Interview With Izza on her Album A Night At The Ballet Act: 1
In her fourth studio album, Izza explores and wears different hats as an artist and singer in A Night At The Ballet Act: 1. The album, which was released this july follows her as she shows off a range and stamina as a musician. Izza herself talks about what it’s like performing and how her experience as a former athlete and her love for fashion have influenced her.
1. Tell me a little bit about the album. What inspired it musically?
Well, with my last EP “Confessions of a Valley Girl” I did a deep dive into my origins as an LA native, and growing up in the Valley, and I was revisiting a lot of past versions and experiences of myself. And naturally since I grew up doing dance, I was really inspired to dig deeper into that aspect of my life, so I decided to create “A Night At The Ballet.”
a) You’re a classically trained musician. Did that inspire you at all in your career so far?
For sure. I think knowing piano and music theory has helped me a lot with my production and my songwriting, so I’ve definitely carried that over from my youth.
2) Who are your key influencers for your sound?
Well I really love just unapologetic, strong, female artists like Rihanna, Beyoncé, and also their just visual creativity and how they just think about everything from the outfits, to the music video, to the show, and just all that. I think that really is the essence of this EP, is everything is just connected, yeah.
3) What do you think is the key difference between A Night at the Ballet: Act I and your other EPs? What do you think ties them all together for you as an artist?
I think with “A Night at the Ballet: Act I” I just am pushing myself harder as an artist and I’ve done like five EPs at this point, so each time I’m just learning to push the boundaries, and go further, and just really create the best art I can create, and challenge myself. I think with creating music videos for pretty much every song on this EP, I really created a world unlike any of the other EPs, even though all my EPs kind of have their own world, but… specifically for this one, since I was doing music videos for all the songs, it really just enhanced the songs, the visuals, and the final product.
5) You also competed as an athlete; has that influenced how you approach music?
For sure. I think there’s a lot of discipline that comes with being an athlete, and repetition, and every time I’m in the studio it kind of feels like I’m going to go to practice or work out or just, yeah, it’s kind of similar to me. When I’m performing on stage too, that’s like – I used to play tennis so it kind of feels like I’m playing a match, and you kinda get those same nerves right before. But then when you get on stage it just goes away, and that kind of is the same way of when you’re playing tennis and you start to hit the first ball, you’re like “okay, I know what I’m doing.”
a) What was that career shift like?
I think, yeah, I was just an athlete growing up and I always loved music, and I knew I wanted to be an artist. So that was just always in the back of my mind, even if I wasn’t pursuing it in, I guess, in the way I wanted to, because it’s just really hard to get started as a musician in my opinion. But now there’s a lot more access with social media and just, you know, being able to make music is so much easier.
b) Have you learned anything from competing in Tennis tournaments that has added to your music?
For sure. I think with tennis tournaments there’s a lot of, you know, stamina that has to be used and a lot of mental toughness and just a lot of similar aspects you need as an artist. It’s like, it’s the long game and it’s not something that happens overnight, and I think athletes can agree with this too, just it takes a lot of years and a lot of time to be good at your craft, so yeah. I think that’s just kind of like the parallels between those two.
6) The album “unfolds like a fashion show”, walk me through that?
I think each song has its own character, it’s almost like its own outfit and its own sort of – they all tie together, but they all have their own look, I’d say. I think it’s really cool to see the progression throughout the EP, and yeah, just kind of reminded me of creating a fashion collection.
a) Was it inspired by anything you’ve seen or wanted to do?
I think I’m just really inspired by fashion shows, and I get inspiration from watching runway shows online, like on YouTube, and I love Alexander McQueen and I think he does a lot of cool stuff. When he was alive, his shows were just so unique and so different from everybody else’s and had these like insane stages and props, and definitely I think viewing those shows and how they created these amazing set-ups made me want to create set-ups myself, so for all my videos, I think yeah, it’s definitely inspired by those shows.
7) Finally, how does it feel to have your fourth EP out? What do you hope for this one and going forward as an artist?
I’m super excited for people to listen to the EP. I’ve been working really hard on new music so I’m also excited to share that! But obviously looking forward to performing these songs live and getting to connect with fans in person.