US blues singer- songwriter ZZ Ward told David Hennessy about her most recent album Liberation and her Irish heritage.
ZZ Ward, real name Zsuzsanna Eva Ward (39), has had billboard chart success and appeared on every major US talk show.
She now wants to get her music to an Irish audience where she has heritage.
ZZ grew up in Roseburg, Oregon and she started singing in her father’s band as a child.
She signed with Hollywood Records and in 2012 she released her debut album, Til the Casket Drops to immediate acclaim.
Her second album The Storm debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart in 2017.
She would release her third album Dirty Shine independently in 2023 to widespread acclaim.
The US blues artist recently signed to the legendary Sun Records label which is renowned for discovering music legends including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
The album Liberation, released earlier this year, is the first full length release under the new label and some critics have called it her best work to date.
Liberation and the Mother EP which preceded it also marked Ward‘s return to the charts, becoming Ward‘s second and third top-ten records on the Billboard Blues Album Chart.
What is it that has got you wanting to gain traction in Ireland?
“Ireland is a very special place.
“I’ve played in Dublin before.
“I really enjoyed it.
“That was years ago, opening for Alan Stone actually.
“I really remember just really liking Ireland, it kind of stood out to me as a very special place.
“I’ve seen my DNA test.
“I’m partially Irish so maybe that’s why, I don’t know.
“I like it a lot though.
“We’re just trying to get my music out there more.”
I’m not surprised you’re a bit Irish with a name like Ward..
“Yeah, I can’t remember the percentage but I was like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting’.”
You have a new album called Liberation that has been very well received, how are you enjoying the reaction to it?
“I’ve really been enjoying it.
“For me this was a really special album.
“I wanted to go further into the blues and soul because that’s the kind of music that I grew up on.
“Previously I had done a little bit more pop leaning music and for this one, I just really wanted it to feel like a throwback album.
“But when I say throwback, I wanted it to feel classic.
“I wanted to listen to it and just have it kind of transport me to a different time period.
“I listen to a lot of older music, music from the 40s and the 50s and the 60s and so I love the way that music sounds.
“I think that over time, music has gotten so polished and kind of rigid but I miss those times, that realness and that authenticity and that dirtiness and the way artists used to be recorded.
“I feel like the reaction has been really good.
“A lot of my following in the US is on board.
“They know my love of the blues and so they’re with it, for sure.”
You just spoke about the music you grow up with. Was it always music for you? It sounds like you grew up steeped in it…
“Yeah, I really always wanted to do music since I was like eight years old.
“I remember singing at a school talent show and I just remember the reaction that I got from people.
“It was like suddenly I felt really special.
“It was like, ‘Oh, she can sing’.
“And then from there, it just became this thing.
“I didn’t get a lot of attention in my daily life and so when I would sing at a talent show, suddenly I was the most popular person in the school.
“That was enough for me to really want to keep singing in front of crowds and things like that.
“I was such a huge fan of a lot of female soulful singers like Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Toni Braxton, Dusty Springfield, just a lot of really strong female singers.
“I always wanted to be a singer.
“I’ve dreamt about it since I was a little girl.”
Wasn’t your first band with your dad or something like that, so was it a musical family too?
“Yeah, my dad was a singer and played harmonica in his blues band.
“I was a daddy’s girl so I’d always go to those rehearsals.
“I’d be in and out of the garage when they were rehearsing and the older I got, he would encourage me to get up here and sing a song.
“And then I sang one song and then probably rocked with that for like a year.
“I’d come up and do my song and then it just became more and more songs that I learned and started singing in the band as I got older.”
So did you ever think of other jobs or was it always music for you?
“It was pretty much music.
“My mom was a nurse growing up.
“I remember when I was 16, I took a certified nursing assistants’ course, and I liked taking care of people.
“I’m a mom now, so I think there’s a part of me that that comes natural to me to take care of other people.
“But it just wasn’t special for me.
“It didn’t make me feel like that was my gift.
“My gift was way too overwhelming with music, nothing else brought that kind of excitement and energy to my life after I would sing in front of people or write a song.
“It just felt like it was my special thing so there wasn’t really anything else.
“I went to community college but I think that was only because I didn’t really know what else to do in my small town.
“It was almost like my reluctancy to move out of that town and go to the big city that I kind of was like, ‘Alright, well, I guess I’ll go to college because that’s what we do after high school’.
“But I always wanted to do music.”
And you did get to the big city, get signed to a label and have chart success, was it all a whirlwind?
“It was exhilarating.
“It was so exciting because I wanted to do it for so long.
“I wanted to pursue it, and I was pursuing it.
“I was working so hard, playing music everywhere that I could, writing my own music.
“And then when I got my first record deal, I was 25 and I was just like, ‘Wow. Finally, this is amazing’.
“They wanted to go make an album with me.
“And then after we made the album, things happened really fast.
“We put out that album and then it just caught fire.
“It was like, all of a sudden, I was on all the late night shows.
“I was playing Coachella, I was touring nationally.
“It was like it just kicked into high gear.
“It was exciting.”
You mentioned being a mother now.
The new album Liberation has got themes of motherhood in there, like the EP before it.
It’s a big theme of the record..
“Yeah, it is.
“I think I’m such a honest writer.
“I strive to write music that feels really real and authentic because that’s what I like.
“I don’t want to listen to a song that feels like it was written to be written.
“I want to listen to something that gives me a window into someone’s life because those are the things that really elicit emotions.
“For me becoming a mother was such an enormous part of my life over the last five years that I knew I wanted to write about it.
“I felt a little nervous writing about it because I think when you write about something so specific, you talk to a certain group of people but you also kind of isolate yourself from maybe another group of people that doesn’t have kids.
“But you take that risk when you’re writing about something that’s really true to you and going on in your life.
“I mean that’s why I think songs about heartbreak are some of the biggest songs and albums of all time, because everybody goes through that.”
You have to be real whatever you’re writing about if it’s going to connect with anyone, right?
“Yeah, I think there’s just something in being moved by something, whether it makes you feel like you’re going to cry or it makes you angry or it makes you excited, it’s a language that it’s just there or it’s not, I think.”
I read a quote by you saying this album is who you have always wanted to be, a blues artist on your own terms, is that what it feels like?
“Yeah, it does feel like that.
“I think that I always was coming out of the blues when I was a kid and trying to do that in modern music was tricky, and also to not really let any outside influence too much in my head on this project.
“It really felt like I did this album because I wanted to do this album and so I am really proud of it and when I listen to it, it still has my personal standards of what I want things to be like.
“And it’s tricky.
“There’s a lot of great blues songs and there’s a lot of blues songs that aren’t very good and aren’t very interesting and so to try to do something within a genre and stay true to that genre, while also making something great, I like that challenge, and I feel really good about how it turned out.”
Is that even what the title is hinting at or referring to in Liberation? Do you feel liberated or at liberty to make what you want to make?
“Yeah, I think having children for me was a really scary idea.
“I knew I wanted to have kids for a long time but I put my career first and I really wanted to be respected and work hard.
“Then when I wanted to have kids, I was really kind of scared of how I would be viewed by maybe the industry, not really my fans but the industry.
“I was really scared.
“I think that having kids and then feeling like I was just even stronger than I was before, while simultaneously really making the kind of music that I wanted to make.
“It just felt liberating.”
You just mentioned Coachella and you also toured with Eric Clapton. You’ve done some crazy things. Is there one particular highlight?
“I feel like being on TV was the most surreal for me.
“Because I remember being in college, I was staying up with my dad till like two in the morning watching Letterman, Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson, Conan O’Brien.
“I would stay up late with him and watch all these late night shows and then suddenly I was on the Jay Leno Show. I was on Letterman. Conan O’Brien invited me to come sit down and talk to him and Andy.
“It was like, ‘What am I doing? This is insane’.
“It was just so surreal, especially coming from a really small town.
“It was very small and rural and my only connection to the outside world was TV so knowing that people in my small town were gonna see me on TV, it’s just that kind of reassurance that everything you thought you could be your whole life, you kind of are becoming.
“It was wild.”
Getting on those shows is when you know you have made it in American culture, isn’t it?
“Yeah, I mean it’s different for everybody.
“For me it was a lot of television appearances.
“I got really fortunate with that, and syncs.
“I had a lot of syncs in American TV and film.
“I think we had like 250 syncs on the first album.
“I had my songs in the show, Pretty Little Liars, We are the Millers, there’s so many that I’m not thinking of off the top of my head but it gave me a lot of exposure as well.”
I wanted to talk about your inspirations. Do any Irish acts feature?
“It’s a great question.
“I love Van Morrison.
“I listen to Van Morrison all the time.
“U2’s like one of the biggest acts in the world.
“Amazing songwriters that write emotional music.
“I’d say those are two that stand out to me.”
She’s not really Irish but I wondered if you were into Amy Winehouse a bit because I could definitely hear a bit of her in your voice..
“Oh yeah, totally. Absolutely.
“I think that Amy was so unique and also her music just felt so real, so emotional and so moving.
“I think that we sound different.
“We’re definitely different vocalists and different artists but I think what she did was so impactful and so enormous, absolutely huge influence for sure.
“She didn’t play the blues, she was doing soul and she was doing jazz so it kind of gives me room to do my own thing and be unique to me, but absolutely huge influence on me.”
When you get back to Ireland, you might meet some more of the Ward clan..
“It’s wild.
“I would love to know more.
“I would be so curious who is my blood that’s walking around here.
“I know a lot about my mother’s side.
“I found out more of my mother’s history as I was in my late 20s.
“I don’t know too much about my dad’s side which is where the Ward comes from and I’m assuming where the Irish comes from.”
Ward‘s maternal grandmother, Zsuzsanna Friedman, was a Jewish Hungarian who converted to Catholicism to avoid persecution during the Holocaust.
You have looked into the background on the other side of your family, was that a bit harrowing?
“Yeah, it really was.
“It was very interesting just to know what my grandmother lived through in Hungary.
“I think it’s super inspiring, you know?
“I’m sure it’s the same thing on my dad’s side in its own way.
“I think to find out about your family heritage and knowing that you wouldn’t be here if your ancestors weren’t strong and didn’t fight to survive is pretty fascinating.”
Back to the music, are you going to continue doing it on your own terms?
“Absolutely.
“I really love the sound that I created with Ryan Spraker who produced this album with me and we get along really well.
“I could definitely see us doing another album together and that’s what I’ll be working on now.
“I like the challenge.
“I like the challenge of straddling the blues with the writing aspects that make me me.
“I think it’s enough for me to feel a good challenge and also kind of let it be my new sound.”
Liberation is out now.
For more information, go to zzward.com.
