November 29, 2018 | 0 Comments

ZOE BOEKBINDER – SHADOW is at Top 200 Radio Now!!!

I first had the joy of working with Zoe Boekbinder (who uses they/them pronouns) on their album Darling Specimens in 2011, as well as on a tour they did with pal Mal Blum in 2012. Since then, they’ve had a lot of really interesting life stuff happen, like spending a bunch of time writing songs with inmates at New Folsom Prison, moving to New Orleans, and most recently, wrapping up a European tour. I’m so excited to bring you this record!! It’s Zoe’s most personal ever, and I’d argue that also in some ways makes it their most universal, like much of the most exquisitely specific art is.

(Last name pronunciation key: book-binder, like a person who binds books. But make sure to spell it BOEK not BOOK!)

ZOE BOEKBINDER

SHADOW

Self-Released

In 2005, Zoe Boekbinder (who uses they/them pronouns) formed a band, with sister Kim Boekbinder, called Vermillion Lies. Over the five years that they played together, they released two albums.

In 2009 Zoe released a solo album, Artichoke Perfume, recorded with friend and producer Cesar Alvarez in Brooklyn, NY. Two years later came Darling Specimens, produced by Shenandoah Davis in Seattle, WA. In the fall of 2013, Zoe wrote, recorded, and publicly posted 100 songs in 100 days. The next album, Baby Bandit (January 2014), was recorded live onto two inch tape in Oakland, CA with cellist Danah Olivetree and violinist Dorota Szuta.

From May 2010 to December 2014, Zoe volunteered as a performer and teacher at New Folsom Prison and began working on an album of songs with songwriters, poets, and rappers who are incarcerated there. The profits from the album, which is produced by Ani DiFranco, will benefit prisoners’ rights groups.

It was at that point that Zoe took a break from touring, feeling unsure that it was what they should be doing. They didn’t make an album for four years. They barely played any shows. They’d been a full-time musician for their entire adult life, but after gaining the perspective of working in prison, Zoe started to doubt that the songs they wrote were important to the world. During this break they discovered a newfound bravery to write songs about larger issues. They wrote about feminism/violence against women, privilege, and prison abolition. They wrote about their best friend who committed suicide. The songs started to feel important. The resulting album, Shadow, is the least and most personal art they’ve ever made. It feels terrifyingly vulnerable.

Zoe resides in New Orleans, Louisiana. They’ve been known to collaborate over the years with friends including Ani DiFranco, Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley, Neil Gaiman, Mal Blum, and Mirah.

RIYL: Tuneyards, The Blow, Mal Blum, Ani DiFranco, Amanda Palmer, Dear Nora, Alela Diane, Mirah, Shenandoah Davis, Malvina Reynolds, Ane Brun

Start With: 2, 8, 4, 5 FCC: 3 says “hard as hell”, otherwise CLEAN