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We had the pleasure of interviewing Zuli Jr. over Zoom video!
Sitting in your pocket, on your screen, and in your home, one monolithic brand listens in, makes “suggestions,” and subconsciously informs the world around you. It lies in the background only to entirely shape the foreground.
Sound familiar?
We needn’t cite any real-life names as we know they’re probably listening right now, but this idea remains the crux of Zuli Jr.’s second full-length album, Stop It God., due out spring 2021. In his case, Daisy serves as the ever-present corporate overlord with a HAL 9000-style computer to navigate daily life. Crafting a story of his own, the New York singer, songwriter, and alternative R&B insurgent opens up a wormhole between future-facing pop, Platonic allegory, science fiction, and eerily parallel truths.
Zuli hinted at such ambition with early projects such as the Supernatural Voodoo EP. The latter yielded favorites including “Forget My Name” [1.1 million Spotify streams] and “Better All The Time” [1 million Spotify streams]. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone described his 2017 full-length, OnHuman Freakout Mountain, as “the sweet spot of a Sixties-tinged summer hit” and “infectious, abrasive yet melodic indie-pop.”
In 2019, Zuli bridged the gap between his indie-rock roots and newfound sound with “Ur Mistaken,” a soulful croon showcasing his expanding palette while continuing to straddle the line between timeless and timely. Throughout late 2019 and early 2020, he recorded what would become Stop It God. at an Upstate New York retreat with close friends and collaboratorsZachTK Zanghiand Aire Atlantica, drawing on inspirations as diverse as SZA, Radiohead, King Krule, and The 1975.
Overall, Zuli touches on the spectrum of what we put our faith into and how we choose to cope and find meaning in our lives. Stop it God. plays as a deliberate statement on the human condition, yet open-ended and up for interpretation.
He introduces this journey with the laidback funk of the first single “How To Feel.” Sunny production and a steady beat strut underneath his dynamic vocal performance, fluttering from intimate verses into fiery falsetto.
Ultimately, ZuliJr. invites full-scale immersion on par with that of a film via Stop It God.
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