazy 'scream-o' vocal part that, whilst it never made the cut, made me and Brian look at him, like, ‘Chin, what’s going on?’ It was so intense, my goodness. But he just walks away like, ‘Oh, that was nothing.’"
“I had this poem I’d written a really long time ago - but I didn’t share it because I thought it was just a little too intense.”
The guide vocal allowed ZADA to let go of her inhibitions and tap into the passion required for the song. The kitchen where "Walls" was written also provided inspiration for the rhythm on "Atlantic Times".
"We had set up this homemade demo type of studio session. We always knew we were going to lay down proper percussion. But in the meantime, we're like, we've got the colander, we've got some pots and pans; let's just fix it, let's do this. Once we even kept the sounds from the kitchen on the first song I put out, 'Nomad', where we used wine bottles, which was really funny. But this time, I did a little thing with the colander, and then when we took it to the studio, my mom was like, 'So, I feel like we should get a percussionist on here!' and she had no idea it was me that did the original part. I was like, 'Mom!' but it was fine, I don’t have an ego."
To record the album, ZADA and her team have used a succession of studios: the aforementioned Hipposonic, of course, but also Real World, owned by Peter Gabriel in the UK countryside, along with Nightbird in LA. It was at the latter that she worked on two songs with Mr. Hudson—who has collaborated with Jay-Z, John Legend, and Duran Duran—on 'All In Your Mind' and a personal favourite, the soothingly soulful 'Ice On It'.
"We were at Nightbird and one of the producers, his knee was really sore that day, and Mr. Hudson just walks by and says, ‘Y'know, you should put some ice on that.’ And then he walks out of the session. That was all he said, just that phrase. And I was like, ‘Oh, that's funny.’ Like that was it. (Then later) the other songwriter, Elliot Beenk, he came in, and he says, ‘What would you call something when you're overthinking it, it's weighing on your head, and you just need to cool down?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, this guy just came in and he's like, put an ice cube on it!’ And that’s how it happened."
For a debut album, and especially an independent release, Water in the Desert is an accomplished piece of work from a 20-year-old artist whose maturity belies her age. The album is informed as much by the calm of nature and the wide-open spaces from which she draws inspiration as by the need for interaction and closeness with others; executed with an adventurous spirit that goes far beyond the contemporary norm of a producer making a beat and an artist coming in to lay a little topline.
A good example of ZADA’s progressive R&B can be found on "Dive In", which benefits from the collaborative process, co-written by ZADA along with Beenk, West, and LA-based writer/artist Kyramastro, with a notable drum track by long-term cohort, Johnny Andrews.
“We brought in Kyra Mastrogiacomo, or Kyramastro (she was like ‘Oh no, why did you credit my whole name!’ — ZADA laughs), whom we met in LA, which is where we also met Elliott. I felt like I really connected with these people, which is why we brought them to Vancouver, and that’s when we got my favourite drummer on it, Johnny, whom I've known forever. He just went crazy at the end,” ZADA starts laughing and adds, “I loved it. I wish there was a Johnny button that I could press to say, ‘Hey, just do whatever you want!’”
The audacious Latin-tinged beat to "Dive In", with its siren-like hook and aqua-funk vamp, evokes the memory of ZADA wading into the ocean, regardless of what lies beneath the waves, eyes fixed on the horizon. The start of a musical journey that's sure to become a voyage.
“Water In The Dessert”
is available to Stream Now.
Words by Dan Dodds | Art by Paul Pate
Originally Published on this site Apr 17th, 2024
