It only takes a glance at the reviews earnt by this week’s Feature Artist to understand why we’re tilting our biggest spotlight their way.
ZAN is a queer Pakistani-born singer, songwriter and producer whose most recent release ‘tu’ has had us floored since it’s upload in May.
As a follow up to the equally hypnotic ‘SALAFI SECRETS’, the song is ZAN’s first in three years and perfectly re-introduces the multi-talent, their culture and their message as an artist.
“It’s about reclaiming yourself through a journey to your past,” ZAN told us in a full conversation you can listen to up top. “My dad always said he wanted to write songs in Urdu-Hindi.”
Mere seconds after pressing play on ‘tu’, you’re completely transported. Partly to the past, where ZAN sought inspiration from Hindi songs of the 50s and 60s, and partly to the future, alongside artists like Rosalia and Moses Sumney whose tender takes on R&B continue to evolve the genre.
ZAN’s father, who “often enjoys sharing his wisdom and life lessons in the cutest was possible” according to ZAN, even makes a sonic appearance via a short voice message played at the tail end of ‘tu’.
“His Urdu phrase at the end, ‘saans na aaye toh kuch bhi nahin duniya mein’, loosely translates to ‘everything in life begins with one breath’, therefore “remember your asthma inhaler”, ZAN says.
Ironically, it’s this broad concoction of references that make ZAN’s work so singular. After all, who else in the Australian musical landscape can you listen to and hear a dash of Bollywood, a dollop of future R&B and a dose of the Urdu-Hindi language?
“I was born in Abbottabad, which is a small town in Pakistan and then my family moved to Japan for two years, so I grew up in Tsukuba. After that, we moved to Perth and now I’m in Naarm (Melbourne).”
Regardless of the continent ZAN was located, music became both a constant and an unstoppable, propelling force that both confused and delighted his surrounding family and friends.
“Whenever my parents had people over for dinner, I would always interrupt whatever they were doing. I would put on whichever VHS cassette we had, get my sister’s clothes and start dancing for everyone.
These were like conservative Muslim families, so they weren’t so sure what was going on. At the end, sometimes I’d ask for money!”
When ZAN hit high school, they took up singing lessons and picked up a second hand drum machine to start making “choppy beats in the middle night”, which eventually turned into a music degree in uni.
“I dropped out of my health science degree, which my parents weren’t happy about!”
That brings us to the present, where ZAN has continued to intertwine their culture, experience and talent into the art they create. Now based in Naarm, they say that music has afforded them a “freedom to express myself. I feel like I can create a home for myself.”
The home of ZAN’s music is a special one. Family photos taken in Pakistan, Japan and Australia adorn the walls, a Bollywood film plays in the living room and, most importantly, all who pass by are warmly welcomed inside.