INTERVIEW: Chase Zera releases new single 'Jealous': "Songwriting is about tapping into those inner feelings you might have buried that have the potential to be relatable and make great art."

Today sees Chase Zera return with her new single ‘Jealous’. The track is the second release of a new era in Zera’s career which has seen her re-launch as an independent artist and move her sound into a more synth-disco soundscape.

‘Jealous’ is an addictive slice of moody electro-synth pop which gives instant late night drive feels wrapped in divine melodies and mesmerising beats with a lyric that details doubting the fidelity of your partner. ‘You make me feel jealous / When you’re phones in the dark and it lights up…when you’re going out at night / Do you ever cross that line?’ she sings.

"There was no holding back writing these lyrics. The words might be laced in a groovy, danceable disco beat, but they're still toxic,” Zera says. “Jealousy is the ugliest emotion, but sometimes, feeling a bit jealous is what makes you realise you have feelings for someone. You don't want to lose them, especially not to someone else."

Ever since she released her first single in 2019, Chase Zera has grown in confidence and her latest music show an artist creating some of the best music of her career. There is so much potential here that we can’t help but feel Chase Zera is going to develop into one of Australia’s top artists in the coming years. We recently caught up with Chase to chat more about the creation of ‘Jealous’.

Hey Chase! So great to chat with you again, how is everything in your world right now?
Helloooo! Things have been lovely, gigs have made a comeback and it feels nice to be releasing another song and chatting with you again! Thanks for having me. 

Your new single ‘Jealous’ is out today, and it is just incredible, congratulations! Can you talk us through the inspiration for this one?
Ohhh thank you kindly! Well, one of my favourite parts of a studio session is always the initial sit down together, where you collectively go “okay so what are we feeling, what’s making us tick, what are we going through at the moment that we can write about today?” I always say it’s like a therapy session, because songwriting is about tapping into those inner feelings you might have buried for some time that have the potential to be relatable and make great art. 

At the start of the ‘Jealous’ writing session, we were talking about toxicity in dating and how sometimes feeling a bit of jealousy can be what makes you realise you’re into someone. It’s that fear of losing someone that (sadly) can be what lets you know you really want them in your life. Everyone hates to feel it and everyone hates to admit it to themselves, but it can be a sad truth about human connection, so we wanted to explore that in the lyrics. That’s pretty much where the inspiration came from – trying to unpack the pros and cons of jealousy as an emotion… a little bit fun, a little bit dark, all encompassing and pretty confusing.

What was the creative process like for this one?
’Jealous’ and ‘Supernova’ actually came to life in the same studio session in one day! I think it was all the cans of Red Bull that got us going and creativity honestly just hit us like a tonne of bricks that day. It was written/produced with Bella Kearney-Nurse and Pat Byrne (Beso Palma) at Studios 301 in Alexandria. In the lead up to that session I’d been writing so much music on my own in that little writing/recording studio, so I built up a real comfort and confidence in getting creative in that particular studio space, which I think helped.

For ‘Jealous’, I decided to keep the original demo vocals from that first ever session, so the vocals you hear in the released track are actually the first ones I ever recorded. There was something about the original vocal take that really resonated with me, I think it was the nonchalant emotion behind my voice that isn’t always easy to recreate on purpose. Sometimes when I’m tracking demo vocals with the intention to come back and re-record them, I end up doing a better vocal performance because I don’t feel pressured or stressed or like I’m trying too hard. It’s raw and real sounding. 

The song came together in about three studio sessions and a few remote back and forth sessions throughout lockdown. I wanted the lyrics to really shine through in this one, so I didn’t want us to overdo the instrumentation or over-produce the song too far beyond what we already had done in the initial studio session. 

This is the follow up to your last single ‘Supernova’ - which we are still obsessed with FYI - and while that was drenched in disco, ‘Jealous’ has this super moody, late night drive feel with house-y/synthy beats. What were your sonic inspirations, or desires, for this one?
The lyrics and storyline pretty much drove this entire track. We started writing down lyric ideas in a shared notes app and thought of what production might suit the storyline most effectively after that. Once I’d decided I wanted to write a song about jealousy, I thought it would be cool to then embody jealousy as a feeling within the production and instrumentation. Some distorted synths, dark pads, a powerful bassline, groovy electric guitar and a sultry overall tone.

Because we were talking about jealousy being dark and overpowering but also a bit endearing and a common theme in romance, I wanted the sound to be both dark and smooth, so we referenced ‘Cool Girl’ by Tove Lo (obsessed) and ‘Little L’ by Jamiroquai (also obsessed) to inspire that blend of dark pop and disco-funk. 

Are you planning a music video for this one, and if so what can we expect to see?
I do have a visualiser coming! It’s as cool and moody and dark and sultry as you’d hopefully expect from the song. I’m most excited for people to see the costuming - we went all out on the looks in this one. I really love teaming up with other creatives on my projects - stylists, hair and makeup artists, videographers, photographers, directors etc. so any chance I get to make content alongside a release, I make the most of it.

This is your second release of new music since your debut EP dropped last year, are you working towards another larger project such as an EP or even a full length album?
I certainly am! Once I felt like I’d arrived at that disco-pop soundscape that suits me most, I wrote and wrote and wrote and now I have so much music to share that I’d like to build out into a body of work. Some of my favourite songs, lyrics, projects, music video concepts etc. are still to come and like every other time I release a song, I’m already excited to share the next one. 

One thing I’d really like to incorporate into a body of work is interludes. I love releasing singles and making them a real moment, but I’d also love to step outside my comfort zone and release a set of songs with interludes that connect every song to one another in a really creative way. 

STAY. TUNED.

You recently did a DJ set at a carpark disco in Sydney which is a genius idea – how did that go?
It was truly one of my favourite DJ sets I’ve ever played. If I can draw any positive from the last year and a half without shows, it’s that I’ll never take a dancefloor or a gig for granted again - not that I really did before. I had the biggest smile on my face the entire time and it felt really nice to bring some energy back to music venues that have done it really tough through lockdown. 

I’ve been heavily rehearsing my new live show with the dancers – learning new choreography to the music I’ve released since I last performed and building the live set from the ground up again since Covid (as well as my fitness).  But in the meantime, it’s been so fun to play DJ sets filled with disco music, classic hits and dancefloor fillers we all forgot existed. It’s really rewarding creating a feel-good atmosphere for everyone in the room. I’ll definitely do disco DJ sets more often and already have a few booked that I’ll be announcing in weeks to come!

You have been releasing music for around three years now, and your sound, particularly with ‘Supernova’ and now ‘Jealous’ seems to be more confident and assured than ever. How do you feel you are growing as an artist?
I think most of all I’ve grown into trusting my own decisions and creative ideas and not feeling such a need to be externally validated to believe the work I create is strong. It’s become really important to me to feel like I’m being authentic to myself and my own creative process and to trust my gut instincts. That’s not to say I don’t ask for advice, take it on board and appreciate it wholeheartedly, I just don’t let it get me down or take it as personally as I might have in the past when I was starting out and feeling far more insecure.

I do feel like I grow, figure myself out and learn a lot each song release – with my skills as a singer and songwriter but also with the confidence in my branding and artistry as a whole. 

‘Jealous’ is out now. You can buy and stream here.

To keep up with all things Chase Zera you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

Listen to our interview with Chase Zera on the Women In Pop podcast here.