Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
SZA shed her dependencies to gestate album
Therapy-informed prose of ‘SOS’ fuels rise to top of charts
With more than six years between the release of her first and her most recent album, SZA, 33, is making up for lost time.
Her arena tour, in support of the charttopping LP “SOS,” kicked off Feb. 21 in Ohio. Her first proper North American tour since 2018, the Grammy-winning singersongwriter describes the stage show as a “Cinderella moment where there’s weird, ethereal, mystical, soft things,” but with a “hardcore” edge.
“There might be a little blood,” she adds with a grin.
Distinguished by SZA’s biting candor around love, sex and other social entanglements, “SOS” evokes the therapy-informed prose of girlfriends venting over lattes. Such intimacy has paid off beyond anyone’s expectations; released in December, “SOS” had been the No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 for nine nonconsecutive weeks recently, the longest stretch for a female artist since 2016, when Adele’s “25” topped the charts for 10 nonconsecutive weeks.
“SOS” is SZA’s first No. 1 album — her acclaimed 2017 debut, “Ctrl,” reached No. 3 — and the former’s revenge fantasy track “Kill Bill” recently sat at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
SZA says she spent years trying to live up to her reputation as an A-List hit-maker. (She wrote for Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Beyonce, and collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Maroon 5 before being nominated for the best new artist Grammy in 2017.) First, she booked sessions with producer and artist whisperer Rick Rubin in his Malibu, California, studio and tinkered with singing bowls at his home in Hawaii. She also met with Timbaland in
Los Angeles, and penned a few songs with Sia while sitting crisscross on the floor of her Malibu home.
Yet none of those sessions yielded anything SZA felt comfortable sharing. By spring 2022, she had more than a hundred songs written, and no impetus to share a single one.
“I was pretending to be an artist,” she says of those sessions. “That was me doing what I thought I should be doing — people-pleasing — because I felt hella ashamed that I didn’t do it sooner. But I’ve done the opposite of pleasing my fans by not dropping music for (almost) six years.”
By the fall, SZA’s cache of songs was finally whittled down to 23, but not without the usual shame spiral that precedes her releases.
“She was still picking songs after the album was out,” says Terrence “Punch” Henderson, president of Top Dawg Entertainment.
SZA, born Solana Imani Rowe, eventually learned that only in the sanctuary of her home — or in the lived-in spaces of others — can she incubate songs worth hatching.
“I made (‘SOS’ lead single) ‘Good Days’ in my attic at home in Malibu — same thing with ‘Kiss Me More,’” she says of her Grammy-winning pop collaboration with Doja Cat.
Other spaces of inspiration include a cottage in the woods that belongs to producer Carter Lang’s grandma, a coat closet in producer Felix Snow’s apartment and underneath a blanket in engineer Matt Cody’s basement.
“Working in a fancy studio is bad for me,” she explains.
SZA also decided that, to fully gestate “SOS,” she needed to shed her dependencies. First, she stopped smoking weed — “I feel so much better now that I’m not a slave to it” — and cigarettes, a habit she credits to trying Backwoods cigars in her youth.
And where she previously sought out solace in men, she now finds it in therapy. Although she generously detailed her romantic mishaps in “SOS,” she’s much too private to reveal the subjects themselves.
“I know who I am and what I bring to the table,” she says of her love life, reflecting on stinging guitar ballads like “Special” and “Good Days.” “Have I felt like I’ve actually given the best of me to a loser before?
Yes! Does that mean I’m actually a loser? Well, I felt that way in the moment.
It’s OK to acknowledge, ‘… I made a mistake dating this person. I’ll never shortchange myself like that again.’”
However personal this record is for SZA, the musical breadth of “SOS” is a bid for the industry to properly recognize the artistry of Black women, beyond oft-racialized genres like urban or R&B. These designations feel outdated in the increasingly blurred pop topography of 2023. “Sharing all those sides
(of ourselves) will beget a clearer understanding,” says SZA.
It was the urge to blur that inspired SZA to recruit Lizzo to help write “F2F,” a three-minute pop-rock joyride that recalls the Y2K-era brattitude of Avril Lavigne. The two were kicking it in an Los Angeles studio when they began to reminisce on music from their teen years. “I hate me enough for the two of us / Hate that I can’t let go of you enough,” sings SZA.
“People don’t know I’m naturally alternative,” says SZA.
The singer even texted a clip of “F2F” to Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams for her personal emo endorsement. “I was like, ‘Does this suck? Because you actually do this for a living,’” says SZA. “She said, ‘This is great!’ ”
SZA speaks of other artists with a tinge of fangirl reverence; in reality, SZA’s on texting basis with all her faves because she is their fave.
The electronic, alien cool of “Ghost in the Machine” only made the cut because indie singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers answered an 11th hour DM. For closing track “Forgiveless,”
SZA tapped longtime pen pal Bjork for a sample from her 2001 classic, “Hidden Place,” to add shimmer to her hard-nosed freestyle. (SZA also finessed the estate of late Wu-Tang Clan member Ol’ Dirty Bastard to supply a never-released guest verse in the track.)
Given its critical plaudits and musical inclusiveness, “SOS” should be a top contender at the 2024 Grammys.
“Please don’t say it,” she groans — for fear of manifesting an outcome similar to this year’s, when Beyonce — nominated for record, song and album of the year — failed to win any of those top awards.
“Beyonce — she’s so much bigger than a … Grammy,” says SZA. “She’s Beyonce! She’s done it for women, she’s done it for Black people, she’s done it for artists. She’s done so much for the world by just being herself.”
After years of isolation from her fans, SZA is facing just how much being herself matters too.
“To sell yourself is really hard,” she says. “Thankfully, just being myself has been enough.”