Shot by Connor Sprague
ZION GARCIA / MUSICIAN
The saying goes that video games rot your brain. For Zion, his childhood love of video games led him to a healthy obsession with their soundtracks. By age 16 he had released his debut album - entirely written, recorded, mixed and produced himself from his bedroom. Now at age 20, the solo powerhouse continues to create chill-hop beats with sensitive and insightful lyricism that basically sounds like if Frank Ocean and BROCKHAMPTON had a sound baby.
Interview with Jess Lord
How would you describe your music?
I guess my music is just a comforting reflection of not really knowing my place growing up... an exploration of my experience growing up out west and growing up as a Tongan and Spanish kid.
How did growing up in Western Sydney inspire or influence your music?
I feel like the west is still so under and misrepresented. There’s so many amazing and beautiful things happening out here. There’s such a strong sense of community. It’s a crazy thing, every time I tell people I’m from the west it’s funny seeing them react differently, because I guess I forget that some people don’t actually know that much about Western Sydney; like, for some people, it’s an actual “thing”. But for me, it’s not really a thing. I’m just from here. But it’s exciting, because to me, it makes me feel like people finally have their eyes on what people are doing here.
What do you think is unique about Western Sydney’s cultural life?
At one point in time I didn’t really listen to much Australian music. I guess, especially with rap, there weren’t that many artists that connected with me as a kid. Growing up over these past few years, I’m realising that there’s this whole new generation of kids [from Western Sydney] that I think probably felt the same about Australian music, and slowly started doing it themselves. Now there’s this community that has always been here, but at the same time has not been in the public eye at all. And now it’s just kind of fun, all of us slowly finding each other and supporting each other. It feels like this one unintentional collective of people just trying to make the best stuff possible.
Shot by Connor Sprague
What’s your favourite song of yours?
Oh, my God, that’s hard. Not because I love my music, I just feel like I have such a weird relationship [with it]. If I had to choose one, probably “Saviour” from this album that I made when I was 16. The whole song is based on a dream that I had, so I’m talking about choosing between Michael Jackson albums... really dumb shit. But when it comes on it makes me kind of emo because I remember exactly how I looked, how I felt, how I perceived people, you know what I mean? It’s a really fun way to look back on how far I’ve come, mentally and everything.
Was that from your debut album “Plastic Woman”?
Yeah! I remember I made it, I finished it, and then I did my first live show ever. No one knew who the fuck I was. I got up on stage and introduced myself and I was like, “I finished my album!” No promotion, I just chucked it out. I want to return to that feeling of just pure, unintentional passion; wanting to put your shit out without overthinking it.
Shot by Isaac Sung
What inspires you?
Too many things. This is a weird answer, but a crazy thing for me is opening title sequences in films. There’s something about the fonts and the colours that is inspiring. Being out west inspires me. Skateboarding; I grew up on skateboard culture.
I’ll show you this [pulls out book]. I keep this book right next to my bed. It’s one of the first things my parents got for me when I was a kid. I keep this with me all the time because it’s always the reminder of where I stood as a kid. I loved the photography. I loved the composition of shots. That’s a huge inspiration for me.
I love art in general. I love ambient music. Film scores. It’s my dream one day to be able to score films and even score my own films. I’ve probably said too many things.
How did you become involved in music?
Well, you’re gonna want to go really far back. Growing up, music was always a huge deal. It was never an articulated conscious deal, but there was something about music, there was always something in my heart. Even my dad, he would make all these family videos and the songs that were underneath, as a kid, they just kind of stuck with me. Since then music has always been a really big deal in my life.
Even just playing video games like Tony Hawk, Crash Bandicoot, GTA... something about the scores of those games, when I was about eight years old, they really stuck with me. Then I got really into Guitar Hero, and that really made me obsessed with music. When I was 14, I dropped a shitty beat tape when Datpiff was like, on its final legs as a good mixtape site, and then just kind of never looked back.
It’s still the only thing in my life that I feel like is an easy way to get out how I’m feeling. It’s helped me to ground myself and be more conscious of whatever I’m thinking and the things that I need to focus on.
Shot by Charlotte Macs
Top 5 Sydney artists?
SOLLYY
Nick Ward
Dylan Atlantis
Breakfast Road
Stevan
Who do you think is the most exciting young & emerging creative in Sydney?
SOLLYY
Musician
@sollyywood