How did you get started in music?
I’ve been singing since I can remember. I started off in chorus at school and continued to do that onto high school. In high school, I started working with some different producers. I was writing then and all through grade school. By the time I got to high school I met up with some producers and some people that were doing music. We were creating my original songs and by the time I finished high school I hit the road. I went to Vegas and Los Angeles to pursue my music career.
I was working with some different labels, I sold some music, I did a lot of vocal work, and I even ended up working for a jingle company for a very short period of time. I ended up signing with a small record label and things didn’t go too well with them. I ended up coming back to Chicago just a few years ago and that’s when I was introduced to Maek.
How did you get involved with Maek?
When I came out here I was kind of freelancing. I was trying to figure out who I wanted to work with and what I wanted to do. I was working with an entertainment company. Through them I talked to Jason. I’m not sure if he reached out to them or they reached out to him, but in some way I ended up talking to Jason. He was asking about what the entertainment company was doing and we started talking about my music. I sent him some of my stuff and he had asked me to do some vocal work for his label for a couple of songs he was working on. So I went in and recorded and everything went really well. We ended up talking back and forth for a while and I was learning more and more about his company. The music that they were creating was just awesome. I was very very impressed. It’s very hard to impress me with music especially with song writing. Jason’s a phenomenal songwriter.
On my birthday, him and a few other people from the label showed up for my birthday and I was going to perform. I performed and put on this whole thing myself. It wasn’t with a company or anything, but I had just left a bad label situation. I was just going to pull forward for my birthday for the fun of it. I put it all together and they ended up showing up. I was like ‘That was so nice. That’s so cool.’ Then after that Jason ended up calling me up and sat down. He wasn’t so much as coming to support me as he was coming to see what I could do. We ended up sitting down and he started talking about my career and he knew so much about me. His company had done a lot of background research on me. I was a little surprised. He had a whole two years mapped out of what they could do for me, like month to month. I was very impressed.
Where does your inspiration come from for music?
Growing up I listened to a lot of Madonna, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, No Doubt. I was big on No Doubt. I love love love Gwen Stefani! Her concert was the first concert I had ever been to. They were all really powerful women and a lot of them had kind of rough pasts. Touching women in a very positive way is very important to me. I wouldn’t call myself a feminist but I definitely think that women, especially in the music industry, are kind of put into a box. We are either kind of a sex symbol or looked at as kind of soft, singing love songs. I think that I like artists that sing about something more, songs with content, subjects that mean something and that are really really self empowering. That kind of pump you up, give you something to think about, make you feel good, make you feel powerful, that’s the type of music I try to create. I try to create thought-provoking music that means something.
I’ve heard that your new EP, “Harlequin,” stems from the comic book character Harley Quinn. What’s your fascination with her character?
I’m a comic book nerd I guess. Harley Quinn is a very interesting character. She doesn’t necessarily have a rough past but she took on this character who just kind of wants to be accepted and be fun and be loved. Unfortunately she kind of loses herself a little bit. She is still a quirky empowering character, despite the bad relationship that she has with Joker, but I still love her character. It’s really interesting to actually be the idea for the EP “Harlequin.” It originally came from the English literature character, Harley Quin and then we used Harley Quinn as the symbol for it. The whole thought process behind “Harlequin” was a jester. Throughout history Harley Quinn was depicted as this jester character that is a mute jester, and later on a villain. It made me think about how women in our current society are either ‘villianized’ for their strength or kind of made fun of for their emotions because women are emotional. So the whole concept behind the EP was just covering a variance of topics that cover that concept. We figured that Harley Quinn being the villain and jester depicts the perfect symbol for that.
You are touring this summer. What’s the plan for the music festivals?
I’m going to be singing and DJ-ing in this new cool way that I haven’t seen anyone really do before. There is a few different ways we’re going to do the showcases. We’re not going to do the typical kind of venue. I’m not sure about which type of showcase tour we’re going to do but I know we have some really awesome ideas. Everything is going to be a little bit different than how most people do things because we’re trying to think outside the box and be really artistic and creative in the way that we do things. I think that people nowadays, they crave something more original. They want to see something more. Like Beyonce’s album, she had a music video for every song. She gave everybody a visual. And like Pharrell’s “Happy” song video. He had a 24-hour long video of different people dancing to the same song. It’s something different. There is so much music and you hear something and it’s cool. We’re hungry for something more. So when you’re given something different, you’re given a visual, you’re given some type of art with it, you’re given some type of theme or something fun that’s exciting. Whatever element you’re putting with the song you’re going to not only make it more memorable, but people are going to appreciate it more. People are going to appreciate you more for giving them something more.
As far as me, and the label of course, we want to give more of ourselves. That’s also why we do the whole concept of free music. We’re not selling music; we’re making money off of other aspects of the label that most labels that other artists are a part of don’t make money off of. By the label allowing the artists to get in on other streams of revenue, we’re able to give the music away for free. This allows us to be more creative rather than being like ‘I have to make this kind of song because this is what’s hot right now and this is what’s going to sell.’ ‘I have to be commercial.’ We’re able to be ourselves and be creative…We really get to think outside of the box…There is so much more room to just BE an artist. I get to be an artist. I get to create art and change people throughout the art.
For music lovers:
Keep your eyes and ears pealed for the summer because we are making some big moves!
There will be a film in May that ties into the new album and the showcase.
Follow Zaena:
Instagram & Twitter
@zaenaworld
Listen at:
Arena.com (music streaming site)
