Zella Day is a criminally underrated treasure, and I’m so excited to share her music with popheads. I’ve stanned her since Winter 2015 and I hope to introduce her to as many people as possible!**
Zella Day Kerr (yes, that’s her real name, and it’s amazing) is currently 22 years old, hailing from the modest town of Pinetop Arizona. Music runs in her blood; her mother sung in a jazz trio band, and Zella always lists her as one of her influences, along with a vast variety of other musicians, including Bob Dylan, Frank Ocean, and Queen. Her family owned a coffee shop, and that is where her musical career began; she would play cute little songs on her guitar in the coffee shop to entertain guests. Some were classics, and some were her own songs.
Zella always knew that music was her future, so she wasn’t content with that being just a dream. When she was only 13 years old, in 2009, she released her debut album, Powered By Love released independently on CD only. Though there isn’t too much information about how this album was created, it’s certainly impressive for her age. Though it may sound immature at parts, her harmonies and her general
awareness are quite impressive. The best song on this is probably the first track,
“Simple Song”. Somehow, it was discovered and added to the movie The Tooth Fairy 2 in 2012. It fits the cute and family friendly theme of the movie. The most important part about this album is how this displayed how much talent Zella had for both writing and for vocals; it shows that with a bit of maturation, she could be amazing.
This EP served to get her signed to Wax LTD when she was only 15.
Strangely, it took until 2012 for Zella to release her debut five-track EP, Cynics vs Dreamers. Again, there really isn’t much information about this album. It’s on Spotify, but unavailable in the USA. You can find most of the songs on YouTube. For the most part, the EP is simple ukulele and guitar ballads, though it’s all done so well. Everything on the EP is just so bright and happy, despite some of the darker lyrical content.
“Starlight” is the best use of this; a very happy and pretty song that gets stuck in my head forever. Strangely enough, her first single wasn’t actually from
Cynics vs Dreamers; released about a month after the EP, her cover of “Seven Nation Army” was what first started garnering attention for her. Praised for her guitar playing and the brand new folk vibe added to the song, this song has almost thirty million streams on Spotify. Her second single, almost a year later, was the certain EP highlight,
“No Sleep to Dream”. By making use of unique song structure, an explosive chorus, and a decidedly indie-flavored production, this indie pop masterpiece worked perfectly. She was only 17 when this song was released, and she’d proved that she still has so much potential. Her voice is a certain standout; it carries a wispy and young quality to it, but can be rough and almost harsh when she wants it to be. It can be incredibly diverse and it sounds like she’s made to sing acoustic ballads, but she is able to perform electropop and alt-pop just as well. She described it herself as “If Snow White were to take her highest note and mash it together with the tone Carole King has in “I Feel the Earth Move” you would get a Zella voice”. She has so much voice control and part of what makes her sound so good is that it sounds like she loves genuinely singing; she puts her soul into it, and it shows. This is one quality that didn’t change at all as her age and career grew older.
Zella is reaching the point of her career where her fanbase really started growing. In 2014, Zella released her first official debut single; well, actually, two songs packaged as one single.
"1965" is a breathtaking nostalgia-piece, filled with imagery. She sounds sweet and pleasant, but at the same time like a force from the past. “Can we go back to the world we had?” she asks listeners; this evokes such powerful emotions in me and many others. The B-Side,
“Sweet Ophelia”, is just as good, another tale of youth and longing; again, she evokes strong imagery and history to create a song that I never get tired of. These two songs were pressed onto a vinyl and sold as is, a really thoughtful nod to their roots in history. Combined, these two songs have over 25 million streams on spotify; she’s not a huge artist, but she loves her craft.
The songs earned her many, many comparisons to Lana Del Rey and Ellie Goulding, as well as a few comparisons to Tove Lo and Halsey (though most of those came out after the album was released). In fact, in one of her interviews, Zella said that she thought that the common comparison of “being the happier Lana Del Rey” was inspiring.
Following the success of these two songs, Zella went on to release her eponymous EP, Zella Day in 2014. This contained “Sweet Ophelia”, “Hypnotic”, “Compass”, and “East Of Eden”. I’m not really going to discuss these songs yet because they all appear on the album, but they’re all amazing and highlights on the actual album. This EP received high critical acclaim and reached 16 on Billboard Heartseekers. More importantly, this put her into the spotlight as a rising pop star. She got interviews with big organizations like Vice, Interviewmagazine, and Vevo dscvr.
Finally, in June 2015, Zella bloomed. Her debut 12 song studio album, Kicker, was released. This remains one of the most varied alt-pop albums I've heard, and one of my favorite pop albums ever. This album has a beautiful Western country vibe, and it is prevalent in about half the songs; the other half take a different turn in order to stay versatile. The entire piece is produced by Wax LTD, and Zella Day is the co-writer on every song, along with Xander Barry (with the exception of one song); other than that, the most recognizable name that participated in this album is Julia Micheals, who co-wrote “Shadow Preachers”. It wasn't a particularly huge hit, I’m not going to lie; it peaked at 65 on the Billboard 200 (and 7 on Billboard Alternative), but Zella is the type of artist to do it for the music and the feeling that it gives her fans, not just chart numbers.
Kicker Highlights:
High: This is quite possibly one of my favorite songs ever. Top 10, for sure. The production is euphoria in itself; it sounds like the dry Arizona desert, as the sun sets against a backdrop of the striking crimson sky. It is beautiful and the imagery is powerful. Every word is packed with raw emotion, and the post-chorus makes me cry even now listening. Like, I’m actually crying. Regardless, one of the biggest injustices ever for me is that this song was supposed to be a single, but due to difficulties and disagreements with her label, the music video never got released. Same situation as “Do What U Want”, to put it in terms that you’re familiar with (though the issue was likely not because of making a controversial video). This song also landed her one of her first live performances on a big scale;
I’ve said many times that this performance of High on Conan is my favorite live performance, ever. (this song was also on the Riverdale trailer for those who care)
East Of Eden: This song is quite unlike anything else on the album. It starts sounding kind of similar to “1965”, but it explodes into a very synth heavy chorus. The whole song is far more electropop than she usually does, but it proves her versatility. Very strangely, this song never became an official single, despite the fact that many fans wanted it; it was, however, a promo single for the s/t Zella Day.
Hypnotic: Her most popular song by a pretty large margin. 35 million streams on Spotify if you include the wildly popular Vanic remix, and about 25 million Youtube views for that remix and the music video. This song just works SO well in just about every way. If someone asked me how Western alternative pop sounded, this would be it; the guitar instrumental, the desert sound, the strong drumline. The video is also amazing, and expands on those sounds to bring everything to reality. To add to this all, this is one of her best vocal performances; every single breathy note she hits adds to add one of the most unforgettable melodies that I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. This song is also the only one to chart on any of the relevant Billboard lists; mid 20s for Adult Top 40 and Alternative Songs.
Compass: This is the best ballad on the album, and it’s so very emotional. It can work perfectly as either a love song or a song about friendship. She explores a high register that she rarely uses, and it sounds great. The lyrics almost make it seem like she’s talking about the earlier song “East of Eden”: “Compass point you home, call out from the east”; this continuity does hint at a deeper story on the album. This story does seem to be shown throughout the album, from the opening track “Jerome” to this one. This is one of the few songs on the album that doesn’t have the guitar as one of the main instruments. This song sounds like it should be on a movie soundtrack, which is fitting because it was later used for the trailer for the 2016 film The Finest Hours.
1965 and Sweet Ophelia are also highlights, but I already discussed those. The Outlaw Josey Wales and Ace of Hearts are also both amazing songs, but I felt like it just wasn’t right to call 90% of the album a highlight (even though it is)
Kicker remains one of my favorite albums ever, and I think that you’d all like it too. There’s something for everyone; a beautiful and capable voice for people inclined to appreciate that, very strong instrumentals, and heck, even a song featuring a rapper, “Mustang Kids”. I recommend this album to anyone, from the bottom of my heart. Even more so if you enjoy alternative songstresses like Lana Del Rey or Lorde.
Since the release of Kicker, Zella’s fanbase has expanded impressively, but at the same time, it’s small enough so that she feels like our little secret. The album received great reviews, even though it doesn’t have a metacritic for whatever reason. The album only spawned two videos (not counting Sweet Ophelia), but there are SO many videos of her playing her songs live, in both small and large venues. Listening to Zella live really feels like you’re there with her, just enjoying music together; she just has that charm about her. In addition to her live performance of “High” that I linked earlier, this performance of
Sweet Ophelia, and this performance of
Hypnotic are some of my favorites from her. I also feel like I should specially mention the song “Sacrifice”. This song is a breathtakingly emotional work of art recorded for the film Insurgent, and one of my favorites from her.
Zella grew to possess very impressive technical skills one her guitar; in fact, she stated that one of her philosophies is that with her music, once you strip away all of the synthesizers, she should be able to play it on her guitar and still sound just as good. She uses this technique even now; she has posted a few Instagram live streams of her playing songs on the currently unreleased sophomore album with just her guitar and her beautiful voice. In 2016, she posted another vinyl single package; this time, it was the ethereal and almost experimental “Man on the Moon”, and the dreamy lullaby “Hunnie Pie”. Both of these songs are breathtakingly beautiful, especially the former. They explore the experimental realm that I never thought she’d go to; both songs are trippy and rife with feeling. Since then, she hasn’t dropped anything new, but she has confirmed that her second album should be coming out this summer. And if it’s anything like Kicker, which is an exemplary summer masterpiece, it’ll be perfect. So far, she has actually played quite a few of the songs live, like the Carribean themed bop
“Milk and Honey” that will almost certainly be my song of the summer and the western folk banger
“Gypsy Girl” and if it follows the same format as
Kicker, we should be expecting an EP extremely soon.
Overall, I’d just love for more people to learn about Zella Day. She needs all of the fans she can get, and even though she does feel like a secret, I feel like she needs to be shared with the world. Writing all of this has improved my appreciation for her so much, and I hope that you guys take the time to read it. Thank you, everyone!
Also, here's some art I made for her. I'm not a great artist by any stretch, but I love drawing her things. And yes, I know my camera is trash.
Recoloring of the single cover for High. This remains the hardest drawing that I've ever done. I know I need to work on my blending skills :) :
https://i.imgur.com/1dtMf9Q.jpg
Recoloring and combination of the single covers for Man on the Moon / Hunnie Pie. I finished this only last week. I probably could've traced but I wanted to get more practice. Signature is censored:
https://i.imgur.com/2s64uGs.jpg
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