The Mix 086: Zora Jones

Two truths and a lie.

Zora Jones is the Austrian artist behind some of the most mind-melting, heart-scorching club music of the last 10 years. Her debut EP, ‘100 Ladies’, was a moment. And her first album, 2020’s ‘Ten Billion Angels’, we described at the time as “a dose of euphoric, sci-fi bump ’n’ grind” upon its crash-landing into a pandemic-era world.

Zora Jones is also, to anyone in her Barcelona neighbourhood (she’s been back living there for much of this year, after first relocating as a teenager, before eventually moving to Montreal), the person on the bike blasting salsa as she goes by.

And Zora Jones has new music on the way. Like, a lot of it. Spread across releases of different sizes and intentions (loosies: check; EP: check; album: huge big check). The first taste arrives this week in the form of a two-tracker, ‘Hoes Link Up / Abalone Kiss’, with Bristol’s DJ Polo. Think of the tunes as twin frequencies from the same signal: the tender and the tougher, more tactile. Both totally formed for the floor.

OK, so they’re all true. But for good reason: sincerity sits slap-bang at the centre of everything Zora Jones is doing right now, as she heads into a new era led by vulnerability and a desire to make music that feels truest to who she is today. Much of this, by the way, we’ve yet to fully see. Hints have been dropped here and there – and now there’s this wicked new release, of course – but with something bigger clearly forming, her absence from solo output in recent years feels that bit more understandable. (Not just solo stuff, either. Fractal Fantasy, the revered audio-visual platform she founded with Sinjin Hawke back in 2014, has been on the quieter side, too.)

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As she explains it, slipping out of view wasn’t strictly planned. Or at least, not in the way it manifested. Life shifted, and the work shifted with it. But she’s been busier than ever. “I think I’ve made the most music I’ve ever made in the last nine or ten months,” she shares. 

There’s been ten-hour days at her Barcelona studio (the end point for those Bluetooth-blasting bike rides), just experimenting and learning: songwriting, singing, piano lessons – the latter courtesy of her new housemate, Catalan experimental artist Marina Herlop. And as she went, her voice crept closer and closer to the core of what she was creating. “It’s my favourite music I’ve made, ever. I’m creatively at a point where I’m just really trusting myself. I’m not afraid of making mistakes or taking risks.”

The club, she says, will always be her foundation. But, to keep our little metaphor on theme, she’s widening the floor plan and shifting the location, too. Welcome… Bellyfat. A new label, for now, but who knows what it’ll look like down the line. So what better time to catch up and hear an exclusive club mix? We’ll see you front left.

If you had to describe where you feel you’re at right now in one word, what would it be?

Bliss. I’m definitely the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, which is a crazy thing to say!

I’m getting a very calm energy from you.

Yeah, that’s what people say.

On the topic of observations, your major solo releases have come at very distinct points: 2015, then 2020, and now again with what you’re doing currently and into 2026. When you look back at those eras, how do you remember that version of yourself, and how do they relate to who you are today? Because those are such specific timestamps – there’s that supercharged, super exciting period of experimentation within electronic and club music. And then 2020 was… obviously 2020.

It’s all part of the journey. Everything I’ve released so far is part of what I will release next, you know? The club is always going to be my home, in a way, and my foundation. It’s just, I personally think as an artist it’s really important to keep developing skills and keep developing yourself, because we’re constantly in flux. For me, it’d be strange to keep releasing the same music over and over, which is maybe why I also took a bit longer between each project.

After my last album, for example, I immediately knew I wanted to make another album, but I didn’t want to do the same thing – rehash the same ideas, have the same feeling or the same flow. I really wanted to push myself and learn new skills – which I did. I spent a lot of time training my vocals with coaches and songwriting almost every day. Because if making music or making art feels easy, I think you’re doing it wrong. It needs to feel hard because then I’m really pushing myself and exploring new things. If it felt easy, it would be too comfortable, and it wouldn’t be that exciting for me.

You’ve talked before about reaching a point where sampling wasn’t enough, and starting vocal coaching so you could use your own voice. Was there a specific moment that spurred this?

It just felt interesting to me. I used my voice on the last album, but not to the extent I would have liked to. Not to get ahead of things, but the next album almost feels like my first album in a lot of ways, because it feels like the most true expression of myself. I really tried to push my sound and production to new places, so the curiosity and drive are what brought me there.

There will be those reading this who may not be aware that you’ve been teasing an album, so this will be exciting news. But before we look too far forward, let’s touch on the fact that there’s been somewhat of a break in releasing. Why do you feel like this needed to happen in the way that it did for you to then come out where you are now?

I didn’t want to take such a long break, necessarily. It’s OK that it happened this way because it gave me more time to really develop myself and my sound, and produce a lot of music. I have been very active during those years. I made a lot of music and experimented a lot.

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A lot of people will have first discovered you – and got to know your sound and just who you are as an artist – through your work with Fractal Fantasy. But this new release is coming out somewhere new.

Fractal Fantasy right now is on hiatus. Like it’s just stopped, [which] gives us a bit of space – both myself and Sinjin [Hawke] – to focus on our solo projects. It will always mean a lot to me, but it’s probably a good thing that it’s on pause, and quite healthy, because it gives me the space to rediscover what I actually want to say creatively – and want to say by myself. I think I lost that a little bit, [and] through that break, I’ve been able to find my way back. And yeah, I’m creating my own creative home called Bellyfat, which is where my future music is going to be released for now.

Can we talk about that a little bit? What’s the creative vision at this stage, and what lessons have you learned that you want to bring into this?

Bellyfat is going to grow into whatever it needs to grow into. The first release is going to be a music release, so it’s like a label right now, although I don’t want to give it the ‘label’ label.

I don’t think anybody would be expecting ‘just’ a label from you, either. You’re known for never doing just one thing.

Exactly. I just want it to be a home for everything I want to do artistically. And it feels really good. It feels very good to be on my own, having learned everything that I learned through Fractal Fantasy: how to release music, how to run projects, etc. But being able to do it with the freedom of being by myself and making my own decisions… being able to do exactly what I want to do, when I want to do it and how I want to do it. 

With everything you did previously, there was often this veil of distance between you as a person and then the music and the shows. I’m interested, if you’re being more vulnerable, that in itself brings a level of you stepping out of the shadows a little bit. Has that been difficult to navigate, or are you enjoying letting people see you a little bit more?

In the last [few] years, there has been a lot of fear in my life, and that’s completely gone. I’m very fearless – like I said, in terms of not being afraid of making mistakes – but also, I’m completely unafraid of what people think of me. You’ll hear that in the music as well, especially on the album. 

So an EP is coming at some point, an album at another and something new is dropping imminently. Let’s go from there: what are you releasing now? What can people expect?

Well, I really wanted to release something this year. I don’t know if this has anything to do with anything, but in the past [few] years, I had a lot of bad luck. I was constantly unlucky. Somebody almost wrote a song about it, actually, because I was this unlucky girl with random things of bad luck.

What happened?

Losing keys in random places, phone breaking – silly stuff. But at the beginning of the year, like the first week of January, I suddenly had so much good luck. So I was like, ‘Maybe this is my year’. And then there was a time of very big, unexpected changes in my life, which were really difficult for me, but I still, throughout this whole time, was like, ‘This is still my year’. So it was really important to release something.

The singles I’m releasing in December I made with DJ Polo, who I’m a huge fan of. I think he’s a really underrated artist. He’s one of my favourite producers and a club music connoisseur. So naturally, the songs we made are very club-focused. Two songs for the day ones, you know? I really wanted them to be made for the dancefloor, and it felt like a good way to inaugurate Bellyfat. And I’m excited to meet him, actually. I’ll be in London in December.

That was something on the list for later, but we can skip a little bit: you’re heading to London very soon for the first time since 2017, right [to play at Corsica Studios]? Performance-wise, where’s your head at right now?

I’m really excited to go back to the club and get back to DJing, which I haven’t done in a while. And yeah, just reconnecting with people. Because I spend so much time here in front of my screen, performing is one of the most beautiful things because you can really feel people reacting to your music or the music you’re playing. When you connect, it’s one of the greatest feelings ever.

Thinking about your own formative club history, were there places or experiences where you felt that same connection with who was playing?

Yeah, this goes way back to 2010 when I first went to Montreal. Before that, I was only DJing in Barcelona a little bit. And then I went to Montreal and it kind of changed my outlook on DJing and stuff. I was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing, and I really want to do this for the rest of [my life]’. It felt bigger than Barcelona and the scene was super exciting. There weren’t only DJs who knew about the music, there were also people who were really, really into electronic music. It felt like a huge community and a very exciting time.

I played with DJ Rashad on a line-up back then, which for me was really exciting because I was so young. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m with DJ Rashad’, and it was just mind-blowing for me. That really made me think, ‘OK, I want to stay here and really focus on this’.

That’s a pretty big one. 

Yeah. RIP Rashad.

Back to you in the present – or the very near future, at least. Where the release with DJ Polo captures your club focus, would it be fair to say the EP bridges what people have heard previously and this newer direction you’re moving in?

Precisely. It serves as a bridge to the album. It’s supposed to set – emotionally and sonically – the tone for what’s to come. It plays with my core influences, which are, for example, grime, rap, soul, funk and experimental electronic sounds, but really through my own lens. And I wanted to keep it club-focused, but also emotional and big and beautiful – something I would want to hear in the club right now. So it kind of feels like a middle ground, getting people ready for what’s to come without giving away too much. There’s also going to be a bit of lyrics which are, now looking back at them, very interesting. Because although it’s just small, tiny bits of lyrics, it’s things that maybe my heart knew, but my mind didn’t want to accept at that point.

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What feels key to your musical world at the moment?

Recently, it has been my vocal. If you go to my phone, actually, I’ve recorded about 400 small voice notes in the last six months, just ideas I’m having melodically, or melody ideas that are also lyrics. And often – this sounds weird, but it’s totally true – I’ll dream about them, and I’ll wake up at night and put them in my phone. A lot of the lyrics that you’ll hear from me next year are actually from my dreams.

So I think that element is probably the most important right now, yeah. But I still keep working. I still have a lot to learn about singing and songwriting – like, a lot – but I’m also learning piano, and hopefully I’ll be able to incorporate that.

Are you teaching yourself piano? 

Do you know Marina Herlop?

Yes!

I live with her now and she’s teaching me, which is basically Beyoncé teaching [you]. Literally, I feel so lucky. She offered and I was like, ‘Yes, absolutely, 100%’, because I always wanted to learn. As a kid, I was focused on music a little bit because my family is very creative, but I was actually a professional horse rider until I was 18. There are some pictures of me on the internet on horses…

As you’ve leaned more into songwriting, have you been looking for inspiration in new places?

I research a lot, how my favourite writers learnt how to write or what they do. So I try to see, like, ‘OK, this is one of my favourite singers, I love their lyrics – how did they get there?’ I read a lot, but I also just work a lot, to be honest. I think the one thing that doing professional sports taught me is how much discipline and consistency get you where you want to be. If you show up every day and you put in the work and you put in the hours, you’re going to get somewhere.

I’m always going to be a student of music. I study my favourite artists. I study my favourite producers all the time. 'What synth is it? What plugins do they use?' Or even for mixing and mastering, for example, Tony Maserati is one of my favourite mixing engineers. I've watched all of his mixing interviews that I could find.

There’s something really pure in learning as an adult. Like, feeling like a child again sometimes and tapping back into that part of ourselves. Just learning, being new, being naive. 

100%. I think it’s so important for music, actually. I think it was Erykah Badu who said – and I hope I don’t butcher this quote – but, ‘Art is the absence of fear’. And I think when you’re creating in that moment, you have to be fearless. And I think it’s so important to approach creating, or approach art, from a child-like perspective… from a perspective of play. And play cannot be connected to fear, because you just stop yourself in your tracks. If you keep going and actually keep making mistakes, and allow yourself to make mistakes and just see where that leads you, I think that’s when real art and real creativity happens.

What’s the story behind your mix?

This one’s a club mix – old references mixed with stuff that I’m excited about now. It’s a sample of what I’d be doing at the moment… a sliver of what could happen!

‘Hoes Link Up / Abalone Kiss’ is out on December 5 via Bellyfat; Zora Jones plays 160 Unity: London is Burning at Corsica Studios on December 13

Jasmine Kent-Smith is a freelance music journalist and creative copywriter, follow her on Instagram

Tracklist:
Zora Jones - Princeshina Melancholica [MelancholyPrincess] (JLZBootleg)
Rcan - Whoop!
Zora Jones & DJ Polo - Hoes Link Up
Poor J’Darr - O.T.T.
DJ Sliink - Iconic (ft. iamkyami)
Drippin - Idono (ft. Neana)
Mike Q - Werk this Werk (Boomclap Edit)
BJF - Tu Tu Tu
Zora Jones - Angel Crisis
Nivek - Automotivo Sequencia Remix
DOUVELLE19 - Skin To Skin (ft.Kaisha) (Club Remix)
JLZ - DZ7
La Zowi - Matrix (Mark Luva & Joxean Rivas Remix)
Stevie G - Game Over
FUZZ & Dj Puff - Bounce Dat
Nancy Ajram - Ya Tabtab (Habibeats Edit)
Leon P - Baile Grime
Prince Rapid - Trending
Rosetta - Mighty Mark
T.NO - SON TIN
PinkPantheress - Illegal (Santerres Edit)
DJ Flex - TOKO
Splack Pack - Scrub da Ground
NOGE - RATTLE
DJJam305 - Get Off Da Chain
DJ SCREACH - Booty To The Ground
Tre Oh Fie - I Get It
T.NO - BRAZZERS
Low Deep - Down Like (VIANA Bootleg)
DJ Flex - Bum Bum
鈴木雅之＆菊池桃子 - 渋谷で5時 (Zora Jones Bootleg)
DJ Telly Tellz - Pop In Challenge (Double Tap-)
YungKiiDD - iOS 7 Opening Ringtone
Burna - Rider
Amadeezy - Bass On The Beach (ft. Ron Mercy)
Swimful - Official Party Line
3.oh x Junk Food - Booty Bounce
Fwea-Go Jit - Touch It Turn It
Phran, Pocz & Florentino - Zarbak II
DJ SCREACH & Tre Oh Fie - Break It On Down