Zenizen is both the product of singer, songwriter and producer Opal Hoyt and the name of the band she commands. The multi-genre and experimental New York-based musician employs her talents as an organizer and vocalist to create the rich music she and her band currently have out – much of which has been inspired by her travels across the globe.

The exploratory funk, pop, soul and funk sounds that fill her last album Proof of Concept are composed by her, along with guitarists Ben Julia and Dorian Duvall, bassist Julian Anderson and drummer Jacob Cavell. She describes the project as Bach-ish, meaning many different instruments and voices are making their way onto her work at varying instances in songs.

During a recent interview with BET, Zenizen described her recording process, which is a reverse-engineering of sorts when it comes to coming up with ideas, and then assigning them to her bandmates to do what they will with them. When they come together, it exemplifies Hoyt’s ability as a skilled producer with an ear for outstanding arrangements and understanding of composition.

On her next album, Zenizen says she wants to go in a more Mozart-ish direction – with fuller body and an intended casual nature, comparatively. Want to know a bit more? Follow along below.

BET: Take me back to the creation of Zenizen and all that went into it because I understand it went through different versions, etc?

Zenizen: Actually, I was deliberately never going to play music again. When I was in college and I quit everything. And then my friend actually got me to play in his band and so I was kind of playing in a lot of broken indie rock bands for a while. Those tend to be like a bunch of guys playing indie rock music. I liked the music and everything, then I was like I’m putting a lot of energy into this and it'd be nice to put that energy into my own project that I'm in charge of. So like another friend of mine, we started an electro-soul duo thing. It was fun and the music was good. He was like a good producer and stuff, but I just wanted to be a singer who’s singing over tracks. So I ended up switching gears and just like putting a whole band together and writing music for a whole band. So it kind of ended up being a mix of rock band format and logistics, then more soul/jazz inspiration even if I feel like we never fully went there.

BET: Last July you released Proof of Concept and you previously said it’s “a representation of everything that has led [you] to this point.” What do you mean by that and what was kind of the thinking and creative process behind it?

Zenizen: Producing the record came together in a really similar way as my life has been going. There's kind of like bits and pieces that I wrote a long time ago, when I was like a different person. Then [there was] stuff that I wrote with indie rock friends or stuff that I wrote with my funk and jazz friends. I have a lot of really great musicians on the record that I really respect and I think that one thing that has actually ended up happening is that people like to – both for the live show and for the record – be a part of it and to play on it because they were like, ‘Oh, this is something different that someone wouldn't usually ask me to do.’

BET: Take me some of your influences, including the Spice Girls' and their album Spice World?

Zenizen: It's like, was I a fan or was I just like 12? Does it matter? Is there a difference? I don't know. Most of my influences… I'm just not that forward looking, so it's kind of like I had this Pointer Sisters album when I was a kid that my mom had. I had this album when we lived in D.C., and then we moved to Vermont, I still had that record and I would put it on and it would just be so clutch. Just as artists, the Pointer Sisters are like mind-blowingly sick and versatile.

Spice World was truly integral. I had my Walkman and my Spice World CD. I [don’t mind] it being pop music from the Spice Girls, but I'm not like, Oh, that one chord progression from the Spice Girls was really good. I should recreate it. It's not like that level.

BET: You are also working on your next album. What are some of the approaches you are taking in creating it?

Zenizen: That’s a good question. In my mind I like to have a little bit of a box to work in. A creative box. I was like, okay this last record was really like Bach-ish. There's a lot of individual instruments and voices doing their individual things at the same time. That's kind of what makes the pattern and the sauce. I have kind of convinced myself that I want to move in a little more Mozart-ish direction – just having a little bit more body and a casual listening experience. But I'm not sure. I think we're really going to see if that's possible for me because I really have to do it on purpose. So I have like a bunch of demos together and have already been kind of talking to some folks about collabing. So basically right now I'm just putting together all of the outlines and structures and getting it ready to send out to people.

BET: In general, what is your creative process like? Do you start working with ideas when you pick up instruments or is that something that happens prior, or both?

Zenizen: I definitely make a lot of stuff at home and I have a pretty good home setup. I make the core of everything at home until I'm ready to let people listen to it, which can be pretty early on actually. I can be pretty annoying about it. But then I'll send stuff out. It depends – sometimes I'll write demos specifically for the live show before I'm even planning on putting them on a record. And so that's a little bit different. But if I know something's gonna go on a record. I'll send it out. Usually, those are much more structured. I'll be like, Listen, here's the baseline, you can play it a little different if you want, but here's kind of how it goes. Then we'll get a studio team together, go in, record all the stuff I wrote. Maybe in the studio there's a little bit of addition. When we did the last record we had a little bit of jam time to add extra synths and stuff we thought was fun.

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