I can’t be the only one who’s found themselves dreaming of live gigs? But if it feels like a distant dream for me, imagine how it feels for the many musicians, bands and artists who were on the precipice of launching when all this began. 

Electronic duo, Zela have bucked the trend, not only launching a catalogue of new music but working out inventive ways to get their live performances seen. It’s paid off for the siblings, who’ve received recognition from BBC Introducing Tees, Spotify plus Leeds and Reading Festival.  

I caught up with the band’s frontwoman, Livvy Griffiths for a red wine and a creative chat about launching a successful band in a global pandemic, staying creative and most importantly, how amazing gigs are going to be once they can happen again.  

I want to ask you first, what is Zela. How would you describe what you do and how you sound?

Livvy: Zela is unapologetic. It’s the first word that always comes to mind. Everything we do, for the band, for the music, for the image, for the message, for the brand everything kind of has to correlate. I think unapologetic. 

We’re kind of punky even though we’re not a punk band. I didn’t really think it at first until people started saying it. We’re very much a dark electronic pop band and that’s the music that we make, but I guess our personalities really shine through in other ways. 

We stand for a lot. We stand for being yourself. We stand for being confident and I guess just being like – being totally fucking you. 

“I always joke, we put our first single out and it was just too much for the world to handle.”  - Livvy Griffiths, Zela

So Zela has been a few years in the making. How was that journey and what were you preparing before lockdown?

Livvy: Yeah, we weren’t really sure what we were coming into. The band is me and my brother Max and we decided to go out as a duo. We’d been writing and recording out of a studio in Harrogate called Homefire with a producer called George and a guy called John who does the mastering and everything else. 

We met and we started making music together and we all just really clicked on personal level, creative level everything. We thought, let’s not limit ourselves and think what do we want to sound like? How are we going to do this live? We thought let’s just make the music as we want and then go backwards from that. 

We were at a point where we were ready to release music and the timing was perfect! We literally released our first single, ‘Just Like That’ and the world shut down! I always joke, we put our first single out and it was just too much for the world to handle. 

So obviously at that point, we were like we don’t know how long this is going to go on for, or what this means for live music. We ploughed on as we meant to, maybe subtracting the reality of not being able to do live gigs.

We had a timeline for those singles to keep releasing throughout the year, so, fortunately, we were still able to do that despite the lockdown. We did single, single, single all the way up to the end of the year. And obviously, we would have loved to have been out playing shows much sooner, but we’ve just kind of adapted and done what we can for now.

And while that was the journey for Zela, what was your individual journey into music and songwriting?

Livvy: Yeah that’s interesting Max and I have always been in bands together growing up.  We’ve always written music together. Anything music we did together. I started writing music maybe when I was about twelve or thirteen. I’d always written poetry and stories and anything to do with words I just loved.  

Our dad’s a musician. He’s a singer and guitarist and he had all the tools for us, to help us along the way in those early years and he really did. I think just having that extra person who’s been about and knows the industry to like help you and encourage you and shape you was like was so important in those formative years. I have a lot to thank him for. 

For me, I guess I started writing when I was super young and I don’t think I can really remember a time when I didn’t. I just have a fascination with words in some way.

Has lockdown changed your sound?

Livvy: Lyrically, I am a very selfish writer. I use my music and my lyrics as self-expression, but I think I’m very much inspired by being out and meeting new people and conversation, and experience and bad behaviour and stupid shit. That stuff really gets me. 

I’ll hear a tiny thing, and I’ll go into the toilets and write and from that comes a song like ‘Sleep Real Bad’ which did really well for us. I think back to that time when I wrote that song and people say they love that song so much and I’ve realised, thinking back how much I’m inspired by those real-life situations. 

With Lockdown, there’s obviously not any of that going on. There’s only so much of that which feels real when you’re on your own in your bedroom. 

I had to look for inspiration in other places and it was challenging, but when I did I was like I can write in a different way, I can kind of flirt with fiction a bit. Run free a bit and kind of romanticise things I wouldn’t normally. 

I felt a bit silly at first, letting myself romanticise about characters and write songs about them and then, I did it anyway. Max listened to them, I sent them to our producers and everyone was like this is really good! I was like, okay, I’m going to run with this for a bit. 

I’ve definitely opened a new avenue in my brain that’s letting me write about things I wouldn’t normally. That switch was really important cause I don’t know what I would have been writing about now. I can’t really write much about what’s going on in your bedroom. 

“you start evaluating yourself every day without realising it” – Livvy Griffiths, Zela

And how do you think being stuck in your room has affected you thinking creatively? It must be so hard.

Livvy: It is! There’s a lot of personal things that come into it as well. You start evaluating yourself every day without realising it. I think it’s important to recognise when you’re doing that and recognise when you need to stop doing that.

I am very lucky; I live with my brother Max who is the other 50% of Zela – so we just spent the lockdown in the garden with the bottle of red wine, making music. I’m so fortunate in that sense that I was able to keep moving forward like that.

I mean, me and Max, we’re brother and sister but, we’re best mates as well. You kind of have to be when you work like this. It’s been a real-life saver. I don’t really know how it would have worked had we been apart for that time. 

I was a bit worried that the lockdown was going to kind of stifle me a little bit. I think, you just got to trust yourself. You’ll always find it. Just go with it. It’s okay.

And working with family, is it hard to balance work and rest?

Livvy: I think I’m so lucky – Me and Max we call them our Gallagher moments, where we do fight and we disagree. But it’s gone like that. Over time, and working together for years, we’ve played in bands together we’ve done the rounds of like the humbling social club years, playing to nobody and fights backstage. 

We share a vision for Zela. We know when to switch it off. If we’re in the house and we’re working on something and it’s just not happening. We don’t push, we can both recognise and having that same vision and same level or understanding, is like really important. 

So Zela launched in a time without live gigs. What are you looking forward to when you can gig and how do you think it will be different?

Livvy: A couple of months ago, we went into a really cool space in Harrogate which is called Roosters. 

We’d discussed it for a while, and said as soon as we could, we knew weren’t going to get out and actually play live shows soon, so we thought what can we physically do right that now that is going to help showcase what we do live? 

We went into this space and we got a film crew. We set up live and we did our thing. We did three tracks. We’re going to be putting them out three, next month. One every Friday and they’ll kind of be like a little collection, by the end of it of the course of three weeks. 

Me and Max are two people and the sound is so full. Even though we’re electronic, there’s live instruments going on there’s a lot going on. It’s sonic. That’s the only way I can describe it. 

I won’t give too much away but, I’m just really excited for people to see what we do live. We treat it as though it was an actual, a proper gig and the film crew did an amazing job. We’re looking at a couple of headline slots at the minute. The talks are happening, we just can’t confirm anything yet. 

“I think you’ll see when the videos come just how we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.” – Livvy Griffiths, Zela

And what was filming like after not performing live in so long?

Livvy: Honestly, there was so much pent-up tension. I’ve spent my whole life on the stage. That’s how I’ve always made my income, it’s how I’ve always got my kicks. It’s what I do and same for Max as well.

I think you’ll see when the videos come just how we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was a really good day. We didn’t want to stop. It was so hot in that room. We were drenched by the end of it and we’re like, let’s just keeping doing it. It was so good. 

I cannot wait to get playing live properly and be able to see people. Reciprocating the energy in the crowd, that’s what it’s all about so. 

Playing the guitar, is that something you’ve picked up in lockdown?

Livvy: I am not a natural guitarist. My dad’s a guitarist. He’s so good, he’s a shredder.  He’s like never ever forced anything musically. Every few months from being like thirteen I’ve been like, okay I’m going to do it. Something would take over. But lockdown, perfect chance to get practising. 

I have had to push myself. Singing and dancing, it’s natural to me and guitar just was not. That has been a bit of a challenge for me, but I put my mind to it. It’s very basic stuff. I’m never going to be slash but I did think, if I can pick a guitar and play some badass chords during the set, that would be great. 

“the way that everyone’s pulled together in the creative industry throughout this time has been really valuable” – Livvy Griffiths, Zela

Community has come up a lot in these interviews. What has community support meant for you and Zela?

Livvy: We’ve had really positive support from the start. We had immediate support from the local BBC introducing station, Rhianne Thompson, Lee Hawthorn on our side and loving the music. We got BBC track of the week with a couple of songs. 

Community wise, we’ve been really accepted in a lot of ways. We got on the LGBTQ+ playlist with ‘Sleep Real Bad’, with the context of the song and being about a girl, romantically, and that was really the first song I had written about a girl that had kind of been in the world. It was a really important time for me as a human and as a writer, for that to be accepted and appreciated.

I guess in every single way we could have hoped for, we’ve been incredibly supported and hopefully, that just continues. People seem to be loving the music.

I am just really happy with how everything has gone given the situation. It’s super sad cause I don’t think there’s been a lot of funding and the way that everyone’s pulled together in the creative industry throughout this time has been really valuable.

Looking back at the past year, what are you proudest of achieving?

Livvy: I’m generally proud of the way things went. We managed to get out six singles back-to-back. We got on the Spotify new music Friday playlist with ‘I’m Healing’ which was like mad! 

I’m really proud of that and I’m proud of us for keeping going. We’ve made some bold decisions and I think that’s really important. 

Two things that I’ve learnt, personally through this lockdown when it comes to Zela and myself, is how important consistency is and also like being impulsive. Trust yourself. Trust your gut. You’ve got to do what you think is right and it will always work out for you. 

What are you most looking forward to when lockdown is over?

Livvy: I look forward to a lot of cocktails and I’m also looking forward to again, live shows. We’re going to be so ready to do it as soon as we’re able to. We’ve just thinking about it and planning it for so long, so that’s probably the number one. 

I want festivals back so bad. I’ve missed festivals. We got put forward, hot listed to play Reading and Leeds if that was going forward which was very bittersweet because obviously part of us was like woah! I think Max had been for like a decade, and I love going.

Is there a song you particularly can’t wait to play live?

Livvy: ‘I’m Healing’, I can’t wait to play ‘I’m Healing’ live. We have a lot of new material, we’ve spent a lot of the last few months of Christmas and January in the studio, distanced and it’s been really strange. 

It’s allowed us to keep moving forward. It still sounds like Zela but it’s kind of a new sound, there are new elements, it’s definitely a little bit different to the first era of music that we put out last year. 

Then we have a new song called ‘Freaky Young People.’ I can’t wait for that one, I’m so excited. So I’m Healing’ and ‘Freaky’ are the two. 

Zela’s Live at Rooster’s videos will be released throughout March. Check out the ‘Sleep Real Bad’ live performance now.

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Written By Lauren Waugh 

@_LifeofLKW