SZA’s journey to her creative product and outlet has been long and tumultuous at times, but her debut album, Ctrl, received 5 Grammy nominations and is now certified platinum by the RIAA. She has been signed to TDE, Kendrick Lamar’s label, since 2017. Her record is an exploration of different musical styles to find her own voice paired with an alluring prose in her lyrics. The range of femininity that SZA chronicles in her album is an empowering contradiction on today’s unnecessarily strict beauty standards and standards of women in general. 
Because much of SZA’s life she has been marginalized from her peers, her music began in a place of anger, anxiety and fear. Born as Solána Imani Rowe, she grew up in a small and affluent town in New Jersey. She was one of the few black people within the town and was left out of many social situations because of her strict, conservative parents. She felt like she had to change much of who she was to be desirable and seen. Fast forward, years later she is in the music-making zone for her first album. Her fear and anxiety from her past have halted her creative process instead of being a source of inspiration like it once was. She decided to go on a hike with her creative team and they end up taking psychedelic mushrooms. Because of the drugs and the nature SZA explains that “[she] heard everything singing to [her], she was tripped out crying and it removed the fear barrier. The next day [she] felt free -- [she] couldn’t fail.” Ever since this revelation, she has been able to use music as a therapy from the chaos of the outside world. 
SZA’s process is based much more on freestyling than following a certain procedure. Surprisingly,
a lot of her inspiration for music comes from different images instead of sounds. The artist intentionally constructs a creative bubble with her producers. Different producers on SZA’s team push each other to be better by sending around all different sounds and vibes in order to make higher quality records. They come together both inside and outside the studio. One of her producers, Carter Lang, credits this level of friendship amongst the group allows them to strive and urge others in the group to create the best sound that is authentic to SZA. She believes she is in the perfect creative space with her TDE team and it is apparent her team is very confident in her abilities as well. The Antydote, a producer with 8 credits on SZA’s album, says that “SZA has a mystical place in her brain where, when the right chords are played, out come the heartfelt lyrics...It’s almost as if she is not conscious when it’s happening.”
Her freestyling process is what caused so many delays on the Ctrl album however. Because there are no exact calculations too it and it is just a feeling, if she cannot pinpoint the reason she doesn’t like a song she scraps it all together. There were at least 150 songs that could have been on the debut album that the singer was having to choose from. The only reason the album was able to be released in June of 2017 was because her record label took her hard drive. She says that the album could have been totally different had she been able to ruminate with it for much longer. Csikszentmihalyi details this kind of creative flow in Chapter 3 of Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by affirming that “this does not mean that creative persons are hyperactive, always “on”constantly churning away...The important thing is that the energy is under their own control - it is not controlled by the calendar, the clock, an external schedule. They consider the rhythm of activity followed by idleness or reflection very important for the success of their work. It is learned by trial and error, as a strategy for achieving their goals.” SZA believes her honest reflection in her songs is what make them so popular to the world because honest energy attracts others’ honest energy.
After the successful release of her debut album, SZA is much less anxious about the next one. This time instead of taking an introspective approach she is excited to interpret the connections throughout the world.
The Guardian
Billboard SZA interview
Consequence of Sound
Billboard Carter Lang interview
It was really interesting to learn about how SZA made her music! I totally understand her anxiety in releasing something new into the world and how it will be perceived. I share a similar issue with revising and scrapping ideas until I am confident enough to let others see it on all levels, from a text all the way to a big class project. Happy to hear she's has gotten over the initial anxiety and I can't wait for the next album!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that SZA channeled her anger and feelings of marginality to make her music. It is also interesting that she had to get out of her own head and alter her reality for a little bit in order to finally stop the fear and anxiety she was feeling and start creating. The part you discussed about SZA constantly changing and scrapping songs she did not feel great about reminded me of the documentary we saw on Frank Gehry's creative process!
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