Emily Zuzik - December 2007 Flower-Powered Artist @ KGRL.fm.

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Official Website: http://www.emilyzuzik.com
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/emilyzuzik

While most people focus on their one and only career for their entire life, some people find their high in doing multiple careers all at the same time. Just ask singer/songwriter Emily Zuzik. She does that much to keep herself on her toes. Maybe it’s the challenge in doing a multitude of tasks that gets her all motivated, or perhaps it’s simply because she can do it.

Miss Zuzik hails from Southwestern Pennsylvania and is a granddaughter of a coal miner and a trucker. Singing has always been a passion for Emily, whether it is in school, theater or church. It was during 8th grade when she wrote her first song, Come Journey With Me. Little Emily, in her gunny sack dress sporting a short boyish haircut, sang this song in front of her schoolmates. This obviously worked as a starting ground for what will then be a long and fulfilling career.

Musical advancement did not come until the late 90s… this was the time when Emily started to have gigs and play with bands. San Francisco served as a training ground for Emily, as she played successive shows moving from one band to another (Funkmobile, Sexfresh, Shitty Shitty Band Band) refining her skills. While it earned her invaluable experiences, it got a bit rough for her after quite a while. Suffering a job loss and musical crisis, Emily decided to move out of San Francisco.

New York became the proving ground for Miss Zuzik, as she finally got her groove back shortly after the move. Whether it is the climate change or the music scene that invigorated Emily did not really matter. What matters is that it launched her solo career. February 2003 saw the successful launch of Emily’s first full-record, The Way It’s Got To Be. The record was met with high praise and acclaim from music critics and boosted her musical career status not only in New York, but also in the town where she left: San Francisco. A song off the record, "That’s The Way," was included in a compilation CD, called "Greatest Hits You've Never Heard," in UK for the benefit of breast cancer research.

Drawing critic’s attention is not the only benefit of producing a successful record. Perks like product endorsements also happen, such as the case when Emily was approached to be endorsed by Epiphone guitars. Such opportunity granted Emily the option to get a loaner for new instruments. One of the songs produced by having this opportunity was, Breaking It Down - a song that will in turn be one of the most successful tunes in her next record.

While the first record was a bit rough in terms of production (as it was self-produced), the next record was produced and mixed properly in studio with Joshua Kessler. Released on July of 2006, You Had Me At Goodbye presents Emily in rich, vibrant and glossy high-quality recording. The new record, as Emily puts it, is a "cross of Zero 7 with classic-rock Pink Floyd." What little doubt the music critics had for Emily being a come and go artist was wiped clean with the new release. The new CD had Emily’s musical career sky-rocketing.

A string of shows followed the release including a tour of London and UK as well as a come back show for the San Francisco area. Like it was said earlier, Breaking It Down gained enormous success for Emily. The song was selected for the Maybelline/Garnier/JANE 2007 Reader-Produced CD and will be promoted in Conde Nast/JANE Magazine's Music It-List.

But the music scene is not the only scene Emily is involved in. She is also a freelance writer, editor, graphic designer, magazine publisher, actress, copyeditor, and model. She works with fashion schools and designers in New York. Amongst her work is modeling a cover of the paperback reissue of James Bond's "Thunderball."

As complicated as Emily’s alter egos are, music also bears a common multi-faceted-ness in terms of musical collaborations. Co-writing with Benji Rogers is the main one, where they play folk/rock and are known as Marwood. Another is with bassist/producer Tim LeFebvre of New York, playing electronica and is known as mz. There is also an existing project with Sizzlax, DJ of London’s Dojo Studios, whose collaborative efforts with Emily are being considered for a yet unnamed pop star’s breakout solo album. Additionally, she is also knee-deep doing vocal work the indie cover band, Aki Is The Glue. And if that's not enough, she also has contributed backing vocals for Leslie Mendelson, The Wingmen, James Maddock, Will Hawkins,
Tom Glynn and Pi.

Emily's also active in the woman's music community as a performing member of Indiegrrl, SF's DivaBands and NYC's Womanrock collectives. She is also the Events Coordinator for showcases and special events of Womanrock.com. She is also co-founder of sirenswildride, a nationally touring collective of female singer-songwriters. In addition to this, she is a performing member of Folk Alliance and Songwriter's
Hall of Fame.

And the list goes on for the achievements and activities of KGRL’s December 2007 Flower-Powered Artist of the Month. Our introductory part might not be enough to cover the entirety of Emily’s stuff but we sure are presenting the most comprehensive feature regarding Emily and her music. KGRL is proud to present December 2007 Flower-Powered Artist of the Month, Emily Zuzik. Get to enjoy this month’s full on feature that includes: a CD review of You Had Me At Goodbye, photos, and the entire video stream of October 2007 performance at Tangier. We are also proud to present another KGRL video interview. Get to enjoy this month’s very comprehensive interview in video, audio and transcribed form.

Don’t forget, we’re also giving away three signed copies You Had Me At Goodbye CDs. It’s really very easy! Just e-mail us (contests @ kgrl.fm – remove spaces) and tell us why you deserve to win. Visit the contest page now for more info.

KGRL had a chance to go on a one on one interview with Emily Zuzik before her show at one of LA's hotspot, Tangier - 10.06.07.

Watch the exclusive Emily Zuzik video interview using the player below!
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Listen to Emily Zuzik's responses in High Quality MP3 Stream using the player below:

Transcription excerpt from the interview:

KGRL: You mentioned that you have been performing original materials since 8th grade. What was the first song you wrote?

Emily Zuzik: Yeah, that's funny. I did. I wrote this song, Come Journey With Me (laughs), and I taught [it to] a guy who played guitar and a guy who played drums in band (laughs) in my small Catholic school, and we performed it in front of the school. Now mind you, the whole K through 8th grade is maybe 72 people in all, but that was the first time I performed an original work in front of people.

Wow. Somebody has a videotape of that. That's going to rise to the surface someday and really embarrass me, because I had this horrible short haircut... [and] some white lacy gunny sack dress and short little boy haircut, singing this song, kind of a little awkward... But there it is! You've got to start somewhere.

KGRL: How long does it usually take for you to finish writing a song?

Emily Zuzik: From start to finish, it could be anywhere from months to 15 minutes. It's totally dependent upon the timing. For instance, I have a song on my album called Breaking It Down, and I wrote it out at my friend's place near Joshua Tree (California). I was out in the desert and I had my guitar and I started playing this melody. I don't even remember writing it down. I remember I must have had some part of it, but I ended up writing the song pretty much in 15 minutes and I kind of looked up and I was like, I don't remember doing it.
It's just here.

When I went back, on this trip that I've been to (my friend and I went out to his place again) and I had a new guitar. I was borrowing a guitar from Gibson because I'm with Epiphone, and Gibson and Epiphone are the same company. The thing they offer for artists they endorse (it's a great thing), is that you can go to the showroom and get an acoustic loaner, which is what I've been doing so I don't have to fly with a guitar. It's great. Love it, love it, love it, love it, love it (pounds on table). So I got this guitar, which is new to me.

The other thing I find is that when you have new instruments, a lot of times songs just come out of them. You just let yourself play it and then something will happen. Well, it happened again. Breaking It Down happened in the kitchen of that house. We got to the place out in Joshua Tree at night and went out to the front porch -- starry night, Milky Way, red moon rising on the horizon. I got the guitar out. I just started playing it and this song just came together. I wrote the melody and then I sat down the next day and wrote all the lyrics. So, you know, boom -- there's another song in the span of a day. So there's no formula.

-> READ the full transcript along with high/low quality mp3 of the Interview by Clicking Here! <-

You Had Me At Goodbye is the second full-length offering from Emily Zuzik that was released on July 2006. It does have enough potential to be the definitive EmZ record, thus far. But will it stand up, stand out when we start breaking it down with our review? I know it don’t matter to Jesus, but I do know that it does matter a lot to you flower-powered listeners, so let’s make it right by getting straight to it.

From the keyboard introduction to the instrumental fade-out, the song True To Yourself is pure brilliance. Every note in it makes justice of the description Emily used to describe this record "a cross between Zero 7 with classic-rock Pink Floyd." It is groovy and moody with effective highlights from the classic-rock style guitar playing and deeply resonant vocal work.

Segue is, well… a heavily synth-based segue to the next track, It Don’t Matter To Jesus. It Don’t Matter To Jesus sets the scale askew as it goes completely into the lo-fi / synth side of things taking the classic rock out of the equation. Don’t take that the wrong way though, it is an impressive track. It is relaxing and refreshing to listen to.

Then the next track hits us with such a lovely and infectiously catchy hook. Fascination is simply amazing. The first listen to this track left us feeling complete. It is a slow ballad that flows smoothly with the words that fits in perfectly with the mood, like puzzle pieces falling in the right places. It is slow without being boring at all, and is proven with repeated listens. For me, this song is already worth the price of the whole damn CD. It follows the logic of Destiny is to Zero 7 as Fascination is to Emily Zuzik. The live version even gives the exact same chills we feel listening to the album version (don’t just stare at this writing, go see it in the video stream section). EmZ, you had me at fascinating.

Where was I? Oh, right… The next song brings back the rock. Subtraction does not subtract to the list of excellent tracks, but rather adds to it. It’s in the same vein of True To Yourself only that this one presents more layers of musical instruments. The vocal work is once again top-notch, even evident in the filter processed parts. The keyboard solo is outstanding. It is groovy and truly a joy to listen to.

Potential takes on the rock-synth approach with a heavy edge. While it is not a bad song, it does stand out amongst the brilliant tracks as one that sounds like your average rock track at best. This may be the case while listening to this song on the CD, but all that changes in the live setting. It is a great live material for Emily as it shows how she rocks it out (go ahead and watch it, if you please.)

Stand Up, Stand Out brings us back to the sound that dwells in lo-fi reverie. While the song may not make it as one of our favorite tracks in the CD, it offers quite a relaxing and enjoyable listen throughout. This Time Around is a welcome change in pace after the last. Straight up pop-rock song with a very powerful bridge part that culminates in almost a silence - with only the sound of an acoustic guitar - followed by a crescendo before the next refrain. It’s almost like a roller coaster ride. This is definitely one of our favorite tracks.

It is true, tracks that were written in an instant are most likely to be one of the best, as it does not feel forced. Breaking It Down comes as such in that category. Wonderfully strummed acoustic guitar, soulful and sultry vocals, all tied up with a solidly crafted melody makes for another earcandy in this record. The live version never failed to give the same impression – with highlight on how Emily digs the palm-muted strums after that intense bridge (once again allow us to refer you to our video stream).

While not really the last track of the record, Make It Right is essentially it. It closes the album proper perfectly. Pretty ballad and a bit of vocal prowess in piano accompaniment always makes for a perfect sentimental closure for a near perfect record. The very last track of the record, Runner, is an instrumental which pretty much works as a reprise of the whole record.

What I can say to sum this review up is that this record definitely stands up to our very discriminating musical standards. While it is not a perfect CD, it is close to it. It has a lot of variety in it: lo-fi, ballads, rock, and a hint of trip hop. Basically, it boils down to me highly recommending this record to everyone who loves good music.

You Had Me At Goodbye CD - Buy It Now (Click Here)!

Tracklist:

True To Yourself
Segue
It Don't Matter To Jesus
Fascinating
Subtraction
Potential
Stand Up, Stand Out
This Time Around
Breaking It Down
Make It Right
Runner

All pictures were taken by KGRL.
First picture in second row is Emily with Celia Chavez.
Second picture in second row is Emily with Celia Chavez and Pi - That Crazy Chick.

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KGRL proudly presents the full video stream of Emily Zuzik's performance @ Tangier 10.06.07. Celia Chavez sings the background vocals. Pi - That Crazy Chick sings background vocals in Breaking It Down. The streams can be viewed using our embedded flash player. We do hope you will enjoy these wonderful videos!

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This Time Around	Magic	Miss You When You're Gone
Fascinating	Breaking It Down	Matter Of Time

Potential

Feature Credits:

Special thanks goes to Emily Zuzik, Pi, and Celia Chavez.