She’s already played alongside Peace and Blossoms this year, and now Liverpudlian ZUZU will brighten up yr summer too with her super fun take on indie-pop.
Hey ZUZU, how’s it going? Been up to anything fun lately?
Hey Dork, yes been up to lots of cool stuff. Writing and recording a lot at the studio in Merseyside, Monkey Heaven. I just played a great hometown show with Blossoms, that was super fun.
How did you first get into creating music, then?
I have always written stupid songs for as long as I can remember. I guess I first started to want to be in a band when my big brother got really into guitar music; I wanted to be him so copied everything he listened to, stole his Rise Against and Slipknot hoodies etc.
Tell us about Witches From Hell.
It was an early venture of mine, consisting of me and my best friend at the time singing about rising from the dead. This came to an abrupt end when the parents deemed it blasphemous! I think they just wanted us to stop screeching.
What were the most important lessons you learnt from your early forays into music?
Being happy with what you’re putting out is everything. People’s opinions are important, but ultimately you have to be happy. I’m glad I learned that early on so have managed to avoid that so far.
You’re about to release your debut EP, how did you go about putting it together?
‘Made on Earth by Humans’ is a collection of old and new songs, I wanted to show people I can write a moody tune with ‘All Good’ which has turned out to be my favourite. I wanted the EP to sound tough and poppy at the same time.
Are you inspired by space travel and the like?
I’m obsessed with all things sci-fi. I love the idea of humans getting off planet Earth for a new life only to be a human somewhere else. More often than not it always comes down to the human condition, which we can’t avoid no matter where we are in the universe. Also, I just love Ancient Aliens, and this is all a stepping stone to the true dream of appearing on the show.
If aliens were to hear your EP, what do you think they’d take away from it?
Hopefully, they take me away, could do with a change of scenery.
What’s your studio set up like?
Monkey Heaven is the name of the studio which is actually run by my guitarist Kurran Karbal and his engineer Harry Chalmers from Hooton Tennis Club. We have a lot of toys, books and weird instruments to keep us inspired. Everyone is always giving me shit for not taking my figurines out of the boxes, but I just can’t cave into the peer pressure. THEY WILL REMAIN IN PERFECT CONDITION!
You’ve tried your hand at a lot of things, with illustrating, acting and such. Do you have any other talents we should know about?
I’m not one to brag, but I’m scarily good at Tetris and Mortal Kombat.
What else have you got coming up? There’s a tour with Tom Grennan, right? Are you guys buds?
We are indeed! Heading off to mainland Europe with Mr Grennan in September. I consider us buds, so he doesn’t really have a say in it at this point. TOM WE ARE BEST FRIENDS DON’T FIGHT IT!
Taken from the August issue of Dork. ZUZU’s debut EP ‘Made on Earth By Humans’ is out now.
Words: Sam Taylor
