‘Strange’ by J Hacha De Zola
Exclusive track premiere of ‘Strange’ by Jersey City-based J Hacha De Zola.
J Hacha De Zola is currently in the studio completing the follow-up to his mid-2021 album ‘East of Eden’. After a recent session, he stepped back into the vocal booth to shoot a four-song “visual EP” of songs from his previous releases.
The release, entitled ‘Not Acoustic’, features Hacha De Zola accompanying his solo vocal takes with spare instrumentation, Spanish spoken intros, false starts, and everything else that makes these performances real and compelling. Even though the audio will drop on all streaming services on Jan. 28th, Hacha De Zola is most excited for the “visual EP” version.
“It’s a special distinction that I want to make here,” he explains. “The performance on video is the main focus. I think that hearing the audio of these performances hits differently. Seeing me do these select tunes in a personal, as if you are in the same room with me kind of way… this is how I want to present this EP.”
The stripped back versions of songs that have earned Hacha De Zola critical acclaim (‘Strange’ and ‘Blue Sky’ originally appeared on the debut album ‘Escape From Fat Kat City’ in 2016, ‘Anarchy’ is from 2019’s ‘Icaro Nouveau’, and ‘Lost Space’ is a 2021 ‘East of Eden’ cut) reveals these compositions in a way that Hacha De Zola’s “reductive synthesis” approach to recording could not.
“I want to give a sense of how these songs are fleshed out before “studio magic” comes into play,” he says. “It’s important to see and hear the imperfections. The majority of my songs are written in the studio, but that wasn’t the case with this particular set of tunes, some of my favorite ones at that.”
He concludes, “This is the real me – ugly, imperfect, and flawed – and I hope that maybe other folks will be inspired to express themselves as they are and let the bones fall where they may.”
J Hacha De Zola is currently completing his sixth full-length album for release later in 2022. His ‘Not Acoustic’ EP, a four-song compilation of favorites from his catalog performed solo in the studio is out Jan. 28th, 2022.
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