Those in the crowd for Zella Day’s set couldn’t take their eyes off her. Performing for the first time at weekend one of Austin City Limits music festival, the vibrant 26-year-old commanded everyone’s attention with her piercing blue eyes and her electric red guitar.
Inspired by the likes of Liza Minnelli, Zella Day is a natural-born performer. With her first album, _Kicker_, released in 2015, the gap between then and now shows growth in her voice as well as her lyrics. Adopting the mindset that the world is your stage, the singer has her sight set on her upcoming record _Where Does The Devil Hide_.
_Flaunt_ visited with Zella Day before she took the stage and talked musical rebirth, authenticity and song inspiration.
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**How are you feeling before your set?**
Peaceful. Usually, I get into this kind of mode that's just like well, all of the work that could have been done, it's already been done. There's no more time left to do any more work or preparation. It's time to just enjoy.
**Can you describe your sound and what you go for?**
What do I go for? I go for being the most authentic and raw; trying not to be derivative of anything, which is hard when you're listening to a lot of music. So sometimes… when I go into write or to record, I don't listen to music. Actually going for something that's as as original as possible.
**What’s your favorite thing about performing?**
I really like when I forget that I'm there. That's kind of the only place that allows that kind of escape to happen. It's a really uninterrupted space as much as you're receiving a lot of energy from the audience. It's the space that you get to actually live inside the world that you've created. So it becomes a bit out of body and when that happens, when that kind of out of body experience is flickering throughout the set, I know it's a good set and I know that I'm really connected to the music.
**What do you like about performing at festivals? Are you the type to go around and talk to the other artists?**
It depends. It really depends on the festival. It depends on how everything is set up. This \[festival\] kind of seems like a festival that’s been going on for a long time. So people are probably excited to return and there's some familiarity and people are relaxed and wanting to hang out and see other acts. So when the lineup is strong, like it is now, people are gonna hang out and watch music because as much as we are artists, we're also fans.
**It’s been 3 years since you released you last album. How has your music changed since?**
My sound regrowth…t was kind of a deconstruction process. ‘Kicker’ is really maximalist. And its approach, big pop, record, big pop alternative record. So for some songs, you know, you have your Jamison, it's more of an acoustic ballad. But the EP that was made with Dan was a completely different process of getting in the room with a group of musicians and recording throughout the span of about four days. And then writing two days prior before the days that we recorded and recording the tape. And it was really about capturing what was in the room, instead of, you know, really messing with the track months on months and doing overdubs. It was like what we got was what we got, and it was live.
**What do you take inspiration for when you’re songwriting?**
Yeah, it depends on where I'm at. A lot of the record, I wrote songs in my living room. So there's this particular corner with a sitting pillow that I would sit at every morning with a cup of coffee and do a meditation and write music. That was really inspiring to have that quiet place. In Long Beach, California is super inspiring to me. I live there after moving from Arizona to California. My whole mom's side of the family is from Long Beach and feels like a second home. \[I\] spent a lot of time there and \[I’m\] really inspired by that place. Also, my sister…\[I’m\] so inspired by my sister. We live together and she trains horses for a living and I call her Hollywood cowgirl.
**What are your hobbies outside of singing?**
I'm into roller skating…Before the pandemic, I was really into going and finding weird, obscure roller rinks around California. \[I’d\] take trips just to go to some weird rundown roller rinks.
**What are your plans in the future? Do you have anything going on?**
I'm releasing a record at the top of next year, and going on a tour in November for 20 days opening up for Silversun Pickups. Then next year, we'll just be supporting the record.
**How did you come up with the title, _Where Does The Devil Hide_?**
I kind of just pulled that out of sky as just a metaphor for what I was feeling at the time.
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