Blending an intuitive songwriting style with a masterful approach to nu-folk, experimental soul and jazz, ZEAL H. has emerged as an artist of intrigue and pure talent. Her music, expansive and intensely personal, has struck a chord with audiences in a way that has seen ZEAL H. establish a strong and dedicated following across Australia and Aotearoa.
This year sees the songwriter and performer release a new album project titled SKIING THE GUT – a striking collection created from ideas that evolved during ZEAL H.’s time in Aotearoa. Today, she is excited to share a brand new single from the record, ‘MAHI’: a song that thrives on rich instrumentation and emotional delivery.
“‘Mahi’ means work in Te Reo Māori. My friend Lucy used to say ‘do the Mahi, get the treats!’ And I’ve really loved this word ever since. I wrote this song after a tough conversation with a lover in which I felt I had done all that I could, and that all that was left to do was to release control and acknowledge that the ball was in her court, that it was her mahi to work out what she wanted now. The track celebrates the alchemy of heartbreak and a radical love for one and other even though hurt had occurred. It’s an ode to sapphic love and how there is a really special (sometimes insane) mode of operating where people move through the pain and are able to keep each other in their lives.
Allowing the love we have for one and other to guide us through the grief and to allow it to wash over us like a balm. You can clearly feel it in the line ‘through seeds of pain, we’re blossoming’. It is a very peaceful and blissful piece. The most sunny in feeling of all the tracks. It speaks to the feeling you have once you’ve worked through some really hard stuff together, and there’s almost this euphoria in knowing that you can push through the pain and love each other well that alchemists the grief.
The start of the track begins with a field sample I collected on the day my girlfriend and I broke up. It’s the sound of our bikes riding home after the big conversation and it holds a lot of feeling in it. I really love archiving emotions like this into pieces of music, it’s like scrap booking and making a time capsule all at once, and it means so much to me that all the field samples are from my personally collected library.” – ZEAL.H
The track, as with the rest of the album, was largely created by ZEAL H. across sessions in Australia and Aotearoa, working with engineer Yianni Adams (Polish Club, CINTA). The end result is beautiful and ethereal, speaking to the type of world-building ZEAL H. has become known for.
Describing her own practice ZEAL H. explains, “My practice sits at the intersection of nu-folk, experimental music, soul and jazz. I’m particularly interested in the convergence of nature and technology, often combining acoustic instrumentation with analog devices and field recordings. Five-part vocal harmony meets strings, patchworked percussion, modular synthesis, field recordings and playful sonic experiments.”
ZEAL H. has consistently grown her profile across recent years spent evolving her practice on stages and festivals including the Skydance Festival and Carrington Folk Festival; supporting artists including Betty, ELMAR and Greg Sheehan, and of course as a headliner.
Having played over 250 shows across Australia and Aotearoa, ZEAL H.’s sphere of influence as a completely independent artist has proven itself onstage and off. Her music has been championed nationwide on Australian community radio, as well ABC Radio and Rage.
