Arya Zappa

Arya Zappa is an artist in the purest sense.  On her new album, Dark Windows, Zappa’s songwriting dissects the deepest parts of her persona, exploring the evolution of her identity, the mundanities of life, and the surreal through a minimalist, hypnotic synth-driven sound. But beyond her captivating music, Zappa pours an immense amount of her artistic talent into several accompanying visual works. These dynamic and highly compelling music videos, which are largely inspired by Zappa’s own dreams, string together scenes that could only come straight from her vast imagination. In addition to a dark, film-noir styled video for her single “Now & Always,” Zappa pieced together music videos for her songs “Wild Heart,” “Falling,” and “Cut Grass” to create a stunning 15-minute short-film that depicts surreal scenes sourced straight from her dream journal. 

Dark Windows, and the accompanying short-film, are out now. I had the pleasure of speaking with Zappa via e-mail about her artistic beginnings, her inspirations, and what’s next for the Berlin-based artist:

You’re a multidisciplinary artist that has created some stunning and powerful visual works to accompany your music.  Tell us a little bit about your background as an artist. How did you first start playing music? Do you have a background in film and/or other visual mediums?

I started quite early as a child to paint and make sculptures with my toys and stuff I found around the house. I also loved listening to my parent's record collection while performing in my mom's clothes and make-up for my invisible friends. Initially, I didn’t want to become a musician, music came to me a bit later. As a child I dreamed of becoming a scientist or archeologist and later in my teens, I wanted to become a painter and sculptor and also a dancer. I ended up studying media art and don't have a background in film, but as an autodidact it’s quite easy for me to manifest my ideas, using different media and tools. I enjoy learning and trying new things.

You’ve lived in Berlin for most of your life. It’s a city with a well-documented history of inspiring some incredible art and music. How has the city and your surroundings influenced your work?

I live in Berlin for a long time but not for most of my life. Berlin gives me the freedom and space I need and it makes it possible for me to work with a lot of amazing and inspiring personalities. Here I found solitude to comprehend my true self and authentic artistic vision. It might sound strange, as most people come here to party, but you can find both extremes in this amazing city I suppose.

2020 has been a strange year in many ways. With the pandemic and resulting lockdown orders, how have you been passing the time? Have you been inspired to continue creating? 

The pandemic didn’t change much for me. I spend most of my time either in the studio or I’m reading, building stuff while listening to interesting Podcasts. Of course, I missed hanging out with my friends. But it was ok since could use the time to get a bit more into meditation and consciousness research, digging deeper into the work of Tom Campbell and Dean Radin. 

Your new album, Dark Windows explores a lot of personal events in your life, including your identity and its evolution and growing to accept your voice. Was it challenging to explore these parts of yourself through your music and art? 

Yes, it was. It’s very difficult for us to face our true selves when we’re not aware of our fears, and It's not easy to get rid of ideology and programming. I struggled with my voice for most of my life which is a great obstacle considering that the voice is a direct expression of our personality. Overcoming this was a great adventure and that’s exactly what drives me. I love life, sharing, connecting, and learning. I had to go through a few difficult events in my life, to understand that growing up is a beautiful process that is very fulfilling. 

There’s a certain film-noir, dark visual aspect to your work. As a multi-disciplinary artist, what role do you play in creating your music videos? Do you typically collaborate with others? How do you execute your vision?

I collaborate with others to execute my ideas, but I insist that they follow my script meticulously in order to have an authentic outcome. It might sound a bit strict but ultimately it’s beneficial for the project in terms of focus and speed. For example, it allows the director of photography to stay completely focused on capturing the atmosphere and aesthetic rather than to worry about whether a prop, color or frame makes sense. Until the start of the shooting, I just follow my intuition and gather ideas. Even when they don’t make sense instantly, they fall into place eventually. My creative process is quite emotional and intuitive.

The songs on “Dark Windows” are really synth and beat-driven and definitely feel haunting. I read you have a background in techno, but I also hear influence from goth bands like Bauhaus and minimalist, rhythm-focused punk acts like Wire and Magazine. Who are some of your key musical inspirations that have influenced your sound?

I love Bauhaus, Magazine, and Wire. Right off the Bat I would ad Dead Can Dance, Television, Talking Heads, The Slits, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Simple Minds, David Bowie, A Flock Of Seagulls … and so on and so on. 

The song “Cut Grass” stands out to me because it addresses the blunt inevitability of death and the mundanities of life. The song was inspired by the Philip Larkin poem of the same name. What was it about the poem that resonated with you?

Every day we put so much energy and effort into so many pointless activities - perfection lawn care is just one of many rituals we perform without questioning them. We do all these things just to distract from the fact that everything is ephemeral and none of those things ultimately mean anything. “Cut Grass” is a tender piece of poetry full of love for life, which suggests not to take ourselves seriously.

“Now & Always” is a really powerful track and that’s also inspired by Phillip Larkin. When did you first discover his work and how has it influenced your songwriting?

I discovered Larkin through Captain Beefheart who mentioned him as one of his biggest influences. Indeed Larkin is one of the greatest poets of all time. I consider him the greatest contemporary poet. His clear and simple style is quite unique and refreshing.

Accompanying the release of Dark Windows is a three-part short film that reflects your dream diary.  Dreams can be very disjointed and surreal, which you really manage to capture in film, as it cuts to different scenes in an almost inexplicable, non-linear fashion. How did you decide to sequence the video? What was the planning process for that? 

It took me two months to put my ideas into a script, three days for us to shoot all three parts and a month to do the editing. John Tattersal and Falko Sixel directed the short film for me. John is an excellent cinematographer with a lot of experience who was also the director of photography. We understand each other intuitively. He is very curious, has a great eye for details, and is very good at improvising which is an important aspect of our creative process. Falko is very well organized and has a great understanding of the technical part. Both had to travel to Berlin for this project, John from the Fiji Islands where he was shooting a for a big US TV show and Falko from Cologne. They arrived a day before the shooting so I had to sort everything before they turned up on the set. The visuals, outfits, props, performances, locations, etc. were meticulously planned and organized weeks before the shooting, but other things like how the laser show would be installed in the Hammam of The Hotel titanic Berlin for example or how the lighting would look like in the massive hall of the "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" (House of the World's Cultures), or the performance in the pool, were all improvised. Nick Münster edited the short film together with me and I did the color grading. The editing was an intuitive process too, guided by the script based on my dream diary. 

Red is also a very prominent color throughout the short film. What was the significance of that?

The color red occurs a lot in my dreams but the decision placing red as a thread throughout the short film was also an aesthetic decision.

In several scenes, there’s also a clear contrast between black and red. For instance, there’s the scene where you’re sitting across from a man wearing black, who writes something down, but then you grab the pen from him and write “I Am Arya.” You’re wearing red. It’s a powerful scene where you seem to be coming to grips with your own identity against the push of outside forces.  Can you speak to the significance of those contrasts and those scenes?

Black is an abstract representation of the unknown: the ego. The Dr. wearing black looks also a bit like a priest, representing the ego’s authoritarian and judgmental nature. I would like to leave further interpretation to the audience.  

The short film and the album seem very interconnected. Did you envision the concept for the album or the film first? Or did they overlap? What was the process like for creating them concurrently?

I started writing the album without a concrete concept and then it started to unfold piece by piece, taking on a life of its own. While I was working on the album it became more and more evident that I had to use extracts from my dream diary to write the scripts for the videos, and while I was writing the scripts I decided to make a three-part short film. 

What do you hope people take away from “Dark Windows?”

If it inspires them and they enjoy it, I’ll be very happy.

What’s next? What do you have planned for the rest of 2020?

I’m already working on the second album and collecting ideas for the next videos.

You can purchase Dark Windows via Bandcamp.  The album is also available on all streaming platforms, including Spotify. Follow Arya on Instagram and Twitter.