For a woman whose world is forever askew, Zola Simone is really making a go of it.
The 18-year-old establishes herself as Boston’s newest purveyor of pop on “Sideways,” the caustic highlight of her debut LP Now You See Me, out today (August 20).
“We wear our parents’ problems / Call that shit vintage,” she quips, alongside her observations on school shootings, climate change, and American politics. Call it Gen Z’s new battle cry.
Simone feels too young to be singing about many of the record’s subjects, which span gentrification to global warning, to name a few. Not that she’s naive or not capable — far from it. It’s more that teenagers should have the freedom to make “dumb pop music” (if you must label it as such) about the follies of adolescence before they feel obligated to bear the weight of the world’s crises.
Instead, generations of existential dread have snowballed and been passed to a new set of shoulders about 10 years too early. Now You See Me is a well-crafted symptom of the phenomenon, exposing the many jagged edges of “society’s design flaws” currently closing in on Simone’s throat. “Anxiety” in particular documents the chest-crushing pressure of it all, worsened by a culture of misunderstanding surrounding mental health.
“I think a lot of people’s judgement comes from a lack of understanding, but a certain amount also comes from fear/discomfort,” Simone tells Vanyaland. “I tried to write the song in a way so that people who have it could relate to and see themselves in it, but also in a way that people who haven’t experienced it could digest and hopefully learn about it.”
Now You See Me clings to its title, sharing a crystalline vision of a young person who’s long since figured themselves out (since the first grade, Simone professes). “Anxiety” comes from a place of lived experience, as does “Harvard Square,” one of the album’s many nods to her 14 years in Massachusetts.
“‘Harvard Square’ in particular touches on gentrification which I have seen a lot of, even when it comes to music venues,” she notes. “Johnny D’s, The Middle East, Ryles Jazz Club, are just a few of the music venues that have closed recently, or are/were on the market.”
Cameos from STL GLD and Dutch ReBelle flesh out the album’s Boston-centric identity with strokes of hip-hop, sewed together by The Arcitype at the Bridge Sound and Stage. This evening, Simone expands her reach further into Cambridge, as she takes the stage at The Middle East Upstairs with Yavin for an album release show.
Now Central Square can see her, too.
“In the past my mindset was more ‘why don’t you see me’ or ‘please see me,’ but now it’s just here I am, ‘now you see me,'” she explains. “It’s not a plea or a question, just a statement… Boston is a part of me, and now I’m a part of it.”
Get a glimpse at Simone’s debut below.