ZZ Ward bangs out the blues for the hip-hop generation
ZZ Ward sings the blues with a soulful, gritty voice that gives her songs the timeless, down-home appeal of artists like ZZ Top and Z. Z. Hill, but Ward’s name is not a reference to artists from the past. “My name is Zsuzsanna,” she says. “It’s Hungarian. There are two Zs in it; it’s kind of a mouthful. I was named after my mother and grandmother.”
Ward’s vocals blend dusty Delta tones with the sounds of the city, most notably the rhythms of hip hop. Rap and the blues are historically intertwined, but nobody made the connection as explicit as she did on her debut, Til The Casket Drops. “I grew up listening to my dad’s blues albums—Big Mama Thornton, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson—and my brother’s hip-hop records,” she says. “I loved Jay Z, Nas, Biggie. My parents didn’t want me listening to rap, so naturally, I really got into it. When I started writing songs, the hip-hop beats infl uenced my rhythms, but I was strict about putting them together. Everything was based on bluesy back-porch acoustic guitar and vocals.”
On current album This Means War, Ward’s music takes her blues/hip-hop fusion in new directions. Her vocals have a rap-like cadence on tunes like “The Roof” and “Lonely,” but there are also simmering R&B grooves and pumping dance beats in the mix.
“I let the music take me where it wants to go,” says Ward. “I’m not really a rapper, but I don’t constrict myself when I’m writing. If something’s got a quick pace and a melody that’s (between rapping and singing), I go with it. (Producer) S1 (Madonna, Kanye West, Beyoncé) was wonderful to work with. He took me under his wing and taught me about producing while we worked on the album. I even produced a few songs on my own. I put together the title track using my computer. I had so many sounds in my head I wanted to get down; having the tools in my hands to produce them is great. S1 taught me a lot of tricks, and I really geek out over that stu —being able to add synthesizer harmonies, or change a melody. It’s great to be able to produce, write and arrange all at the same time.”
The songs on the album all deal with love, with the emphasis on breaking up, miscommunicating and the ambivalence we often feel, but seldom express. “In 2015, love’s a battlefi eld,” says Ward. “I write about what’s going on in my life, and I fi nd that the start of a relationship is just the beginning of the battle. You have to fi ght if you want a great love. You have to deal with all your doubts, as well as accepting the other person for who they are. I know I can’t tell you who I am right now, but I can tell you who I was three years ago. The songwriting just reflects what’s going on in my life, and hopefully, both will keep changing, growing and evolving.”
—j. poet
