Zola Jesus aka Nika is an American born singer, songwriter and producer. Since 2008, she has released five EPs and seven full-length albums, majoratively on NY INSTITUTION, Sacred Bones.
Nika began training as an opera singer at the age of 10. She dismantled that training to deliver her breakthrough lo-fi record The Spoils in 2009, most of which she recorded as an undergrad in her room at UW Madison. On the release of her follow EP, Stridulum,NME declared her “goth’s new figurehead.” A few years later, The LA Times described zola jesus as, “a focused, serious creator with a solid aesthetic, breathtaking musical vocabulary and a confident vision.” Both publications turned out to be right. Her unmissable voice is said to cut through the fascia of reality.
In the last fifteen years, Nika has created a catalog which shall forever remain in the lexicon of 21ST CENTURY alternative music. She will be in the textbooks as a genre defining artist of this generation, who served as a template for all of 21st century goth, which in turn, deeply informed nearly all of soundcloud rap AMONGST a host of other online genres. She has already collaborated with: David Lynch, BIG DEAN HURLEY, David Byrne, Jean Claude Vannier, Johnny Jewel, Run the Jewels, JG ThirlweLl, THE ORBital, flood, WICCA PHASE SPRINGS ETERNAl, and Jim Jarmusch. She has appeared on Jools Holland , Conan O’Brien w/ El-P, the cover of the Fader, AND RECENTLY, IN ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, FOR HER SELF-DESIGNED HOME, IN THE WOODS OF NORTHERN WISCONSIN.
If the past is the greatest indicator of the future, the next couple of decades ought to be QUITE remarkable.
