"That's how I keep my Arizona roots alive."
Metro
By Rachel Raczka
July 6, 2016
There's something wistful about Zella Day's debut studio
album "Kicker," which dropped last June from Hollywood Records. The
21-year-old Arizona native laments of lovers lost and times past, and calls on
an unlikely but equally yearnful soundboard for inspiration: the Old West. Day
is touring all summer — headlining and later supporting Fitz & the Tantrums
on their Get Right Back Tour — and calls in from New York City, where she was
able to watch the Fourth of July fireworks from a "really, really tall
building."
I’ve heard that
you describe your music as “part Spaghetti Western.” What does this mean?
I grew up watching old Western films and there are sounds
and moments from those films, musically, that I remember. I’ve gone back and
studied the tones on electric guitars and background vocals and beats from
those films, and they’ll then show up in moments [on the album] and in my
choruses.
For example, “Jerome” sounds like a Spaghetti Western
from the DTX we used and the sampled vocals. Then “The Outlaw Josey Wales” is
about Clint Eastwood and one of my favorite Western classics. I like
incorporating these elements into my pop songs; that’s how I keep my Arizona
roots alive.
There’s a sense of
nostalgia and longing in songs like “1965” and “Compass.” Do you often find
yourself looking backward when you’re writing?
I’m still young as a person and as an artist, so I have
so much more to experience in my life. I’m taking in my newfound independence,
but also remembering where I come from. Being relevant is important, and I
don’t like looking to my past all the time. But I also think it’s important to
reflect.
Can you tell me
about the background of the song “Jameson”? Is it meant to be a hopeful song
about alcoholism?
No, it’s not meant to be hopeful; rather it’s more about
facing the truth. I wrote that song while looking at myself in the mirror and
not living in denial about a relationship anymore. There’s never a point in
that song where I’m like, “I have him back.” It’s a sad cry for something I’ll never
have because I can’t win that battle.
It’s been just
over a year since “Kicker” was released. You’ve had time to reflect and gather
impressions. How are you feeling about it now?
I feel really good about it. It’s such a good
documentation of that time in my life, moving from Arizona to California. It
was emotions pulsing through my body and my reality. Like you said, nostalgia
is a good way to describe that record, and I think each record is nostalgic for
the artists making it. I’m experiencing different people and things and am
happily in love now, so I have trouble connecting with songs like “Jameson.”
But I think those songs have grown with me in the right ways, too, I think.
You lived with
Børns for a while in Los Angeles. Do you still stay in touch?
I haven’t talked to him in a little while. It’s been a
second. I know he’s doing really well and his life has changed dramatically
from even just a year ago. The pace and what’s normal for Garrett [Børns] has
transitioned into something totally different from when we found each other. We
were just embarking on our journeys. I definitely miss him and I can’t wait to
be around the campfire with him again.
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