Zahra is a 20-year-old American artist and new EP is called ‘in my company’, which was released on 2nd July 2022. It’s a clean, well-produced, intelligent body of work. This is rare from a 20-year-old solo artist, which makes this 5-track EP even more impressive. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not her young age and relative inexperience that makes her music so impressive. Even if this was released by an established 30-odd year-old artist with several albums, it’d still be as good.

One factor that acts as a rock throughout the entire EP is the tenderly played piano that features in each song. There are various drum beats throughout the track list, and occasional string arrangements adding an interesting spooky aura to the tracks, but it’s the piano in this EP that we’ll really remember. The gentle manner in which Zahra plays this instrument is incredible, and she even manages to get emotion out of it. There’s as much emotion in the piano as there is in her voice. Plus, in Sanctuary, she plays faster and more aggressively than in the other songs, keeping us on our toes a bit and offering something different with this staccato style of piano. Her singing style is definitely just as impressive though, as she possesses a melancholic tone with sporadic high-pitched twangs, adding an extra bit of uniqueness.

Her previous EP, ‘I Feel Weird’ is an acoustic EP about her struggles with mental health. Zahra explained that ‘I feel weird’ is what she used to say to her friends when she felt anxious or depressed before she really knew how to speak about her emotional and mental issues. This makes her brand-new EP ‘in my company’ even more refreshing and positive, as the lyrics are mainly about how she is benefitting from being alone and using her own space to heal and grow as a person.

She explains: “Being alone with myself has become my medicine. It has been the best way for me to grow into a more authentic version of myself and as I grow up, I realise being truly authentic to myself is the only way I want to move through life.

“My emotions that once made me feel isolated allowed me to make music that now connects me to other”, she elaborates.

Armed with more or less just a voice and a piano, Zahra has created a mature, honest, and extremely unique EP with ‘in my company’. If she’s releasing this at the age of 20, I’m very excited to see what she does over the next few years.

You can enjoy this introspective, down-to-earth EP here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4wMfcGb83joscVT7zSIoMh?si=GaYhPx5LRgWKvjp6rJlX9A