Singer and songwriter Kady Z is a whole lot of amazing things bundled into one tiny and iridescently layered package.
Kady Z’s versatility as an artist is undeniable. You need only compare her 2013 release Ordinary Girl and the 2014 EP Ordinary Girl (Undone) to marvel at how one song can be an uplifting anthem in one version, and become a soul-stirring ballad in another.
In a recent interview with AXS Magazine, Kady talks about this versatility with her signature approach to the world, which is always a refreshing mix of hilarity and raw honesty.
“I am not comparing myself to The Beach Boys... Not at all! Bryan Wilson’s songs are pretty intense, but the music is set to ‘Let’s jump around!’ I feel that the lyrics to ‘Crush Gone Wrong’ were always very serious, but the original production kept it light and poppy. This version has a different ambiance and a different vibe. Since all the songs on Ordinary Girl were originally written on acoustic guitar, it was very exciting to take them from that electronic version and bring them back to the original way we wrote them. Just as there’s a light side and a dark side to everyone, there’s a light side and a dark side to every song, too.”
Her most recent project was born in Nashville with the help of her longtime Grammy Award-winning producer, Tonedef [Green Day, Santana, Chris Isaak] and a dazzling array of musicians including Adam Shoenfeld, Jason Mowery, Randy Cooke, Nir Z and Joe Dunne, creating a sound that is best described as Gunslinger Americana or Swampy Pop.
The new music brings an entirely different and transcendent level of raw emotion and struggle that gets to the pure heart of Kady Z, without the glittery ghosts of her starlit upbringing as the daughter of Pia Zadora. This is a natural evolution from the stripped-down acoustic pop, to a more earthy, sultry and moody sound.
Kady talks about the transition by saying, “Growing up around pop music and the pop scene, and the the fake people in Hollywood, I started to gravitate towards an earthier, more honest sound. It feels more natural and comfortable to me. As someone who likes to call it like it is, I have always been the black sheep or outlaw of the family, which fits in with this pop girl moving to a more americana way.”
These are songs that will make you up sit up straight and stop to take in all the delicate power that is Kady’s voice. Listening to the new tracks, it is impossible not to make comparisons to Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey with influences of Mumford and Sons, Johnny Cash, and the filmic nuances of Quentin Tarantino.
On the first new track, ‘Sittin’ at a Rest Stop’ written by Kady and Tonedef, she sings:
Yeah all I see are headlights
Like a canopy of long nights
They're burning bright
like wildfires
Burning memories of you.
And within that one line we are brought instantly to a story of longing and a loss.
She’s exploring some of her darker layers here lyrically, against a beautifully paired backdrop of arrangements and a production tone that puts us squarely within her searching soul.
There are also lighter moments with the track ‘Cold, Dead Body’ where Kady Z channels a little Carrie Underwood with more sultry sass, reinforcing once again why Kady Z is such a beacon, pulling people to her as she rides the wave from broken to brazen.
There’s no doubt that Kady Z as that self-proclaimed pop girl enjoyed some pretty impressive heights when her single ‘Beautiful Disaster’ reached 53 on the Billboard Hot 100, and asa fresh face of the Grammy foundation in conjunction with Herbal Essences and Neutrogena. But with this new effort, we are instantly aware from the first note that all of Kady Z’s past impressive soundscapes have merely scratched the surface of what she is capable of and we are finally hearing the real Kady Z, and it’s pure magic.
Stay tuned for upcoming album release and tour information. http://www.hellakady.com/#music
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