A year ago Jeremy Zucker dropped his highly anticipated sophomore album ‘CRUSHER’ which heard him steering into an angsty fuelled direction. The liberating body of work was all about Jeremy finding a catharsis in the music he made, and he truly found that. Hitting the road to play these songs to audiences, his live show has been elevated in a unique way, and he’s finally made his way down under to treat Australian crowds to these energetic shows, as well as a playful new single.
I sat down with Jeremy Zucker backstage before his sold out show at Metro Theatre in Sydney to discuss his new single ‘I’m So Happy’, explored his favourite thing about what BENEE brought to the track, as well as the evolution from his recent sophomore album ‘CRUSHER’ to now. Check it out BELOW;
THOMAS BLEACH: Your dreamy but reflective new single ‘I’m so happy’ with BENEE is out now. How many versions did this song go through to get it to where it is right now?
JEREMY ZUCKER: Not that many! I would say two. The first one being the one with the hole in the middle of it where I wanted BENEE to sing on it. And then the next version being the one with her on it.
TB: What is your favourite thing about what BENEE brings to this song?
JZ: The effortlessness, ease, and feel-good fun attitude that I wanted to really contrast the serious undertone of the song. But at the end of the day, it is a really playful song.
TB: This is the first single since your album ‘CRUSHER’. So where would you say this song sits sonically and thematically – is it a portal track, is it a standalone track, or is it a continuation from ‘CRUSHER’?
JZ: It’s a standalone, definitely. ‘CRUSHER’ left off in a “I’m really glad I did this” sort of place. I got to really dip my toes in this indie-rock world, which was so much fun. But ‘I’m So Happy’ doesn’t really have anything to do with that, nor does it have anything to do with what I’m doing next. I mean… maybe it does in the sense that ‘I’m So Happy’ feels like a younger me, and it aligns really well with my older music, as well as some of my new music too, but in a different way. You could say it’s priming for the new stuff.
TB: This song is all about being happy that someone is no longer in your life. Do you feel a particular sense of catharsis in this song being so chilled out and dreamy compared to some of the more angsty reflections on ‘CRUSHER’?
JZ: Yeah! When I started making ‘CRUSHER’ I made the conscious decision to have fun making music. That fun translated into just yelling and a lot of outward anger. So it was really fun to channel that fun feeling into an actual fun feeling song. There are still dark undertones. It’s hard for me to write music without conflict, for whatever reason.
TB: What is a fun fact about this track that people may not know?
JZ: I directed and edited the music video. It was a lot of fun telling BENEE what to do *laughs*.
TB: What was the biggest challenge from directing this music video?
JZ: The biggest challenge of music videos usually is that I’m not in control. So since I was in control it was really easy. We had some gear crap out on us which was really difficult, but it was totally not in our control.
TB: Lets play a quick game of rapid fire questions on this new single. Are you ready?
JZ: Okay!
TB: The emoji that best describes my new single ‘I’m So Happy’ is…
JZ: The palm tree!
TB: My favourite lyric in the song is…
JZ: “I’m so glad to know you, won’t be here to fuck with my mood”
TB: A lyric I changed in the song was…
JZ: “If I say you suck when you call me” which was going to be at the end of the song.
TB: The colour I associate with the track is…
JZ: Turquoise!
‘I’m So Happy’ featuring BENEE is out now!