Zuzu Stranack was born in 1995 and raised in Mossley Hill, Liverpool and as a child listened to her mum and dad’s record collections of 'The Beatles', Frank Sinatra and 'Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons'. She wrote her first song at the age of seven but didn't start applying herself to music seriously until she was 14. At the age of 13 she had moved from Mossley Hill down south with her family; from Liverpool to Oxfordshire. Zuzu said, "I went to school in Chipping Norton where David Cameron was the local MP, just to give you a little idea of the political setting. We were Scouse kids from the north but my accent was so much stronger than it is now." She found being a newfound teenager in an unfamiliar place wasn’t easy. "I had like, no friends, so I just played a lot of Sims, watched a lot of Hannah Montana, and played a lot of guitar." That's how she got into music with a little help from her older brother. "He was really into 'Arctic Monkeys', 'The Libertines', 'Blink-182'. I just wanted to be him. And he joined a band and started playing bass, and I was like, I’m gonna play guitar too."
Without yet disclosing her full name or background, she appeared as 'Zuzu' at the FestEvol emerging-artists festival in the August of 2015 and secured a support slot for Courtney Barnett at the O2 Academy later that year. Her punk and grunge-infused sound, and songs with glorious choruses and catchy hooks assimilated the noisy spirit, tunefulness and swagger of the Brit-pop and Merseybeat of her hometown. Then at 18 she signed a publishing deal. She recalls, "I was writing songs and I was very obsessed by Motown and 60s stuff, which I still am and it's always going to be inside me – it's my core, and grunge stuff." The indie label Hand in Hive released her spiky debut single, 'Get Off,' in mid-2016 which was followed in early 2017 with the fuzzier 'What You Want.' These were described as "euphoric typhoon of ooh-ed harmonies, vivid riffs, and heart-bursting lyrics" by The Line Of Best Fit and "Absolutely massive" by Clash Magazine. In the December of 2017, broke, she travelled down to London for a meeting and when she came back had been offered a record deal. In June 2018, now signed with Virgin EMI Records, she released her debut EP, 'Made on Earth by Humans', an EP filled to the brim with quick-witted lyricisms and hook-laden choruses that stands up next to contemporaries Courtney Barnett and 'Warpaint'.
As a solo artist, she is a sci-fi enthusiast whose songwriting is littered with space references, but works closely with Kurran Karbal. He produces the songs and provides harmonies too, yet the remainder of the line-up is largely fluid, ever shifting and changing. She met guitarist Kurran in London when she got introduced to do some writing together, it just so happened that they both loved the same bands so started writing and never really stopped. They met bassist Matt through a mutual friend and Lisa through an ad she'd posted online. "We started just playing in our garage and then ventured out over the summer, and have been playing shows all over". Zuzu and Kurran's studio is now in Birkenhead.
So what triggered the return to back to Merseyside? Zuzu explains, "It's not that there isn't
a scene in London, but I feel our band is more welcome here. There's so much electronic stuff in London
at the moment, whereas a lot of real bands are coming out of the North
West, and that's what I'm into. I love guitar music" With Kurran Karbal on board as her guitarist and producer, .Monkey Heaven Recordings is run by them both and Zuzu continues to tour and play festivals with an otherwise fluctuating backing band.
2020 saw a new single, 'Skin and Bone', which is definitely worth a listen. The track feels more personal than previous Zuzu releases and forms part of a six track mini LP, 'How It Feels', released in April 2020. 'Skin and Bone' is one of two brand new songs on it, with the rest being singles that have come out in the last year. 'How It Feels' is obviously one of the songs on there as well.
see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2020/10/pool-of-sound-monks.html
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