Zola Jesus on Secluding Herself in Nature to Write Big Sounds for Her New Album

Gerry Doot

It often takes several albums and many years to achieve even a modicum of success in the music industry. To write and create one song can take weeks or even months to complete, especially if that artist is also doing the production. This is what makes Nika Danilova, aka Zola Jesus, such an amazing artist and writer.

Zola Jesus is preparing to release her fourth full-length album, all of which have come before the age of 25. With this latest record, “Taiga,” Danilova is proving to be is a truly artistic voice who is capable of making a bold statement both sonically and visually.

Zola Jesus spent three years working on “Taiga.” She wrote and produced almost everything herself, but brought on Dean Hurley to complete the vision.

“I always do it on my own. That’s how I work,” Danilova said. “I feel if I don’t write everything myself it doesn’t feel genuine. I’m a musician, so I write (laughing). I worked with a co-producer (Hurley) on the album, but I produced most of it and wrote it.”

With so much music already in her catalog, Danilova made it a point to create something more personal and thought-out. Artists are often pressured to put out albums regularly, which can make them feel rushed. But Danilova spent nine months on Vashon Island in Washington, embracing nature. The time allowed her to develop material and to let it mature, rather than releasing it to the world to soon. The result is a more liberated sound and a sharper message from a young heart.

“I gave myself three years to write this album,” Danilova said “Throughout that three years I honed my skills, I opened up my voice, I opened up myself. I got over a lot of the things that were holding me back as a musician. In the past I felt like I only had a couple weeks to write records and this time I had years. It gave me a lot of time to know exactly what I wanted for myself as a musician.”

Being on Vashon Island must have been a magical place to write. The name of the album comes from the Taiga tree, a plant that thrives in cold weather and is found mostly in places like Russia (where Danilova’s family is from) and along the American/Canadian border. Having been raised in Wisconsin on a large plot of land, nature was an abundant and regular part of her life growing up.

“I grew up in forests, and my family has Russian ancestry,” Danilova said. “They moved from the Taiga to Wisconsin, where there are also Taiga forests. But it was really about tuning to a sense of home and a sense of freedom.

“Some people grow up in the city and they feel more comfortable when they are in the city, but I grew up in the countryside, so I feel more comfortable in the countryside,” Danilova continued. “I feel like I’m at home. Taiga was about that, about getting to that place. I feel more comfortable in places where there are less people. Cities overwhelm me. The idea of society and culture are just too [much] sometimes. I feel like I’m more in tune with the world when I am part of it. Another theme on Taiga is man vs. nature. The idea of how man feels so alien in these places that are so comfortable, like forests. Why do we build all these cities to protect us from the natural world?”

Writing an album can bring a sense of exploration. Danilova embraced this idea to the fullest, traveling from Vashon Island to a variety of destinations including Vermont and Iceland.

“I was living in Washington state on this island for nine months and that was very powerful,” Danilova said. “Then I put everything in storage and moved around and went to all these different places. They share something, but at the same time are very different. It all wove into this quilt that inspired me.”

After traveling and finding that inspiration, Danilova was back in the studio. But unlike previous records, she brought in Dean Hurley to elevate the record to a point she could not do alone.

“He brought so much more than I would have expected,” Danilova said. “I was ready to bring him the fully produced songs that I had written and we would record vocals and that’s it. But immediately I just felt a trust with him and a loyalty. He wanted the record to be as big as I wanted it to be. I let him in way more than I thought I would. I would bring in my songs and say ‘this is what I am going for.’ The stuff I had done was an approximation of what I wanted, which was fine for my last record but for this record I wanted to actually do it. I wanted real brass instead of fake brass. Things like that. I went the extra mile to fully-realize my vision and I couldn’t have done it without him.”

The first single from “Taiga” is “Dangerous Days.” At its root, it is a pop song that layers rich textures and goes into similar themes outlined in the meaning behind Taiga. However, it goes even deeper. It is an exercise in modern thought.

“‘Dangerous Days’ was an experiment in making a really paranoid dance song,” Danilova said. “I wanted to make an extremely catchy pop song, but I wanted to have a message you don’t normally see in radio pop. I wanted it to be a conspiracy theorist pop song. The song is about how we are getting so much misinformation in this age and how it’s getting harder and harder to find the truth. You’ve got to dig and be incredibly skeptical more than ever. Don’t take everything at face value. Ask questions. Look for the core of the truth of what you’re learning because you are very likely getting the wrong information.”

The track “Dust” begins with a slower R&B groove that builds gradually and ends with a much heavier drive. The song proves to be a shining example of Danilova’s songwriting ability, but apparently it didn’t come about quite as planned.

“I had the song but I had no production, I was ready to put the song on the album a cappella,” Danilova said. “We added a very minimal beat and we both put on our headphones and started brainstorming ideas for having this big climactic end, it was like a puzzle. I played mine and when Dean played his I was like ‘you’ve got this!’ So that was Dean. There is no way I would have come up with something that beautiful. That was the moment I realized this record couldn’t be what it was without Dean. He was taking what I had written and turning it into something more universal than just me.”

Writing a song does not follow a formula.  And sometimes a song can develop as quickly as it is sung.

“Sometimes songs just come, sometimes it takes a beat, sometimes it takes a concept, sometimes it’s a war. It really depends on where I’m at,” Danilova said. “I got really into classical music and opera while writing this record. I became obsessed with Maria Callas, Vogner, Moller, then I got really into hip hop. I love the way it uses beats, rhythm, and groove. Also early R&B like Sam Cooke, that’s where the songwriting comes from.”

Zola Jesus’ “Taiga” comes out October 7 on Mute Records.