Give us a brief about your band. Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Zanias and I’m a vocalist, producer and occasional DJ, currently based in Berlin. I’ve been involved in music since 2009 when I ran a deathrock party in Melbourne, then I moved to London and started throwing minimal synth parties there soon after. In 2011 I formed the band Linea Aspera and realised I could sing decently well. Nowadays I throw fewer parties and make a lot more music, and also make all my own music videos. I like to think that what I mainly do is create beautiful things that make others feel less alone and foster hope in a world that grows increasingly chaotic. I’ve dedicated my life to the art and take its role in cultivating our humanity very seriously.
When did you ?rst launch the project and how has it come along since?
My solo project under the name ‘Zanias’ was born in 2015 when I started learning how to produce music myself. Up until that point I was just ‘a singer in bands’, which was all ?ne and good, but eventually one has to take control of their artistic destiny. I worked with my mentor Alex Akers from Forces to produce my ?rst EP and album, then around 2019 I ?nally felt con?dent enough to do it all myself. The live iteration of the project started out as just me on stage, but there’s something about performing alone while not feeling totally con?dent in one’s work that started to make shows feel like extreme torture sessions. When I look back at footage of those gigs I sort of wanna cry. So in 2020 a friend who played bass joined for a while and that helped me tap into a stronger energy, and ?nally in 2025 I found the missing piece I needed all along, which was a live electronic drummer. I really feel like in the last 2 years I found my most authentic voice, and with the addition of Dream Dilate Decay on drums, the entire project feels very complete.
What bands and artists in?uenced you the most and why?
When I ?rst started making music, Light Asylum, Austra, Fever Ray and HTRK were on heavy rotation. Hard-hitting drums alongside sparkling synths, deeply atmospheric melancholy subject matter, and vocals that conveyed just enough drama without descending into cheese territory. The voices of powerful women will always be my main source of inspiration. Also Enya and Grimes, being solo artists producing all their own music, were the ?rst two artists who had me thinking “Oh cool, I could do that too”. It’s strange to think that back in the 2000s/2010s there really weren’t many women in that role yet. I’m so glad things have changed.
I also have to cite the glossolalia of Lisa Gerrard and Elisabeth Fraser, and the Celtic tradition of keening. My wordless singing style very much ?owed from the same vein. It almost feels like a spiritual practice at times, especially on stage.
If you could pick a single song from your discography to explain your music, which song would you pick and why?
Honestly picking just one is not really possible with the breadth that my music has. And I’m not saying that as a ?ex, I actually think it’s been one of the reasons I’ve never really seen a huge deal of interest from the upper echelons of the music business: I’ve never been able to settle on one particular style and my sound has therefore never been easy to categorise. I get bored way too easily, and that’s perhaps a bit of a weakness for memorability and marketability. From my current incarnation via the new album ‘Cataclysm’, I think the songs ‘Naiad’ and ‘Serpentsmile’ really capture where my energy is at right now.
What is your most recent release and what is it about?
‘Cataclysm’ is my new album coming out on the 23rd of October, and it’s my favourite thing I’ve ever done. I made it as a way of dealing with the cognitive dissonance of believing so deeply in humanity’s ability to rise above all challenges while watching the world sink into a really absurdly terrible state of a?airs. I have a bachelor’s degree in archaeology and when I look back over what we know of our deep history, I see a story of a species truly stumbling in the dark, and often stumbling backwards, yet remarkably always ?nding a way to navigate forwards and learn more and more about itself and its relationship to the universe. The way we now have the potential to live lives that are generally long, safe and happy is such a gift. I truly believe we are born pro-social and good, and there is nothing inherently evil or greedy about humans. So none of the madness we’re witnessing is inevitable.
I view what we’re currently going through as a cataclysmic shift towards something better because things have become so dire, we will simply have no choice. Cooperation and love will prevail after the death throes of the old, misguided ways have settled into their destined downfall.
So the album deals with various angles of that struggle I’ve felt over the last few years, from how we relate to each other in the digital age, to how we might move forward through revolution on a political and spiritual level.
And all this discourse within the lyrics happens in the framework of some really banging tracks that I’m very proud of. I utilised a lot of the production techniques I learned and came up with while making ‘Ecdysis’, then took things a step further but made them more pop. The result sounds like exactly the kind of music I want to hear. It’s weird but still reasonably accessible, super emotional but still danceable.
Take us through your creative process. How do you compose a song from start to ?nish? Where do the ideas come from?
I just sit down in Ableton and lay down a beat and some chords, then throw some vocal melodies in the mix to get the song started. Often the initial vocalisations get chopped up, looped and mangled into a feature of the track before I’ve even written a single lyric. Vocals are my favourite instrument to work with because I feel I have the most control.
If I get to writing actual words, I let the ?ow of the voice dictate where the song will go. It doesn’t feel like composition as much as discovery of something that was supposed to exist already. The music is the message and I am the conduit. Since my songwriting is such a personal thing, I often ?nd that the messages therein are indicative of things I’m feeling, sometimes things I wasn’t even aware of. I often sit down to write when I’m just feeling ‘o?’ somehow, and then the process of writing reveals what’s going on. This was particularly clear when I wrote ‘Serpentsmile’. I hadn’t really processed the event the track was about, and almost felt like I was silly to even still be thinking about it, then after a whirlwind 3 hour session I suddenly had this deep, wailing revelation of just how deeply hurt I was. You can hear it in the ?nal line of the song, which was the ?rst take of that particular moment, written as I was singing it. All the pain unleashed like a volcanic eruption.
So I guess the ideas are coming from deep in my subconscious, and the result is pure therapy. It feels like a superpower because I know whatever I go through in life, music will give me a way to transmute the pain into something beautiful. I can’t regret a terrible event when a song I love so much was born from it.
What’s your current favorite song, band, or album within your scene? And vice versa, what do you enjoy the most that’s completely opposite of what you make?
Sally Dige’s ‘Sow the Path’ is my favourite recent song from within my Berlin circle, while I’m also really enjoying listening to artists like Kneecap and Bob Vylan who are probably a little further removed, though politically we are aligned 100% and I have so much admiration for how they’re handling the insanity being thrown at them for standing on the right side of history. My favourite artist in general at the moment is Caroline Polachek. Her voice, production and artistry are impeccable.
What is on the horizon for your project? Upcoming gigs, tours, merch, videos, etc. Name it, link it, show it o?.
We’re going on a short tour of the UK and a small corner of Europe from September 10th-18th, and I’ll be dropping a tonne of merch when we’re done with that.
I’m also releasing the new single ‘Serpentsmile’ on the 26th of August, followed by ‘Naiad’ on the 23rd of September, and the album on the 23rd of October.
The pre-order for the album is available here: https://zanias.bandcamp.com/album/cataclysm
All other social media links:
https://www.instagram.com/zoe_zanias/
https://www.youtube.com/@zoe_zanias
