Tickets für zzzahara (us) (indie rock, us) + tba. 30.05.24 in Berlin, Schokoladen

For most of their life, Zzzahara has been looking backward. Raised in LA’s Highland Park neighborhood, their debut album, Liminal Spaces, confronted the changes the community has endured since Zzzahara’s childhood. That sense of loss, coupled with the persistent memories of a painful coming-of-age, led to many late night parties and an avoidant relationship with self-reflection. Liminal Spaces chronicled that ache, but these days, Zzzahara isn’t looking backward much – they’re not even looking forward. They’re just trying to be here, in the moment, as present as possible: “I realized I needed a bigger lens through which to see the world, I didn’t want to be bitter anymore.”

Zzzahara’s sophomore album, Tender, will be released TK via Lex Records, and it documents a period of transition following a devastating breakup. Instead of crumbling, Zzzahara began to look inward by meditating and practicing mindfulness. “I realized that drinking like, 30-40 drinks a week wasn’t making me happy, and that some of the people I hung around with weren’t real friends,” they say. “I still party, but I limit myself. When I spend time with people, I want it to feel intentional.” Touring Liminal Spaces offered Zzzahara an opportunity for further growth. They were on the road constantly following the album’s release, and Zzzahara found themselves fully responsible for the band’s wellbeing. Upon returning to Los Angeles, that sense of responsibility stuck. “If I had to describe what my life is like now, I’d say ‘consistent.’ I’m trying to be consistent with everything I do.”

Consistency requires tenderness, a willingness to cradle the soft parts of yourself that often go unnoticed. “After my breakup, I spent a lot of time sitting in the park journaling and crying,” Zzzahara says, laughing. Some of those pages led to the songs on Tender, whose lyrics Zzzahara describes as honest reflections on the present moment. Lead single “Kensington” narrates a walk down the block where Zzzahara’s new love lives. The ebullient, guitar-driven pop song recalls the Cure in both its instrumental aesthetics and ambiguously saccharine lyrics undercut by a scuzzy, devil-may-care delivery. “I get lost in your eyes/ Puppy smile/ Breath of wine/ Kensington/ Out of air/ Nicotine and despair,” Zzzahara drawls on the opening verse. In just two minutes, they capture the ecstatic experience of falling in love, but later, on “IDK How to Luv,” the anxiety of finding newfound love, and keeping it, takes hold. 

Zzzahara’s work ethic changed in the making of this album, too. “I’m not one of those musicians who can slack off and then make a perfect record in, like, a week,” they say. “I need to be consistently playing, consistently trying to learn new techniques.” To make Tender, they locked themselves in their studio and subsisted on cold brew for nine to ten hours a day. To most, this sounds nightmarish, but the monastic experience gave Zzzahara a sense of total control over the output. “I think that’s what made the record what it is.” While Liminal Spaces was recorded at Stone’s Throw and Zzzahara had access to a range of instruments to make it, Tender thrives on the intimacy created in a home studio. Though Zzzahara produced the bulk of the record, they brought in friend and fellow producer Jannick Frampton to complete it. “I learned so much making my first record and I wanted this one to prove that,” Zzzahara says. They were also inspired by their fans. “Going on tour and watching what songs people really respond to and want to dance to, that made me want to write fast songs.”

The immediacy of these pop songs doesn’t detract from the sincerity of Zzzahara’s lyrics. The dazzling guitar part heard on “Girls on SSRIs Don’t Cry” might hide the song’s pathos momentarily, but the chorus is an open-hearted plea to an ex. “I feel so lost without you,” Zzzahara admits. The album’s opener, “Dust,” was written and recorded during that same period of yearning. It’s a laconic song reminiscent of a mournful 1950s waltz. While Tender can largely be considered a guitar rock album, the instrument is buried in the mix on “Dust,” foregrounding programmed drums and Zzzahara’s raw vocal delivery.

As its title purports, Tender is a sincere album, but that doesn’t stop Zzzahara, as they put it, letting their “asshole side loose.” The determinedly bratty “I’d Like You to Leave” was written after a slew of boring dates, the kind that make you want to hide in your house and never meet anyone again. “It’s my favorite on the album,” they say. “It has the narrative perspective of being kinda drunk at a party and just watching people interact with one another. You get this sixth sense about people – you really see them.” 

It’s easy to recognize the faults in others, less so in yourself. On Tender, Zzzahara is unafraid of the world seeing theirs.