When that personal crisis was unleashed, Zola Jesus had already recorded the bulk of what is his work so far: five albums and three EPs that, in recent times, have been overshadowed by the controversies that the artist has starred in with some of the most prominent figures of the new world economy. For example, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and the couple of Elon Musk and singer Grimes, which you rated as the “voice of fascist Silicon Valley privilege.”
The clash with Grimes began after an interview that the Canadian singer had with astrophysicist Sean Carroll, in which he stated that, when Artificial Intelligence is sufficiently developed, it will be able to create better works of art than a human being can do. . “I do not blame anyone for being disconnected from reality, but talking about the future of music and art with such cynicism can only be done by a person who has nothing to lose,” said Zola Jesus in a Twitter message, explaining in more detail shortly after: “I totally agree that Artificial Intelligence has been used as a tool to make art beautifully. I also agree that it is important to discuss possible futures, but art is not always linked to technological innovation. Otherwise, why would I have studied to be an opera singer when the microphones exist?
Despite that clarification, the confrontation with Grimes and Zola Jesus continued the next day when Musk’s couple participated in the presentation of the Tesla Cybertruck. During the event, Grimes appeared as a hologram giving way to Elon Musk, whom he introduced as “My creator”. The comment did not sit well with Zola Jesus, who reaffirmed what has already been said in their social networks: “I felt bad for posting that shit yesterday, until I saw a video of Grimes on stage posing as an Artificial Intelligence and presenting Elon as ‘his creator’ and … I think my judgments are correct.”
For his part, the conflict with Daniel Ek occurred when the CEO of Spotify asked artists to change their work rhythms. The head of the platform streaming defended that the days when creators put out a new job every two or three years had passed. Now, according to Ek, the important thing was to publish topics continuously, which was answered by Zola Jesus with a message on your social networks in which he said: “It is very clear that Spotify billionaire Daniel Esk has never made music or art of any kind. He refuses to understand that there is a difference between merchandise and art. The advancement of culture will suffer for it ”.
The artist’s criticism of the Swedish-American platform has not simply remained in a scuffle with its CEO. Earlier this year, Zola Jesus lashed out at Spotify for having set up a fraudulent system. destined to pay less money than would correspond to the artists. According to the Russian-born singer, the company would have created fake musicians and songs that would be included in the playlists and would steal part of the cast from the real musicians, deriving that phantom share to Spotify itself.
To prove his claims, Zola Jesus pointed to a certain Jan Thier, a musician about whom nothing is known, who does not tour or give concerts, but who accumulates millions of reproductions of his songs in the lists that the company itself suggests to users. Despite the seriousness of the matter, after making the complaint on his social networks, Zola Jesus deleted all the tweets referring to this possible fraud, as he had already done with those of the controversy with Grimes and Musk.
However, this deletion is not a strategy of the singer to avoid more confrontations with those artists or businessmen that she considers little honest. In recent days, for example, he has lashed out at Taylor Swift on the occasion of the publication of new work, Evermore. For Zola Jesus, Swift “is doing cosplay indiewhile true artists indies they are destitute and cannot work / survive ”. Although in a following message he clarified that he had nothing personal with Swift, Zola Jesus reaffirmed his opinion that it was unfair that only those musicians who were already millionaires or who were supported by large companies, like Disney in the case of Swift, could be working at a time as complicated as the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite these controversies on social networks, Zola Jesus is able to find time to continue his musical career. The controversy with Taylor Swift, for example, comes a few weeks after the release of Krunk. This song, a version of a song originating in Armenian folklore, has been published by Zola Jesus on Bandcamp with the aim of raising funds for the Armenia Fund, an organization dedicated to helping the civilian population affected by the war in Azerbaijan. In addition to its charitable and vindictive nature, Krunk has the added attraction of hearing Zola Jesus perform a song that has not been written by her, something that it is not usual in the artist. “I don’t get used to the idea that you can sing a work of which you are not the author. That’s why I have problems with the versions of the songs. Because when you sing something, you proclaim it, and proclaiming what is not yours is dishonest. In that sense, opera was very difficult for me because I thought: ‘The only thing you’re going to do for the rest of your life is sing other people’s music.’ I never dared to do that. “
The sound of Zola Jesus
“It’s like pop music, but very loud and there is also opera.” So Zola Jesus described his work to one of her younger cousins when the girl, an “aspiring goth”, asked her what kind of music she made. Although it may be shocking, the definition is quite accurate. Zola Jesus, artistic name of the Russian-born artist Nika Roza Danilova, studied lyrical singing from the age of seven to seventeen, at which point she began a musical career in which, in addition to classical music, tastes played an important role. family musicals. “My father listened to Oingo Boingo, Dead Kennedys and Squeeze. That was my youth. When I was older, I met Residents and Throbbing Gristle ”, remembered.
After his high school stint, who approved in fewer years than the corresponding To escape the harassment and teasing to which she was subjected by her classmates as soon as possible, Nika Roza entered the University of Wisconsin. There he studied a double degree in French and Philosophy, disciplines that, in a way, have influenced the creation of his artistic personality, which combines two names with such historical weight as Zola and Jesús. “I do not believe in God. This is how I was raised. I respect that people believe in God or in religion. After all, it’s your life. If there was physical evidence, maybe I would consider it. The Bible and all these books written by people are stories, compelling, yes, and they teach you things about life and how to care for people. But taking them as a fact is really naive ”, declared the artist to the magazine LARecord.
Although God does not play a relevant role in her life, Émile Zola has marked the composer. The French writer is one of his favorite authors, although, he laments, “no one knows who Émile Zola is in the United States.” Even less in the place where she grew up, a house in a lost town in Wisconsin where there was no television or internet. “That has allowed me to learn about myself. When you live with a lot of people in a city you can get lost in the hustle and bustle. When you grow up in the field, you have nothing to stimulate you more than what you seek. Even if you want to be with people, you have to go looking for them. “
Despite the freezing temperatures, snow, loneliness, and the deer, deer, and pheasant diet that his father hunted for food, Zola Jesus was forced to return to Wisconsin in 2017, after spending several years absent for professional reasons. This is how he recounted that return in an interview with Magazine Pichfork: “There were times in life when I didn’t know why I was going on. I was really depressed and couldn’t write. I could not do anything. I was on tour and the way I interacted with my music became very masochistic, to the point that I felt that everything that happened in my life was destructive. Intuitively, I felt like I needed to go home, find stability. I moved to Wisconsin and everything started to fall into place. “
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