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CARA ZAYN: SMALL STEPS // GIANT FOOTPRINTS! [INSIDER MAGAZINE]‘When an industry giant took an unexpected leap of faith in a scene kid from San Francisco it was thought that a future music empire may start crumbling before our eyes. But out of that risk came rewards that not many people saw coming, we take a glimpse into the life of Cara Zayn’It’s been an unexpected turn around for Cara Zayn as only two years ago her first step into the music industry was working at a local management agency, a role that highly frustrated the ambitious twenty-year old. But along the way, small things kept the youngster going just enough for her to get a firm foot in the door at one of the more well-known record labels in the music industry today, and a remarkable rise has seen the California native become one of the primary decision makers in the running of ‘Songs to Love and Die By’, today we met up with the ambitious Cali girl in her hometown in order to find a little more about one of the ‘future leaders’ of the indie record label.
“I can feel heat on my skin, what the fuck?” she says with a light giggle. Her opening statement a reference to the fact that she’s now permanently living in New York having spent all of her life in the warmer climes of California, she kicks the chair opposite her from under the table and nods as if to say “Take a seat.” before leaning back in her seat, as I park myself down on the seat I’m immediately greeted by a waitress, I order myself a beverage before we begin our introductions, I ask how she’s transitioning to the east-coast lifestyle and she gives a subtle smile, “I’m getting there, it’s only been, what? ... Eight, nine months?” she queries rhetorically, “I have more sweaters, scarves and coats now than I’ve had in my entire life.” she laughs a little before continuing, “It’s been a lot of hard work. I think I’m only now just starting to really discover the fun elements of New York. Most of the first six months were spent in the office, late nights and early mornings. But it’s starting to let up a little more now, it’s been an eye-opener.”
The conversation quickly turns to her being back home for a couple of days, “I’ve got a lot to cram into two days. Gotta get my fix of everything that I miss about this place. Shopping in Sausalito for sure, go see the fam, check out a couple of old haunts with my peeps.” she chuckles, “I mean, New York is wonderful and all, but they don’t have a ‘Little Darlings’ over there, it’s not quite the same.” she smiles fondly at the thought of revisiting her old stomping ground. It seems like the opportunity to re-charge the batteries for a couple of days is much needed in Cara’s mind. However, business is evidently never too far from her mind, “I may even find some exciting new musician. The bay is a hotbed for talent, you know?” she says with a wink, “unfortunately I only ever knew people in low places.” she says before taking a sip of her coffee, she shields her eyes from the sun for a moment before adjusting the location of her seat slightly, she continues, “But I’ll probably just hit the beach.” she says with a grin.
We change pace slightly as I ask her about growing up in San Francisco, “I was always your typical Cali tomboy and an only child too, so I suppose I got a lot more attention from the parents. They had no clue what they were doing, just sort of decided to make it up as they went along. But they sort of encouraged a free-spirit nature for me, if I wanted to wear boys clothes then they were just sort of like, ‘yeah, why the fuck not’ and if I wanted to play hockey or baseball they’d take me to the after school lessons and come watch me play. They just sort of let me be, I guess.” Despite that, her relationship with her parents is a little uneven at times, “It seems like they were badass for a while. They were metalheads before I came into their lives and then they changed their ways a little for me. They sacrificed quite a big part of who they were for me and then I got a little older and they changed, started to get really into living right and they started going to church and all that sort of stuff, which is fine, if that’s what you believe in and wanna do. At that time I started to find my own sort of scene and made new friends which were possibly questionable to them, I was fifteen at the time and it’s just what happens. They didn’t like it and they’d always start with this preachy sh*t and I’m like, seriously guys? I ain’t ever gonna do half the fucked up shit that you guys did back in the day, so how about you back the fuck off.” she says with a sigh, “I mean, I love em now but back then and for a good few years they weren’t happy with me.”
We finish our drink and order another as she continues to talk about growing up, “I did feel sort of bulletproof to their critisism and anger, because my mind was pretty much. Okay so I may have had a few drinks at a gig last night or at a party or I may have smoked a little weed down at the skate park but you’ve been to levels of craziness that I’ll never even go near. The stuff that they had done in the past went beyond anything I’d ever do and I knew that and kinda used that to sort of get my way and piss them off as much as I could. But hey, I was a shitty little teenager, I know this.” she laughs a little, “But out of those times, came the best friendships and the best lessons and feelings and moments of my life and I’m not encrouaging anything, but you learn more from experience than avoidance. I guess.”
It was around the age of seventeen that she became friends with a bunch of band guys from San Diego, they’d later become known as ‘Penetralia’ and a strong bond formed quickly, “I loved those four guys before I knew that they were in a band or any of that stuff. They used to spend like 3 months in San Fransisco every summer and we became so insanely tight with each other. It was about four weeks of hanging out before I knew they played music, they were just a bunch of dudes with the same interests as me that just liked to hang out and have a good time. I remember Koda being a little distant for a few weeks after we started hanging out together, the way he says it is that I was an ‘unwelcome distraction’ at first.” she smirks, “He was right, but we’ve been best friends ever since.” she says with a laugh, “I don’t think I’ve held them back or anything like that, they seem to be doing just fine.”
Evidently it appears that Cara’s position now wasn’t as rapid as it seemed, “I’ve done a lot of crappy jobs for a good four years or more. That might not seem like the longest time, but it kinda felt like it.” she laughs a little, “most of them didn’t last too long because I didn’t really care about what I was doing. I didn’t wanna work in the dinner’s or at the bar or cleaning a fucking mall or selling pretzels at a cinema. I did all kinds of stuff and just sort of thought, I’ll find a way. I always loved music though, that’s what me and my friends always ever talked about but I didn’t know how to get into that world. I thought like maybe I could, because that was one of the industries where it was more about feeling and instinct rather than technical stuff, like qualifications and grades and all the things that I never had. Somehow it happened though, I managed to find a way in. Don’t ask me how.” she says with a beaming smile.
”I think a lot should be said for luck. I managed to convince people to let me hang out places and observe for a while and that’s what happened at the label. I was staying with a friend in New York for a summer, she knew this guy that worked for ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ and he was like ‘yeah, come check the place out.’ Which was exciting because it’s a label and I was like up for anything cool like that. So yeah, he showed me around, introduced me to some people and one of those people was Amy, who obviously I was aware of. We talked for like 20 minutes and she showed me around the building, it’s not a huge building, there’s a bunch of different office rooms and that’s kind of it. She showed me her office and it was cool, lots of music memorabilia and stuff and we talked about music. That was kind of it, for like three to four weeks.”
She pauses momentarily while she sends a text, “Sorry about that. So yeah, weeks go by and my friend gets a call from her friend, he’s like, ‘hey, that Cara girl? Is she still in New York? Amy wants her to drop by the office.’ and I’m like, ‘yeah, alright.’ not really believing him or her but she’s like he’s serious. So I go over there, and the way Amy pitches things to me at first is like, so we’re gonna be doing this label apparel thing and we need somebody to model some merch, would you do that? I’m like well okay, but I’m not a model or anything like that. So she kinda sense that and says, well how about you do this apparel stuff, it won’t take up much time and then you hang around here for a couple weeks, see the inner workings of the label and all that goes into stuff.” she smiles, “I was sold and then the weeks went by and she kept saying offering me the chance to keep coming back. Eventually she says, we want you to stick around permanently, do some promotional stuff and that’s how it came about.”
She does seem to believe that it was mostly down to luck and timing, “After a month or two, Amy’s like, giving me more and more responsibility because she’s away all of the time and then she’s like. I’m gonna take a step back and I want you to take over here. I can’t fucking do that! But then I’m an idiot if I say no, she’s like ‘well, okay. But she pitched this idea of hiring somebody for me to work alongside, with a little more experience of management and stuff like that.” she smiles and thinks back for a moment, “So Amy brings in Faith and we meet and we hit it off pretty quickly. She’s a really fun person to be around and she knows her stuff. Amy says, ‘you’re both running this place now, but I want you to throw yourselves into it, make it your own. Any ideas you have, let me know and we’ll try to make it happen.” she giggles.
“Probably not the best thing to say to me or Faith, because from the get go we’re sat together talking about all kinds of things we want to do. The main one, was to open a live venue and finally get the clothing line launched. The venue is now up and running and we’re working on the clothing range. It’s a lot of things to focus on, especially with how busy everybody on the roster has been recently but we’re figuring out how to make things happen behind the scenes.”
I mention the fact that people were unsure initially about the change of direction, “I get it, it makes sense and it’s fair enough. We’re learning on the job, every single day and we’re doing our very best and honestly if you look at things since we’ve been handed this opportunity to put our own ideas into place, without being arrogant I think the label is in an even better place now than it was. I make plenty of mistakes and I’m sure I will continue to, I’m not perfect. But I’m working hard and Faith is working hard and so is everybody there. Of course, when you look at the people that we have at the label, we were both super lucky to sort of inherit such an amazing roster of unbelievable talent, but I think we’ve all worked hard on everything that has been done. We’re definitely lucky to have that level of quality to work with.”
It appears like she has gone some way to proving that she can handle the label and although the hard work doesn’t stop, she can enjoy the fruits of that labour a little more and find herself in a position where she can balance things in life a little more, “When I was first went there, it was all work work work, I didn’t stop for a long time.” she laughs, “It’s still like that, but now we have more in place that I can find a little more time to enjoy the music again. There’s some really great stuff out there right now, like listening to Nova bringing a true sexual liberation album or Aeons carrying the metal flag. There’s so much out there that we can really enjoy. People can get a bit pissy about new music but there’s all kinds of quality music out there right now and at least for me, that’s exciting.” And a large portion of new music has come from ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ and that’s something Cara is very pleased with, “We had a quiet period for a little while there, but it’s great seeing the payoff for these guys. We’ve had seriously awesome albums from Aeons, Edward and Arianna recently and stuff from Natasha and Alex coming out soon. A whole load of awesome singles too. And I’m just as excited to see what Lotus, Bianca and Valentina come up with this year. Again I just feel incredibly lucky to have these people at the label, it’s an exciting time for all.”
I switch the conversation up a little and query her love life, in an attempt to get an exclusive, she just laughs and shrugs it off “Let’s just say I’m enjoying myself right now. I like my freedom too much to ‘fall’ for anybody at the moment. You know, I get what I need when I need it.” she smirks, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m like anybody I have my little crushes and my dirty little thoughts but I have self-control ... Sometimes.” she laughs once more, “Of course I’m only human, you think it’s easy to have a meeting with say James Urie, or Alex and not just wanna mount them there and then? ... Their charm doesn’t help the situation but I think I’ve managed to control myself.” she shakes her head, “I’m only human ya know? I work with Faith on a daily basis, you met her? She’s hot and she’s flirty, that’s dangerous territory for anybody.” she smiles, “But you know, I’ll just getting what I need from somewhere else. Business and pleasure doesn’t always work out.”
And finally before we wrap things up, what does the future look like right now? “You know, we have lots of ideas and we’re always looking at ways of expanding the range of the label. Whether that’s new signings as you’ve seen recently with Lotus, Aeons and even more recently Valentina. Or a new expansion like you’ve seen with the music venue and just like you’ll see with the clothing line. There’s a bunch of other things that we’ve spoken about and that we’re gonna be working on and I’m sure not all of the ideas will come to fruition, but I’m sure we’ll make the best ideas happen.” and with that, we wrap up the interview, one thing is clear, Ms. Zayn has proven herself and the future looks bright at Songs to Love and Die By. |
