Zzzahara

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter zzzahara shares the new single/video, “In Your Head,” and announces their first North American tour dates in support of the new album, Spiral Your Way Out, out this Friday, January 10th, on Lex Records.  Following recent single “It Didn’t Mean Nothing,” “In Your Head” features slowburn melodies and fuzzy shoegaze guitars with reeling riffs and heartsick lyrics evoking early Title Fight.
 
“In Your Head” was co-produced and written alongside former Ducktails guitarist Alex Craig (Jelani Aryeh, re6ce). “Alex messaged me on Instagram one day and I ended up meeting up with him,” zzzahara says "I think we talked about a million things before we started working on music. Every time I work with him we just shoot the shit for an hour or so! We were geeking out on old school emo and all our hot takes on current artists. We also were nerding out on our favourite riffs and that’s how 'In Your Head,' was made. Alex is definitely one of my favourite guitar players. We worked for like 9-10 hours without eating. I’ll never forget how hungry I was."

The accompanying video by Bethany Michalski pays homage to mid 2000s emo and punk videos a la Paramore and Fall Out Boy, reflecting zzzahara’s unabashed embrace of their formative emo and punk influences for the first time, revisiting artists like Bright Eyes and Broken Social Scene while going through a newly minted Elliott Smith era.

Made in a three-month burst that let all their pent-up frustrations loose, Spiral Your Way Out is in part a work of self-reclamation. With a broad church of influences, zzzahara’s vocal style and knack for earworm melodies act as a throughline without tying the album to a specific genre. There is a certain ease to zzzahara’s music that's rooted in the ebb and flow of their life. They pick up the guitar and write every day, clinging to the most memorable riffs and melodies like lights in the dark. After a year of upheaval, zzzahara finally feels “calm.” The musical equivalent to going several rounds on a punching bag, Spiral Your Way Out finds solace between extremes. It licks its wounds in a place where pain and love, healing and abandon, sit side-by-side. If it has a message, it's one of standing tall in your own shoes – scuffs and all.