Ward doesn’t think in terms of singles. Rather, she wants the LP’s tunes to work cohesively together in some fashion.
“I believe in the album,” she says via phone from her Los Angeles home. ZZ Ward performs on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at House of Blues. “The concept of the album gets lost these days with streaming and with singles and with artists who aren’t encouraged to pursue an entire body of work. I really take pride in an entire body of work.”
While Ward worked with a number of award-winning producers and frequent collaborators such as Ludwig Göransson (Star Wars, Creed, Childish Gambino, Adele, Kendrick Lamar), Mike Elizondo (Encanto, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood), Jason Evigan (Troye Sivan, Dan + Shay), Dave Bassett (Elle King, Vance Joy, Alice Merton), S1 (Eminem, Drake, Lorde), and Mark Jackson & Ian Scott (Bishop Briggs, Dorothy), she still aimed to achieve a consistency on Dirty Shine, an album that artfully draws from blues, hip-hop and R&B.
“My whole career, I’ve worked with a lot of different producers,” she explains. “Generally, I would write with them, and if we love the song, we use it. That’s generally how it’s gone. The feeling behind the music is important. I’m not trying to stay in one genre. I don’t think about it. It would extinguish my creativity. What’s important is to make music that moves me and makes me feel empowered. I hope that music will make the listener feel something. That’s what my goal is. It’s not so much to fit in. so many incredible producers on this album. I’m so fortunate to be able to work with such talent. Great songs raise their hands, and I want my fans to be able to hear everything.”
The album commences with “Welcome to Dirty Shine,” a bona fide opening number/introduction that features pounding drums and chanting, and then embarks on a musical journey.
“People don’t really do intros anymore, but I think it sets the tone and makes the listener feel like they’re having an experience,” says Ward. “They put on a record, and it becomes a significant part of someone’s life. Someone will put on [2012’s] Til the Casket Drops, which is my first album, and be nostalgic. It represents a certain period of time in their lives and in my life. I hope that this album will make people be able to continue to feel that experience.”
One album highlight, “Ride or Die,” features a mix of acoustic guitars, percussive beats and strings. It’s an exuberant number that really hits hard; fast-rapping Vic Mensa makes a cameo and adds some hip-hop flavor to the tune.
“That’s a song that I wanted to put out for a very long time,” says Ward. “I am so happy I was finally able to share it. Vic is on that track and just murdered it. He’s such a talented lyricist. It’s amazing what he did. He incorporated my name and where I’m from. It’s amazing what someone can do who is a really good rapper. I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible rappers. I just love having Vic on that song.”
With its swirling synthesizers and Kate Bush-like vocal refrain, “On One” also sizzles.
“I write about whatever I’m experiencing in my life,” says Ward. “I don’t pull any gimmicks. [Music is] my safe space and allows me to say what I really want to say. I have more courage to say the things that I want to say than I do in real life. It’s a declaration about becoming a new mother and finding a new sense of power and self. It’s about feeling stronger and more motivated than I’ve ever felt before.”
The “On One” video is part two of a mini-movie that presents Zombie-Western love story. Part one of this mini-movie was previously released in the video for “Forget About Us.” The video climaxes with a cheating ex crashing the wedding, and a lone zombie finger popping up on screen.
“I’ve been making music with my brother Adam, and my brother Charlie has taken my photography for me,” she says. “My brother Adam is an independent film producer and director. He has a show called Three Guys & a Couch. He has an independent feature film called Wally Got Wasted. Seeing him work independently and take on these enormous projects and then seeing them to completion has been inspiring to me. We teamed up for this series of music videos. We have had a ball doing it. I get to be creative in a way that I could never be creative with a major label. He’s been making these movies, and we are having a good time experimenting and trying things and pushing the boundaries. I’ve been inspired by Quentin Tarantino when it comes to the videos.”
Ward’s urban sound ironically emerged from her rural roots. Born in Abington, PA, she grew up in the small town of Roseburg, OR on 23 acres of farmland. A huge inspiration, her dad’s record collection included titles by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Etta James, and Big Mama Thornton. Ward started singing blues tunes at the age of 8. Then, inspired by her hip-hop head older brother and his Nas and Jay Z records, she began to see similarities in blues and hip-hop, something she continues to exploit on Dirty Shine.
Ward says she’s excited to see how the new songs translate live. At the time of this interview, she had only played acoustic versions of some of the tunes but says she is ready to turn up the volume.
“I played some of these songs acoustically, and that’s one experience,” she says. “To pull them together for the tour and play them to the fullest extent possible and really, really take them home is going to be really tough. I’m really, really looking forward to it. You never know what song is going to raise its hand. We’ll will hit it pretty hard right before we go on tour, so we’re slamming when we finally go on the road.”
This article appears in Aug 23 – Sep 5, 2023.
