Zeya talks about Dreams

29 August 2008

Zeya

Beautiful new singer-songwriter Zeya is set to showcase her music to more than 100,000 people over the next six months so we had to get in on the action!FemaleFirst caught up with her to find out about her new single and album, Commotion By The Ocean and skinny dipping in Canada.

Tell me a little bit about your new single ‘Dreams’

The single is being released with two bonus tracks so basically it’s a three track EP which is available to download from my website now.

So what have you been getting up to in order to promote the new single?

Well the whole journey has been a massive thing and recently we went and played for our family friends and business associates in Canada and they had heard about us and they wanted us to go and sing Dreams at this festival called Commotion By The Ocean and so we went over and sang and everyone sang along because they had been listening to it on the internet.I was like this star out there and everyone kept saying “we’ve heard so much about you.” So it was all very exciting. We also doubled it up with making a film for YouTube with me tying in with the theme of dreams; so I went jumping out of aeroplanes, trekking in the rain forest, skinny dipping and all sorts of things. So it’s been a great experience and the excuse is that I have to do wild things to go along with my song! It’s fabulous.

To anyone who hasn’t heard of you yet, how would you describe your sound?

It’s pretty modern stuff. I associate myself with female power ballads like Pink and Christina Aguilera but just a good English version.

So are you planning on recording an album?

Yes, we have more than an album’s worth of material which we tick over in the background producing as we go but basically all of this is being done as an unsigned artist, we’re following the route of Sandi Thom who did it all through internet downloads and is hailed as one of the best unsigned artists so it’s a similar concept.

Basically when the showcase gig’s come around that’s when I’ll be pitched to the highest bidders of the record companies and when that happens they will dictate the album and it’s pace so we have all the material and now we’re just awaiting their instruction.

So you’re an unsigned artist, do you have another job on the side?

I’m an accountant. Thankfully it’s slowly reducing as the music picks up but I did a night course for a few years to have my own business. I have my own book keeping business to keep me ticking over and it’s very much a Clark Kent situation; if I go into work with my glasses on and my hair scraped out talking about balance sheets and then I say “have a look on my website” and they see the other side of me!

When I perform it’s like I’m peeling off this mask and I go wild, I absolutely love it.

Where would you like to be in 10 years time?

Well in the best dream of the world I would be ‘up there’ with Madonna and Cher (those one-named wonders) and I’m hoping Zeya will be next.

Wow! So you’re halfway there!

Well yeah, and it’s my real name too! It has really helped with marketing.

So what’s in the near future for you?

There are three tracks available for download and we’re already having loads of downloads (more than we ever expected)

So what would you really like to achieve?

I would love to have a number one, I would just die and have to be revived! It would most definitely be an aim of mine but I think my most immediate aim is to be able to work in the industry and sustain my life through my music. I just love the journey and the music is so exciting and I love to perform, to be able to do that and it be my life would be amazing.

I watch things like X Factor and all that crap and I just think they’re all so dreadful and I’m not egotistical by any means but I look at them and think “please God, tell me I’m better than that!”

Well I think most of the population is better than some of that! So you won’t be duetting with any of them soon then? But if you did have the chance to collaborate with any other singer, who would it be?

It might be a bit of a sad revelation but I love the likes of Meat Loaf and Aerosmith - singing I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing with Steve Tyler would be legendary!

There are so many bands trying to make it in the music industry at the moment; what makes you different from everyone else?

Well I get asked this quite a lot and it’s more difficult than you think to answer because I’m not very egotistical so it’s difficult to say something positive about yourself but I have to in order to sell myself! Basically I’m very bold and I talk a lot and I’m always laughing and I have a huge smile so people call me Piranha and Teethy because I have far too many teeth and I have huge brown eyes so I look like a Disney character.