IN CONVERSATION WITH ZEINA

Interview by Celine Azena & Jana Letonja

Up-and-coming Montreal-based music artist Zeina has continued to become a social media sensation incorporating her multifaceted talents to promote her various platforms. Her music and style combine R&B and Y2K trends that evolve into a modern-day creative. 

You were a medical student before shifting your career path to music. When you think about how far you’ve come since your days sitting in a classroom, what would you say to that version of yourself?

I wish I could have a conversation with that girl. I want to tell her “This is not for you, stop trying to please everybody else. You know what you want to do, you have a good feeling, just go for it”. That girl got to that point eventually. I would like to be able to have a little bit more confidence in myself before I even embarked into med school. I wish I could have just been like “I want to do music” and stood on that, but a lot of outside influences and factors were really playing in my head. Trying to please my parents and even society in a sense, where you can only make it and have safety and stability as a doctor. There’s so many different ways, but you’re not exposed to it and taught that, especially as a daughter of an immigrant family.

Your music merges influence from the early 2000s, R&B and Arab culture. How do you find balance in incorporating all these different elements into your music?

I think it’s about kind of how I am as a person. I am the balance in a sense. I grew up in the West, in America and my heritage is Middle Eastern. If anybody knows what that blend is, it’s me. I would listen to current music, not just deep diving into older music and taking inspiration from it, and just create my own melting Pot of what that sound is. I take a lot of inspiration from the early 2000s as well because it’s what I grew up in and it’s what inspired me to make music in the first place. I would watch TV and see Beyoncé and Shakira and Britney. I wanted to be that. I think the biggest mistake an artist would do is try to replicate something that exists already. I think you have to find truth in who you are, what your culture is, what generally resonates with you, what builds you as a human and make it your own.

This year you released new single ‘Whatever’, produced by Grammy-nominated Los Hendrix who has worked alongside artists such as SZA, Giveon, Brent Faiyaz and more. How did this collaboration come about and what was the overall experience of making this track?

I met Los Hendrix in 2017 through a mutual friend and I was a huge fan of his. Los was the producer on a lot of my favorite songs and when we met I was kind of geeked. We just connected and I asked him if he wanted to executive produce my album and he said yes. We’ve been tapped in ever since and I love him. He’s one of the best guitarists I’ve ever seen in my life, so he’ll sometimes start a little guitar melody or some chords on the guitar and stuff like that and then we’ll build off that. Or sometimes I’ll have a voice memo on my phone and then a melody pops into my head. I’ll just record it and ask Los if can we build a record over it. We’re very collaborative in that sense. He gets me, I get him and the job gets done well.

You often highlight ‘Mates’, a female-led collective that embodies powerful women pursuing their creative endeavors. As someone who cherishes friendships, how would you describe the inspiration you draw from those you surround yourself with?

I really think the ‘Mates’ are a big thing, so directly it’s like the girl group of the Arts in a sense. I have all my friends in it and they are part of the collective creators and that really inspires me. I’ve always been into fashion. For example, there’s a stylist and a designer in the collective and they inspire me because they’re experts in their fields. I’m just interested in that, so they’ll show me stuff that sometimes inspire a feeling inside me that I’ve always wanted to adventure in, but I’m not an expert of. I’ve always wanted to be surrounded by art and creativity and I kind of am now here, so I’m really grateful for it.

Zeina, you started songwriting around the age of 16. Can you take us through your songwriting process for your newly released single ‘Nasty’? 

Honestly, I must have been like 12. I used to play around with rhyming a lot. In school we had poems class that really got me excited about writing and I was having fun rhyming words. I think that’s kind of when I first discovered that it almost feels like a game to me. Writing a song feels like a crossword puzzle or feels like Sudoku or something, so I really enjoyed it. Then as you grow older, you stop wanting to rhyme and you want to tell the story and have an intention. 

It’s been a couple months that I’ve been incorporating other languages in my music and it’s honestly something that my parents have been trying to tell me to do since I was young. I listen to Arabic music, I listen to French music, I listen to English music and I’m a fan of it. If i’m doing it, it’s not gonna be corny because I will bring my own sauce and flavor to it. It’s been an interesting journey. It’s been hard to rhyme certain stuff or get the same cadences in pockets because Arabic music has a whole different music scale, a whole different chord progression then American music does. Sometimes it’s hard to incorporate it, but it’s a cool challenge. 

Following the tease of ‘Give me Time’ off ‘Eastend Confessions’ you have amassed over 400k TikTok followers, 90M views and 15M likes on your profile, earning you TikTok’s ‘Artist to Watch’ title in 2022. Social Media has become a major determinant in the music industry. Did you anticipate growing such a loyal following in a short period of time? Would you say social media has influenced your creative viewpoint?

When I collaborate with my team, we really come up with ways to make it creative. There’s no reason why a reel or a TikTok should feel corny. I feel like you can approach it with the same artistic approaches you approach a music video. You’re still telling the story, you’re still trying to build a world and express something. You have to approach it with that same care. It’s just a platform and it’s just a way to show people your world. 

I feel like people are so against it because they think it’s only trends and hopping on doing viral stuff. There is that side to it as well, but you can also use the platform very artistically. I think it’s about finding how you want it to work for you. I was blessed enough to collaborate with some people to create something special that resonated with people and that platform gave me the opportunity to be exposed. There’s always going to be a new thing and it’s never going to end, but you can’t just keep fighting things that can work for you. You have to make the best of what it can be for your artistry.

top and skirt(Custom) DAMINI BY DAMINI
shoes PALM ANGELS
jewelry ALEXIS BITTAR

The highly anticipated ‘Eastend Confessions’ project takes a deep dive into your duality and your Arab culture. Tell us more about the importance of highlighting MENA in your music career and how that is heavily incorporated into this project.

‘Eastend Confession’ is my mixtape. There’s a lot of storytelling. It’s called confessions for a reason, because it’s explaining what made me a person I am and basing it off a lot of things, like my culture and the city I’m from. Especially visually, you’ll see a lot of things with fashion because my collective is kind of based on that. 

It’s a really special project with a common theme. It talks about picking between money or love in a sense, having to grow in that world and make decisions that sometimes feel like career decisions and sometimes feel like you got to put your human side to the side. You’ll love later because now you’re on a mission. I think even the soundscape has a lot of inspiration from Middle Eastern percussions and drums and guitar and all those instruments that really come from the MENA region. I think it’s really special and it feels like a perfect blend between something that’s America and Western and MENA. I feel like there’s a lack of that representation on this side of the world and I’m just excited to put it forward and show this mixtape to the world. 

Can you tell us a little bit about how this project came into fruition? How has your overall creative experience been when developing the tracks for this project?

There’s been multiple versions of this project before it even got here. It’s been a couple years in the making, but we’re here now. As for the title ‘Eastend Confessions’, I was born and grew up on the East Coast and also I’m from the Middle East, so East end was the perfect explanation of all that. This is my first proper project that I’m putting out and I think it’s just about being honest. I write a lot of my records and it’s really me telling the story. 

I think I pull inspiration from a lot of things, like random stuff.  Sometimes my girls will come to me with some tea and then I’ll write a song about it. I’ll watch a movie and then have inspiration from that. But sometimes I’ll go through something. Music is therapy and music is storytelling. There’s inspiration everywhere. I’m very intentional about what records are where on the project and what records mean what. 

You’ve mentioned your love for fashion and emphasizing your individuality through your personal style. Can you take us through your biggest influences in current fashion trends? Who is your current style icon?

I’m trying to pull from my culture because I’m finally embodying my culture. It’s been a struggle growing up. It’s almost like when you were younger culture wasn’t cool, culture wasn’t something that you could be proud of because you got picked on for it. It’s something I muted a lot growing up and now I’m stepping back into my power. I’m going to stand up on who I am and where I come from and I’m going to do it with confidence because it’s me and and I’ve been tapping into that on the fashion side. 

There’s a lot of elements that I’ll put on, like a hooded dress or Middle Eastern accessories. They’re so beautiful and those are things I pull from, but I’m also a big fan of street wear. I also love high fashion, it’s kind of a melting pot of culture and Western fashion. Obviously, Rihanna is a big inspiration and she’s a fashion queen. I think Cher is incredible and she’s just a goddess, like Cleopatra.

This is just the beginning of your music journey. What can we anticipate from you in 2023? 

My mixtape is coming out and some interesting features that I’ve been working on that I’m really excited for. Hopefully also a couple shows. One of my goals that I’m manifesting is a tour, so hopefully I get to do that within this year. 

talent ZEINA MATES @zeinamates
photographer OSCAR OUK @oscarouk
stylist/Producer CELINE AZENA @celineazena
fashion direction RAZ
fashion assistant DAVID ATERE @David_atere_
hair IZUMI SATO @Izumisato
make-up KENTO UTSUBO @kentoutsubo
editor TIMOTEJ LETONJA @timiletonja