'Di Plastica’ / Zara [Interview]
Zara’s much anticipated debut EP on Salt Mines delivers lush, deep, broken beat techno inspired by the sounds, colours and textures of festivals in the Australian bush.
As both a producer and DJ, Zara has a penchant for creating deeply immersive, textured atmospheres that are equal parts entrancing and exciting.
Following stellar contributions to PHENOMENA V/A PHENOMENAL Vol.1 and Pure Space’s PROXIMITY II, ‘Di Plastica’ builds on Zara’s emerging catalogue of percussive, psychedelic rhythms that seamlessly weave elements of modern deep techno, drum and bass, and trance, all while highlighting her own unique spin on sound design inspired by trippy, euphoric dance floor experiences at festivals.
From playful, dreamy opener ‘Breathe’ to mesmersising, bass-heavy slammers like ‘Fragments’, this EP is big soundsystem music at its finest. Hypnotic percussion, beautiful field recordings and tastefully placed synth elements work together to build a deeply immersive aural environment.
Verve had a chat with Zara to discuss the inspirations and processes behind this wonderful new EP as well as her upcoming future projects.
Congrats on the release! I love the whole theme of music inspired by festivals in the bush! How do you think about incorporating those inspirations into your music? E.g. translating things like nature and the atmosphere of these spaces at different times.
Thank you! I created this EP during the midst of COVID pessimism, but with a very strong memory of Stawberry Fields 2019 in mind.
The landscape at Strawberry is so beautiful with the river and stages nestled between the trees. I tried to recreate the feelings of the beach stage, dancing with friends in the sun listening to music through Funktion Ones and huge subs.
To do this, I tried to keep the sounds as natural as possible utilising woody drums layered with warm synths, trippy vocals, and field recording. I like to put wet sounding fx on my drums to create this swampy atmosphere, helping to keep it organic. I was also living in Canberra at the time the EP was made and so was super immersed within the colours, textures and sounds of the Australian bush, which also made it easier to relive.
The beautiful art done by Lucas draws heavily on the colours of the Australia bush. In my opinion, the organic orange and earthy green represent the music so well.
There are some distinct differences in tempo, textures and atmosphere across each track. ‘Breathe’ feels very meditative and dreamy, ‘Fragments’ is more energetic and hypnotic and ‘Di Plastica’ brings together some elements and atmospheres from the previous two. Did you have a particular journey in mind for listeners in the sound and ordering of these tracks?
To me, these three tracks symbolise the stages of a day at a festival. ‘Breathe’ represents the day, with the uplifting vocals and trippy drums. A slower but breaky track.
Then ‘Di Plastica’ is during dusk when the sun starts setting and the music starts getting a bit heavier and darker, bringing with it punchy kicks and subs that get the dance floor going. Dusk always has such a distinct feeling at a festival – the sun setting at the dance floors, the atmosphere shifting from hot and bright to eerie and cold.
I tried to harness this ominous, anticipatory atmosphere through the groany vocals and big kick and cymbals.
Finally, 'Fragments’ is representative of the night, where the music is generally heavier, faster and trippy, bringing with it euphoric, almost
transcendental moments. I recreated this through reverb-heavy vocals and drums paired with a woody kick that pins the fast floaty track down and keeps the momentum going. But this is just how I see the tracks and they are of course open to interpretation too!
The ordering on the vinyl EP is flipped though because Di Plastic and Di Plastica remix are on the same side.
This is your debut EP after a couple of great V/A releases. Did this change your approach at all to writing/composition?
I actually made this EP a while before any of the V/A releases. During this time, I was making a lot more dance floor music around the 120 to 150BPM range, inspired by a lot more percussive artists like Maara, Roza Terenzi and bass leaning artists such as Air Max ’97, Amazondotcom, HAAi, Two Shells, Anunaku and DJ Plead among others. I used a lot of woody instruments in this EP that are more ‘dancefloor’ focused. My Phenomena V/A track is more in line with this woody focus but in a different tempo.
On the other hand, my Pure Space track is more illustrative of the music I’m making now. Around the time I made this track, I really found my groove in production and found a strong vision, leaning towards synthesized drums, subtle hi-hats driving the track, synths, pad and chopped up vocals. I try to work with more empty space within tracks now and as a result I create ‘less functional’ more ‘DnB’ focused tracks.
I’m also curious about the title of the track/EP “Di Plastica”, what’s the story there? Does it tie in to the Australian bush festival inspiration?
Di Plastica actually came from these Italian art books that I had on my desk when I was making the EP haha. It is more a play on the fact that the record is made of plastic, but also I just liked the sound of it and how it looks written down. I couldn’t think of an EP title so I just used one of the tracks!
I’m interested in your production process as well if you are willing to share. There are some really interesting textures in each of these tracks, including some field recordings? All the sounds in "Di Plastica " are so mesmerising, including some interesting vocal sounds. How did you go about creating the sounds on this record?
I use a lot of nature focused sounds and field recordings, birds and rains that create this ‘swampy’ atmosphere. I am obsessed with female vocals, I find them super empowering to work with, so I will try and find samples then chop and wrap them so they sound indistinguishable.
A floaty female chord always gives me the chills when I hear it on the dancefloor. I used the inspired by nature kit in Ableton a lot for this EP that helped to add an ‘organic’ sound. The Di Plastica vocal just came from a sample on Ableton that I put FX on to make it slightly more eerie :) I’d love to be able to create my own vocals, but one thing at a time!
The Maara remix is also incredible, unsurprisingly. How did that come about? Did you have a chat with her and talk about ideas for the remix or did she get free reign?
Maara’s first EP on NAFF was a huge inspiration to me when I was making this EP so when the remix artist choice came around, Maara was on the top of my list! Geordie sent her an email and she was super keen to be on board. We allowed her free reign to do whatever she wanted.
Is this the first time someone has remixed your track? How’s it feel to hear one of your compositions get reinterpreted like that?
Yeah, it was super sick! The trance remix is the perfect addition to the EP, as it isn’t something I make but sounds so good amongst my tracks and makes the EP seem a lot more drivey, really adding to the journey. I could not be happier with it, it’s so perfect.
Any particular plans for what’s next production wise for you?
Currently I am working on mixdowns for my next EP on one of my favourite labels. It is a digital release that should be out by the end of the year.
Apart from that I am working on a bunch of demos and making music whenever I can. I try to never create music when I am not inspired so my output waxes and wanes a lot. Going to inspiring events really helps my productions, so I am looking to do that as much as I can without burning myself out. I have recently bought my first piece of hardware – an Elektron Octatrack MK II, so am working on figuring out how to use that. I really would like to upskill myself and continue to improve my production as much as possible.
The end goal is to be able to play live, but that will take a while haha. There is always so much to learn with production, which is exciting but overwhelming at times, so just working step by step.
I’m a big fan of your work as a DJ as well and have enjoyed following your new Kinesis mix series. I hear it may become a label too? What’s in store for the future there?
Thank you! I am currently running Kinesis as a mix series then hoping to do some events when it gets warmer or when the time feels right. The end goal is for Kinesis to become a label, but I don’t want to rush it and want to learn as much as I can by going through the process myself. I have a very specific sound that I want to put out so I want to find artists that align with my vision.
I am wanting the Kinesis releases to prioritise female and non-binary artists, especially those who are new to production. I would love to help other female and non-binary artists with production as it is a very daunting and sometimes inaccessible world, but to do that I need to understand the production process myself. But right now, I am loving running it as a mix series and being in touch with different people. The mixes so far are sooo perfect.
Stay up to date with Zara on Instagram and SoundCloud.
Words by Willis Huigsloot (@felinefine)
Photos by Tyler Guerin (@tyegue)
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