In the past year, LA based (but Oregon raised) ZZ Ward released a mix tape, an EP and a full-length album. 2012 was a pretty busy year for her and it’s already paid off; she’s been lauded as quite the new sensation with her soulful hip-hop fusion. With the latest installment in Ward’s prolific 2012 releases, studio album Til The Casket Drops, Ward has taken to the road on a two-month nationwide tour. She recently made a stop in Seattle where I got a chance to talk to her about her influences and how her northwest roots have affected her music.
Brigit Anderson: Within the last year you’ve just been releasing so many different things so what changed in 2012 that all of a sudden you started producing so prolifically?
ZZ Ward: I think that you know I just found my sound. It was me and Evan, Evan is my manager, and we had a talk one day and I I moved down to LA and I’ve been down in LA for a little bit and he was like “just stop thinking about what people want to hear” and just write music that feels good to you and make music that you like and then just we’ll put it out there and see what people think so that was really kind of the changing moment for me where I really just started doing my own thing with it. I did the record, and the mix tape.
BA: What were you doing before?
ZW: Well I had moved down to L.A. from Oregon and I didn’t know what I was going to do or where I was going to start. I just started booking a bunch of shows at places and trying to play out and Evan discovered me on MySpace so um I started working with him and he started getting me co-writing with a lot of good writers. So a lot of songs that I didn’t use but I learned a lot from the co-writing and I was doing that and just trying to do everything I could – carrying my stuff to all my shows, my guitars, my keyboard and microphones and my stands so it would just be a big event trying to book all these shows and play places.
BA: Your music is being lauded as a hybrid of soul, jazz and hip-hip so what’s your own musical story – your musical history?
ZW: My parents were into the blues. They would always Muddy Waters, Big Momma Thornton, Robert Johnson stuff and I kind of didn’t really like it at first and then I started to get really into it when I was about twelve. At the same time, my old brother was into hip-hop so I would take his Nas and Jay-Z CDs. I loved hip hop and I loved the stories of getting out of wherever you were even though their stories were different from mine, and rising above and becoming something more. That was really inspiring to me. I love hip-hop rhythms and the sincerity of the blues.
BA: Growing up in the northwest, how did this area contribute to that upbringing and your music in general?
ZW: Where I grew up is very different from where we are right now. Where we are in Seattle, this is a city. I grew up was in the sticks, in the middle of nowhere. I grew up was about half an hour outside of Roseburg, which is 20,000 people on a 23 acre farm lot. We’re an east coast family that moved from Pennsylvania so we weren’t farmers but we had all this land. The thing that I say is really, you know, being in Oregon and I had so much time occupy, to be creative. That’s what I got into. I got into songwriting and music because it was something to do. Yeah, that’s how it shaped me.
BA: How do you find, compared to your other shows, your hometown shows?
ZW: I’m actually more nervous – I don’t really get nervous – when I play hometown shows I get kind of like whoa there are so many people I know in the audience! It’s kind of a trip because of everything that’s happened since I moved. It’s crazy. They are so supportive of me in my own town. There are so many people that are so supportive. It was an awesome show and so much love in that room.
BA: Do you consider Portland, those shows, those Oregon shows, more so hometown shows than LA?
ZW: You know, that’s a good question. It’s kind of, it’s interesting. L.A. is home for me now, but Oregon is also home. It’s like having two homes! It really is. Different – very different. The LA crowd is very different.
BA: How so? I’ve spent next to no time in LA!
ZW: There’s a lot of music that happens in LA. People, they like to observe and a lot of industry. Up here in Oregon, people – they see some music but they’re ready to have a great time you know what I mean? They’re going to get crazy with it so they’re different in that way.
BA: You were saying when you got to LA you were playing with a bunch of different people – how did you get hooked up with the current band?
ZW: A nephew actually produced over half the record – he’s a good friend of mine, incredible talent. He’s from North Carolina and we’d be talking about how I wanted to play these songs that I’d written and I needed a band. He had a good friend named Eric, who since that talk, has been my music director and guitarist. Eric helped me put the band together, so that’s how it went. They’re all from the south, my band, and they’re great guys. We live together out here so it’s important that we all get along and we do! We have a great time; we have a really great time.
BA: With the songwriting, how much is it your writing the songs and bringing it to them and how much is it collaboration?
ZW: I actually met my band after I wrote the record and after the record was finished.
BA: What kind of venue do you think your music fits the best it? Where do you feel most at home?
ZW: They’re all so different! We just played a theater up in Colorado and everyone was sitting down which was cool and I got them all up and standing by the end. They had a great time. Then we play festivals, but I would say it doesn’t really – I can’t answer that because venue doesn’t matter as much as the crowd. It can be six people or it can be 6,000. If they’re into it then I’ve having a great. I’d rather play for 6 people that are into it than 6,000 that aren’t or vise versa.
BA: Do you have a best show experience?
ZW: There are shows that are great. There are shows that aren’t as great. When you’re doing it every night, there are going to be shows that aren’t going to be the greatest thing ever because you have nowhere to go.
BA: When you’re doing it every night — how do you find the motivation – it’s your music so it’s what you’re doing—but if there’s a night you’re just not feeling it how do you go out and do it?
ZW: My fans help me. I meet all my fans after the show or anyone who wants to meet me — I like hearing what my record means to them and seeing the smile on their face from meeting me.
