Zetapop by Zaeta

Seven years ago, a band I was in with some of my best friends imploded, and I was at a loss for what to do next. I felt like everything I had worked towards in life, namely, being in a teenage indie rock band, had been building towards nothing, and it felt in a way like it had never happened. I was lost and unsure of my capacity to carry on making music on my own, though I knew I had to. After some lengthy and deeply intoxicated talks atop a hill in Devon UK and furious notes app scrawling, I embarked on the dubious journey of making bleep blop sounds on the computer.

Recorded over 7 years in at least 5 bedrooms, Zetapop is a ship of Theseus of an album; very little of that initial period of experimentation is still there. Over the past 7 years, dozens, if not hundreds of songs have been intended for this album at one point or another, only to be cast aside or mutated beyond recognition. As time went on, my methods and tastes changed and I’d always insist that I was just on the cusp of figuring it out.

As more and more time passed, the pressure increased to make the Album Perfect™️, and more and more I lost sight of what it could be. No collection of songs could truly represent seven years of life lived, lessons learned, and skins shed.

I’m finally putting this out in an attempt to come to terms with that. This may not be the Perfect™️ version of this album. There may have been past versions of these songs with cleaner mixes, past versions of this album with better sequencing, etc. I’m sure there’s a plugin I’ll discover tomorrow that would’ve made all the difference. There may have been a better way to release it than out of nowhere accompanied by a rambling message. I’m not sure.

The act of creating is a journey of self discovery. Oddly enough, after all this time, this still feels like a first step.

- Z

#1 zetapop artist in the world