What are they putting in the kids’ water up in Canada?
Yeah we’ve all heard about the boy singing sensation from Scarborough discovered via YouTube that everyone now loves to hate, but has anyone yet heard about DZ?
DZ (né Daniella Dziamba) is a twelve-year-old Canadian musician from Burlington, Ontario who started playing guitar at the age of four before going on to learn bass and drums. At nine years of age, DZ began composing her own music and recently released her first eponymous EP.
What is most remarkable about her, beyond the fact that she plays all the instruments featured in her songs — every note, every drum beat — is that the songs KILL, and are infused with a vibe that hearkens back to the best of the early 90’s indie scene.
It is difficult to wrap one’s head around this precocious artist’s material – it’s like having a direct channel to the world of a twelve-year-old but realized through a much more wizened experience. We detect Sonic Youth, Daisy Chainsaw, Shudder to Think, Urge Overkill, Vaselines, Big Star and all that good stuff. The production is amazing, the performances great, and the vocal delivery is laid back, poised and utterly sincere and self-assured.
This is mature stuff indeed, but from a very rare perspective. It’s almost as if you are waiting for the curtain to be drawn back revealing the little old man posturing as the great Wizard of Oz. And yet, there, in your ear and eyeholes, is the undeniable recorded performance of a young rock genius. This is true alternative indie prodigy, if ever such a thing existed. It’s what one might have wished, back in 1995, that Frances Bean Cobain might grow up to become. And we are going to help this video go viral, because it hasn’t become near the sensation that I predict it might.
DZ talked to MusicZeitgeist about the music, that is when she isn’t busy golfing or skateboarding or doing homework in her seventh grade classes.
What motivated you to start playing music? How old were you?
My parents play guitar, so they motivated me to play. I actually got my first guitar when I was two.
What artists influence your taste in music?
The Beatles (always), Metric, Paramore, Tegan and Sara, Passion Pit are some of my favorite bands at the moment. I support local Indie bands from the Toronto area like 40Sons and Arkells.
Right now, I’m enjoying this band from Iceland – Mugison – and their song “Pathetic Anthem” – I saw them a couple of years ago opening for the Queens of The Stone Age and they were amazing. Here is one of their videos.
Let’s talk about your EP:
My EP has just been released on iTunes and on Amazon. It’s a 5 song EP that I recorded throughout last year. Because I play everything, it takes longer to get the tracks done. Which is okay, because I get to have control over everything. I worked with Hamilton producer Carl Jennings and we have a great connection. He is a super talented musician himself, so we speak the same language. I feel really fortunate to get to work with him.
How do you write the lyrics?
I write when I’m happy, angry, disappointed. It’s a great outlet.
One of my songs I wrote because my friend’s parents were getting divorced and I watched the relationship go from great to numb. So I wrote about it on “Good Thing”.
How was it to win the UK Songwriting Contest – Rock category?
It was an incredible feeling! I wasn’t expecting to win. There were so many talented musicians from all over the world and I never imagined I’d win. I met great people through the contest. And also made a cool connection with Richard Niles, that worked with Paul McCartney and Kyle Minogue. So, it was an awesome experience.
Vital links:
Official site: http://www.dzrocks.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dzrocks98
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/dz/id382700871
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dZ/dp/B003WEC0F4/ref=pd_rhf_p_img_1
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