December 31, 2009
RELEASES
Coum Transmissions The Sound of Porridge Bubbling Dais
Le Syndicat Timespace Losses Monochrome Vision
Macronympha Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Trash Ritual
V/A Pundartugg Styggelse
Factums Flowers Sacred Bones
Sewer Goddess Self-Titled Baseborn
Fever Ray Self-Titled Rabid
Mauthausen Orchestra They Never Learn Trash Ritual
Bloodyminded Phases:Three Rococo
Grey Wolves Judgement Hospital Productions
Naked on the Vague Chitty Chat 7″ Sacred Bones
LIVE
Hive Mind
Social Junk
Daniel Johnston
Acid Mothers Temple
Birth Refusal
Human Eye
Factums
Pocahaunted
Blues Control
Ikue Mori + Zeena Parkins
December 26, 2009
2009
2009 was a year of great transition, overwhelming experience, and hot-blooded passion. I am so grateful for all of the opportunities I had this year and for all the fantastic faces I met. I am ready to strap the new year on my tiny little back and shuffle onward towards even bigger things. This is only the beginning and I am going mad with shivers for what’s to follow.
I’m just wrapping up recording my next EP. It is quite different but it will always be little Nika at the controls so some things will never change. I believe in these 5 new songs more than light and dark. I don’t have a religion so I make this one.
Thank you so much for believing in me and for letting me do this.
NIKA
AGIT READER
http://www.agitreader.com/2009/09albums_01-10.html
http://www.agitreader.com/2009/writers/5.html
http://www.agitreader.com/2009/writers/5.html
http://www.agitreader.com/2009/09primitivefutures.html
BLRAG
http://www.blrag.com/music/2009/12/18/top-20-indie-song-vids-of-2009-4-1.html
DUSTED
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/874
EMUSIC
http://www.emusic.com/features/hub/best09us/index.html
FADER
http://www.thefader.com/2009/12/21/freak-scene-49-the-year-end-edition/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheFaderMagazine+%28The+FADER+Magazine+Posts%29
ISTHMUS MADISON
http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27658
OTHER MUSIC
http://www.othermusic.com/perl-bin/OM/html_proxy.cgi?filename=/staffpicks/2009.htm&ID=9126596.16915
WFMU
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/12/liz-bs-top-picks-from-2009.html (Troubleman EP)
THE WIRE
Misc Blogs:
FINGERS BECOME THUMBS
http://fingersbecomethumbs.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/albums-of-the-year/
ISTHMUS
http://www.isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=27777
MISHKA
http://mishkanyc.com/bloglin/2009/12/14/the-bloglins-best-of-2009-best-albums-100-81/
XIU XIU
http://xiuxiu.org/2009/12/2009.html
INSIDE EVERYONE
http://insideeveryone.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-of-2009-foreigners.html
MAKE NOISE NOT MUSIC
http://makenoisenotmusic.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-50-of-2009.html
LOS CAMPESINOS
http://loscampesinos.com/2009/12/15/gareth-campesinos-records-of-2009/
STEREO SANCTITY
http://stereosanctity.blogspot.com/2009/12/fifty-best-records-of-2009-part-2-45.html
WARREN ELLIS / BLEEDING COOL
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/12/15/do-anything-024-by-warren-ellis/
TIM’S STORE PICKS
http://timsstorepicks.blogspot.com/2009/12/tims-favorite-albums-of-2009.html
MATHIAS SVALINA
http://mathiassvalina.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-albums-of-2009-many-of-them.html
December 1, 2009
Zola Jesus is Nika Roza Danilova, an opera-trained caterwauler from Madison, Wisconsin who makes noise music that scrapes and glistens in equal measure. She loves Ian Curtis and Lydia Lunch, and their uncompromising tendencies can be heard throughout her bruising, beautiful recent album, The Spoils.
The ambitious 20-year-old is currently studying French and Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, but hopes to wrap up her studies “as soon as possible” so she can devote all of her time to creating more haunting atmospherics. Or maybe even some pop music, as her recent Auto-Tuned collaboration with band mate Rory Kane suggests. (She’s also a member of Former Ghosts, the latest project from This Song Is a Mess But So Am I’s Freddy Ruppert, which also involves Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart.) No matter what kind of music she makes, Danilova is blessed with a bellow that defies genre. Whether creaking or soaring, Danilova’s voice transmits with a directness that easily cuts through the layers of lo-fi grime that usually surround it. You don’t hear singers like this every day, or even every year.
In our recent chat with the artist, we talked about Nietzsche, the Residents, and the limitations of lo-fi:
Pitchfork: When did you start singing?
Nika Roza Danilova: Immediately upon arrival. I didn’t start taking opera singing lessons until I was seven or eight though.
Pitchfork: Did your parents make you take opera lessons?
NRD: No, I begged them to do it. For some reason, I really wanted to sing opera even though I wasn’t really exposed to it as a kid. I think my little baby toddler mind heard some opera song and then became fixated on how powerful it sounded. I studied opera on and off for about 10 years. I wasn’t in any operas, though, it was always really private and individual.
Pitchfork: Why did you stop taking lessons?
NRD: I struggled with a lot of anxiety– that’s why the lessons were on and off, too. I kept stopping because I was like, “I’m not good enough, I suck, this is awful,” and then I’d start again. I could never practice singing if anyone was home. There were a lot of roadblocks I had to get through. I was terrified when I started playing Zola Jesus shows– I have a backing band because I get so freaked out that I wouldn’t be able to do it all by myself. It’s tough when I hear criticism now, but I’m just learning to grow a thicker skin about it.
Pitchfork: Your music really creates its own distorted, creepy world unto itself. Were you a really imaginative kid growing up?
NRD: Yeah, I was raised on over 100 acres of forest in northern Wisconsin, in the dead of nowhere. So I was delusional as a kid; I never spent a lot of time around other people my own age except for my brother, who’s a year older. My dad got us into stuff like the Talking Heads and then I asked myself, “How does this music get weirder?” I liked exploring how uncomfortable music could make you, which is how I found noise. I was terrified by the Residents when I first heard them at 13, but then I got intrigued by it and wanted to listen more.
Pitchfork: At 13, I think I was listening to the Counting Crows.
NRD: I was listening to that too– I was exposed to it all at once. And I probably read Dostoevsky and Nietzsche before I should have. I was always really into absorbing things from the past. In high school I was really into Situationism, which is basically the idea that you can live art. That’s part of my music now, because I feel like it’s not worth doing something if it’s already been done. So I’m trying my best to do something that’s completely novel within the parameters of it being accessible so people won’t dismiss it right away.
Pitchfork: A few of the songs on your album The Spoils, like “Clay Bodies” and “Smirenye”, have pretty great hooks poking through all the noise and the echoes. Is that sort of pop bent something you can turn on and off?
NRD: It’s hard because I love weird power electronics and industrial music, but then I also really love intensely powerful melodic songs. Something like a Ronettes song hits you in such a different way than noise stuff. For me, the ideal is bringing both the experimental and the pop music in. It’s hard to accomplish. I think it’s all about finding a good medium.
Pitchfork: You recorded The Spoils in your apartment, but would you consider recording in a more professional environment in the future?
NRD: I would do it in a split second. That’s what I want to do for my next album; I’ve been getting some offers from labels. I just want to see where I could go. If you stay in one place the whole time, you don’t grow and it just becomes static. It’s funny, my parents are so proud of me and my music, but they’re like, “I just don’t understand this low-fidelity movement! Why is the quality so bad? You need to get into a real studio!”
Pitchfork: I’d agree with them, to a degree.
NRD: I know. And you know what? I would totally be down with trying new things and cleaning things up. It’s just that if you don’t have the means to make really clear, crisp, beautiful records, then you might as well make it sound as rough as possible. If I had the means to make it really crisp I would.
Pitchfork: You’re currently studying philosophy in college. Do you think that influences your music at all?
NRD: Yeah, because reading about certain philosophers changes your perspective. I was just reading this guy named Arthur Schopenhauer, who’s dark as fuck. He’s basically like: “Kill yourself, it’s not worth it.” It’s deep– or maybe just heavy. After you read his essays, you can’t feel good about anything, so it’s obviously going to affect my art and how I live.
Pitchfork: Your music is pretty dark, but you don’t seem like a particularly sullen person.
NRD: My interests are very dark, but I’m kind of a goof. I’m not going to put on the character of a little goth girl. Even though I am one. [laughs]
Pitchfork: In high school, were you the kid in all black?
NRD: I’m still the kid in all black.
