WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR AN ARTIST TO REINVENT THEMSELVES?

SINGER-SONGWRITERS LIKE ZOYA AND HANITA BHAMBRI ENTER NEW ERAS, ANYASA AND ZAEDEN CHANGED THEIR SIGNATURE SOUND, AND VINEET SINGH HUKMANI'S JAZZ ALBUM MARKS A DIFFERENT SONIC DIRECTION

- By ANURAG TAGAT

To say that Zoya has tried it all would be one way to sum up her artistic journey so far.

The Indian-origin American artist has, over the last decade, been carving out her space and sound somewhere between folk singer-songwriter, pop, electronic, and Indian-informed fusion. The California-raised artist also recorded two pop-rock albums in India when she was 13 years old. After studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, she released an EP and eventually returned to India, setting up base in Mumbai for a few years.

She's released albums, “demo-dropped” songs through a SoundCloud partnership, wiped her Instagram feed clean, appeared on playlists for Indian indie, hip-hop heads, gym workouts, and heartbreaks. And now, she's prepping to do it all over again with her new album The Human Era Is Over (The I/O), which she describes as a “packaged radio record.” She's not saying it to sell the record, but more as a genuine definition of the new music. She says about the writing process, “I just had gotten so far deep into this that I was like, ‘I'm just gonna go and write this for me, and I don't really care if this comes out.’”

Thematically, the album explores what it means to be human in the age of “digital noise and disconnection,” and the concerns attached with turning 30 years old. The overarching message, with songs like “Keep Going,” is to be resilient in the face of change and choose yourself. And of course, to choose music.