Stage fright, record writing and arguing with Mike Patton: TLOBF chats to Zola Jesus

She was raised in the tiny Wisconsin town of Merrill before relocating to Los Angeles. She underwent 10 years of operatic vocal training. She cites influences that range from Serge Gainsbourg to Throbbing Gristle. ‘She’ is Zola Jesus, and she is without a doubt a very intriguing character. When The Line of Best Fit catches up with the pint sized singer, we’re sat in a shaded corner of the End of the Road Festival in Dorset. Already a fairly magical setting, the whole experience is made to feel even more surreal as Zola Jesus, real name Nika Roza Danilova, faces us wearing a floaty white cape and large, black 80s shades. Well read, well spoken with an intimidatingly vast musical knowledge and a wisdom that seems well beyond her 22 years, it’s immediately apparent that Zola Jesus has just as much presence off stage as she does on.

“I just knew that I was ready to record again.” states Nika, referring to her latest album, Conatus. “I spent about 5 months working on new songs, then I got started and I had one thing in mind about what I wanted it to be. By the time the record was done, it was completely different which was really exciting, because I could tell that there was an organic influence happening. Something happened to the record half way through where it totally changed.”

Conatus is a showcase of minimal, gloomy synth-rock, all held in place by that unmistakable, immensely powerful vocal of hers. In some ways, the music on her latest offering is typical of what we’ve come to expect from Zola Jesus, but in others, it marks a departure from her previous work. “I think I thought about things more, because I wanted it to be almost an inversion of Stridulum[II]. To do that, I really had to think about the things that I did on Stridulum[II] that I thought could be improved, or could be changed or they would benefit from doing the opposite. It was fun, I felt like I could do anything. Now, even more so, now that I went through that process and had so many days of working like that, I just feel completely liberated.”

Zola Jesus – Seekir

The successor to 2010′s Stridulum II and 2009′s The Spoils, Conatus is Zola Jesus’s third album in as many years and sits alongside four EPs that she managed to squeeze into that time too. Third time around, was the album writing and recording process any easier? “It was cool, but at the same time, the process was so difficult and challenging because I wanted to create something that I’d never done before and work with things I’d never worked with before, like a producer and strings, and things like that. So it was definitely a learning curve, which I like because I like that challenge.”

For an album which was reportedly so challenging to make, there’s a real sense of cohesion and symmetry to the tracks on the album, so which of the songs in particular caused a problem when recording? “All of them!” Nika responds, “Literally, every song has its own story where at the last minute, I was like ‘How am I going to make this something?!’ I just wanted to trash everything, even though they were good songs. I threw away a lot of really good songs, and listening back now, I’m like ‘wow, I thought that was terrible – I didn’t put that on the album?! But it was such a good song!’ I think everyone struggles with that.”

Zola Jesus is an artist who gathers inspiration from a number of sources, Stridulum II was influenced by 1970s Italian horror films for example, whereas her name is an ode to Emile Zola and a little known religious figure… named Jesus. With a deep interest in philosophy and literature as well as a vast range of musical influences, the subject of cultural inspiration for her latest release is raised. “I was listening to a lot of electronic music, a lot of IDM and Breakcore. Not a lot of people are doing that kind of music anymore and I think that was the last time that I was really excited about electronic music – I felt like people could do anything with it. I was reading a lot of interesting things, a lot of books about isolated people – characters that felt removed from society, and in a way, I related to that a lot so it brought that out of me. There’s a lot that I was taking in, but I don’t know how much of it came out like that.”

It’s quickly becoming apparent that Zola Jesus is a prolific music maker, not only when left to her own devices, but on a collaborative level too. The most recent of these unions to surface is her vocal featuring on the opening track of the imminent M83 record. “It was amazing! I love him so much and it was really interesting how it happened. I was really obsessed with the idea of working with him, so I emailed my manager and said ‘please get in touch with Anthony, I really want to do a collaboration with him or something, I just want him to know that I love him’. And then the next day, my manager forwarded me an email from his manager saying ‘Anthony wants to get in touch, he really wants to do a collaboration with Nika’. My manager hadn’t even sent the email, it was amazing! So I was like, ‘of course!’ Then we got together because he lives in LA, and we just hit it off. We have a lot in common, we talked about movies and soundtracks. We talked about Werner Herzog, a lot of foreign films, French films and things like that. It was really funny. So then I worked with him, and it was great!”

M83 – Intro (Feat. Zola Jesus)

“Last weekend, I played at the Hollywood Bowl for this Serge Gainsbourg tribute.” responds Nika, when asked of other musical idols she’d had the opportunity of working alongside. “I love him so much. But I met Mike Patton, and I don’t think he realised just how much he means to me. And how much he still, to this day, means to me. It was amazing being around him and being able to talk to him. We got in a couple of arguments which I don’t know if I’m proud of! Just about making music but in a way, it was really productive because I got to see how he works and how he thinks about his music. I just respect the hell out of him. For me, he was one of the most exciting people to meet because I’ve loved what he’s done since I was a small child.”

Zola Jesus’s live shows are renowned for her striking performances and most notably, the unfathomably powerful vocal that emits from her petite frame. Since the release of Stridulum II, Nika has had a lot of time spent on the road to perfect her live show, but hints at not necessarily enjoying the performances as much as she would have us think. “I like seeing the world, and I love my band and spending time with them, but I’m more comfortable when I’m home. I don’t really like playing live, but I feel like I need to do it for the people who listen to the music. I feel like I’m lucky enough to have a career where I can just do music and do something that I feel passionate about, so the least I can do is do some work!”

“It just terrifies me. I just try to put on this ‘I’m fine up here, I’m totally cool – you don’t notice anything!’ but it takes a lot to get me on that stage. I feel like anything can go wrong, and you can’t take it back when it happens live, so it’s stressful.”

A mere 22 years old, and Zola Jesus has already created a sizeable back catalogue than most musicians can only dream of, and there’s no sign of her slowing down any time soon. Nika’s clearly very driven to make music, and states that the skill comes to her quite naturally, but does she harbour the same ambitions nowadays that she set off with on the first record? “I think it changes every time I make a new record, because I think it’s really important for myself to evolve and constantly challenge how I make music and what I make. Every time I make a new record, it’s totally different and in a different environment or I’m inspired by something different. So yeah, it’s been interesting. It’s definitely been a journey… This is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do, my whole life. And I’ve never really known a passion besides this. There’s nothing else I’d want to do.”

Conatus is available now through Souterrain Transmissions.