This doesn’t feel right” says Cara Zayn as she sits down on her couch in her home in San Francisco, “I think I much prefer to be the interviewer than the interviewee.” It’s been a couple of months of uncertainty for the 23 year old all-rounder, but on the surface it doesn’t seem to have affected her, if anything it appears to have re-ignited something within the young woman. Her latest endeavour is a Friday night talk show that debuted two weeks ago to a positive reaction and it seems like Cara has found something to truly get her teeth sunk into with the late night chat show platform, “There’s a certain amount of control that you have when you’re the one asking the questions.” She says with a smirk, she finishes a cigarette and pours herself a glass of juice, “I don’t envy my guests at all. I like to think that I’ve made them feel completely at ease so far though, but perhaps I’m just going a little easy on them at the moment.”

She began the year in charge at record label, ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ but things unravelled at the label quickly and unexpectedly which made her begin to think about her next steps beyond the record label job, “I knew it was coming and it truly sucked for the first couple of days after I found out Amy was looking to sell up.” She brings her legs up onto her couch and adjusts the cushions, getting herself more comfortable before continuing, “But you have to look out for yourself sometimes which is something I’ve learnt to do in these last few months. I had received offers to do a lot of cool things while I was at the label that I just couldn’t do for whatever reasons. So my mind-set changed pretty quickly and now I get to do all kinds of cool things rather than being tied down to one particular thing.”
She smiles widely as she talks about her plans ahead, but it also remains when she talks of her time at the label, “I will continue to fly the flag for that label even though I left and it’s under new ownership. Because of the opportunities it afforded me and the people that I met, the majority of which are still there. I think if you’re signed to that label, you have to be so fucking excited at the prospect of Victoria running things, I wasn’t part of the discussions between herself and Amy, but I got the chance to sit and talk to her about things and she’s gonna be great for that label. I know that much.”

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It’s been six months since our last conversation, quite a bit was said following the interview and a whole lot has changed since then. How would you describe the past six months since we were last in conversation?

It's been crazy, but it always was. The last few weeks of course have been particularly hectic but I think part of surviving in the entertainment industry if that’s what you want to call it is being able to move as quickly as things can change. The expectation at the beginning of this year was that I’d continue to work at ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ and put my plans for the label into place. But the decision was made for it to be sold, I made my exit and looked at some of the things that were on the table previously that I could re-consider, which has led me to things as they are now.

One of those things is your own talk show, was that something that had always been in the pipeline while you were running the record label or was that an offer that came following your departure?

It was brought up a few times while I was there. The first was when I first started at the label in A+R, I was blogging and writing reviews, I wouldn’t say I was exactly known but if I was then that would have been what I was known for. But that first offer was more of an entertainment news and chat thing, sort of like a TMZ kinda vibe, it sounded cool but it was never gonna happen while I was part of the label. Then another thing came up early last year where they wanted to just have a light-hearted talk show with games and gossip being the main thing for that, again though it wasn’t ever an option that I could have considered fully without choosing between a talk show or running the label, so they were offered but never seriously spoken about.

So I guess the label work, kind of meant that you couldn’t do certain things you were offered?

Pretty much. I understand it, that you’re running a label and there’s a certain amount of professionalism that you need to have. You want the people that you’re working with to have respect for you, so I suppose it all depended on the content of those shows and because it was very gossip oriented it was just a bit no no at that time. Had they have said we want you to do a more serious and career-oriented talk show then that may have been an opportunity there to do both. But because of the content it was like, it would have to be one or the other. It sucks in a way because I felt like a lot of fun could have been had from those potential shows, but I think it worked out in the right way.

Did those restrictions ever frustrate you at times?

Not to the point where it ever affected anything. But there was always something to be said. Because of my appearance or my personality, it was always like I felt I had to prove myself a little more than the average label execs. I don’t think I ever compromised who I was, but I maybe had to hold back on some aspects of myself. For example, when we did our interview six or seven months ago there was a lot made about the photoshoot I did for it, which I kind of understand. But I was so excited to do that shoot because it was like, you don’t have to be the dull suit wearing person to run a major company, you can do it no matter who you are, if you have what it takes inside and that was what I wanted the take-away from that cover shoot to be about, but it wasn’t which is fine, it makes sense and I understand it, I don’t agree with it and I still think you’re pretty fucking dumb if you didn’t see it in the way that it was intended.

So you have moved away from the work with the record label, as you’ve said you’ll still fly the flag for the label whenever you can and you’ll still support it for what it is. But what is the next step for you besides the talk show?

I’ve always kept an open mind when it comes to what I can and can’t do. Why limit yourself? But I’ve got the first season of AfterDark which we’re currently filming and we’re three episodes into that show which has been just incredible amounts of fun so far. I have been writing so much more since leaving the label, I’ve worked with a bunch of insanely talented singers over the last few months and that will be one of my main focuses from here on out. But again your hands are quite tied on that side of things when you’re working for a record label, whether they’re considered indie or not, because if you write a song for an artist not signed to your label and their single sells two hundred thousand copies, you’re making your opposing labels that money. That didn’t matter to me, but that just wasn’t allowed and I got into a big row over that.

How did that happen?

I co-wrote a single last year with somebody signed to another label. The song didn’t even go far, I think it peaked at fifteen. I was unaware that this wasn’t considered okay, but again it’s people in suits on a board that get pissed about things like that, the real people in the industry wouldn’t have an issue with it. Anyway, I wrote this song, they found the units it sold, it wasn’t even a big amount but they called me in for a ‘chat’ and talked me though why it was wrong. I argued my case and made quite a few powerful enemy’s that day and I came pretty close to walking from the label, I still have the warning letter about my conduct, but I stand by what I did because I don’t see the industry as a competition in the same way that they do and I think our label thrived on not having that mentality, I always pointed out that the label was founded on craft and ability and fundamentally on making good music and putting it out there for people to enjoy. To the right people, the name of the label means exactly what it is, to the wrong people, the name of the label means nothing to them. Now that is one thing I won’t miss about that place, but thankfully those people went when the sale happened.

So let’s revert back to your current plans, the talk show seems to be taking off pretty well. How much fun are you having doing that?

I think I’ve been really lucky in the guests that we’ve managed to get on the show so far, and that will just continue as the series goes on. But to start off with Ryan Ross Hernandez and Weekend in the first two episodes’ sort of set the bar really high for the show and proved that this isn’t just something for me to do while I find something else to occupy my time. This is something that I want to be doing for a very long time and hopefully it does continue.

Your story is a very interesting success story that hasn’t often been told, tell us a little about your beginnings?

I’m just your typical west-coast girl I guess. I never saw myself having this career or life. I was born and raised in San Francisco, California and I couldn’t have lacked any more confidence. It’s super funny to look at pictures of me from back then and say, I’m that person. I was always very shy right up until I begun high school. I wore glasses, I was in the AV club, I was obsessed with anime. Once I got to sixteen, things started to change, I discovered make-up, bands and boys and everything changed. My confidence grew as I started to feel better about myself, but inside I always was and still am to an extent an insecure person.
My family were always broke, we never went on vacations and we’d sometimes have to skip meals because we just couldn’t afford it, it wasn’t a privileged upbringing by any means and I left home at seventeen and lived in a trailer park for six months, there’s been some pretty dark moments there but it’s all lead to where I am now.

You can see Cara on your TV sets every Friday on AfterDark with a host of musical guests