Name: Zilched
Nationality: American
Occupations: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Zilched's Earthly Delights is out via Young Heavy Souls.
Recomendations: A painting: obviously The Garden Of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch.
An album: The Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven by Love and Rockets.

If you enjoyed this Zilched interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I think my eyes are mostly closed. Maybe not literally, but I feel the colors in my mind’s eye.
 
What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

My first steps were very conscious ones. Once I figured out the type of person I could admire, I aspired and followed by example.

So yes, I’d consider it more of a self discovery than a training, but I’d rate the bliss of “self discovery” extremely high on whatever scale we’re using.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Those were such important years for me. I had just started getting the hang of playing and music suddenly meant everything! Whether I was finding songs from VH1 classic, or through cool girls on tumblr. I felt flooded with constant discovery and inspiration for years.

My taste is still informed by this time, but I do miss that feeling.
 
What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

The key ideas behind my approach might just be to “lay it all out” and to think about what I’d like to hear more of.

What motivates me is inherent and inconsistent.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Discovered. I like to think it always comes from somewhere else…
 
Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

There’s so many stages when listening to my own records. Once I can’t make any changes I have to put it to rest. Then I try to come back and listen in that way, respect the piece as an overall sound.

My personal sound? I like to think of it as poisoned fruit or something.
 
Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

This is so basic of me but I’ve been comforted by the sounds of wind and water since I can remember. I love being by the water after the sun starts to goes down. When it’s quiet aside from waves and breeze ... maybe a bird or two.

I'd go far and say yes that’s music to my ears.
 
From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I love combining extremes. I think that’s one of my favorite things and a through line in all my work. Light/dark - masculine/feminine - profound context/simply put - simple pleasures/put profoundly.

The response they elicit from me? Feeling seen.
 
Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

The creative process for one of my favorite songs, “The Rosy Crucifixion.”



It’s how most of my songs get written but this is the longest one on the record for a reason. I had three or four key points that I needed to connect into one story in order to make sense of what I was going through.

So over the course of like a week; I would write all these points in as many phrases, words and rhymes as possible, then I would try to whittle it all down by combining and cutting over and over. The chords are simple and repeating, the story itself is repetitive but it all made sense winding back up where we started. Simplifying things in order to understand.

Musically I wanted to call back to a very classic sound that’s been done a million times. Because my story is not that unique, I just needed to say it in my own way.
 
Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I don’t think so … but maybe someone else could read into my process that way?
 
How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I am very self disciplined, most of my songs are me making sense and sorting out the issue at hand so I can have an easier time handling life itself.

As for the lessons … 100%! I’m a firm believer that people who “don’t really listen to lyrics” have a harder time understanding the world/their place in it.
 
Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Jeez this is so complicated. Yes and no??? I think there’s a subjective choice.

Ideally there would be no difference, in the best way possible.
 
Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

The whole Twin Peaks score maybe…

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

A wave of new(er) sincerity.