As her fans wait eagerly for new music, recording artist SZA breaks her silence in an interview with Rolling Stone. She explains that she is always making music, but took some steps back to work on herself.
The 29-year-old neo-soul visionary released three EP’s from October 2012 to April 2014. She then broke through with her major-label debut Ctrl in 2017. With a large fanbase she knows her following can get impatient. Yet, she also knows the importance of taking time to work on oneself and introspect.
“I can always make music. It’s who I am,” says SZA. “I am also getting to know myself. Because if I keep trying to regurgitate the same girl, y’all are going to hate that…”
SZA: Background in Marine Biology and Making Music
Solána Imani Rowe was born in 1990, in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in New Jersey. She says that she was born to a Christian mother and a Muslim father, and “raised orthodox Muslim. Very sheltered, very conservative.” Then, around 7th grade, when 9/11 happened, it “got weird and awkward,” and she recalls being “attacked and taunted.”
“I just wanted to be regular. At school, I wanted to fit in, so I would take my hijab off.” She also participated in high school cheerleading and competitive gymnastics. Growing up, SZA says that she “wanted to be liked and have a good time,” but that “it just wasn’t in the books for” her. After high school, she went to three separate colleges, studying marine biology, but dropped out during her last semester.
Around this time, she started working at various jobs to sustain herself. She also spent more time with her older brother, who wanted to make music. “I was depressed…and I didn’t have sh*t else to do.” Writing music was first rebellion and then developed into therapy, SZA explains.
Music was “just one thing I didn’t suck at,” says SZA. She self-released her first two EPs shortly after. “I was just making music in my homeboy’s closet, stealing beats off YouTube and SoundCloud.” Soon, she became the first female artist to be signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, a west coast label home to young artists like Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock.
Launching to the Spotlight with TDE
Bolstering the culture of creative, independent artists at the Los Angeles music powerhouse TDE, SZA was destined to eventually rise to the top and have a major impact on today’s music. But mainstream success did not come without challenges. She had to think about how to make a full album, and to “cultivate my ideas of ‘Who am I, sonically?’”
Although Ctrl was originally scheduled for a 2015 release, she says that it was delayed because “because of a kind of blinding paralysis brought on by anxiety.”
At the end, though, Ctrl earned her four Grammy nominations. Time magazine ranked it the best album of 2017. She also collaborated with Maroon 5 on the hit record “What Lovers Do” the same year. Next year, her collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on the original soundtrack to Black Panther earned a nomination for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.
SZA Takes Time for Mindfulness
On her next solo album, SZA says that she wants to look outwards and write about “the world.” “As long as you’re being honest and there’s intention in what you’re doing, then I think that energy permeates your field and becomes like a homing signal for other people with like energies. And then it’s, like, you draw each other in.”
What initially started out as her “rebellion” and turned into her own therapy has given SZA greater awareness about mindfulness and being connected to others. “I hope people who listen to my music feel like they’re with me, like we’re in it together and that it’s a group effort,” she says. She explains that she recently had a therapeutic experience working with industry legend Rick Rubin at Kauai. She calls it “a very healing place. It fits my brain.”
Listen to SZA’s Ctrl here.
