Interview: Catching Up With ZiG + Stream “Paris”

One of the hottest indie production groups on the rise today, ZiG blends an array of sounds to craft music to move you, inside and out.

ZiG consists of New York City based musicians Jonathan Zighelboim (head composer, executive producer), Jon Schneider (keys, producer), Marlon Fischer (producer, engineer), Nic Hanson (writer), Kaileigh Grande (vox), Tarion Taylor (vox), Elia Esperanza (vox), Quintin Zoto (guitar), Reggie Thomas Jr. (drums), and Jake Strauss (bass). The group most recently released their single “Paris” which follows up on the break out success of their collaboration with Taylor Bennett and Lil Yachty, “Neon Lights.”

To go along with a stream of “Paris,” we sent ZiG some interview questions to get to know them better. Check it all out below and be sure to follow ZiG on Spotify for more.

Hi, ZiG! Congrats on your new single, “Paris.” Can you tell us a little more on who you are and how you got into making music together?

ZiG is a live electronic jazz band composed of all NYU music grads that met in class. We are a full in house production, songwriting, and engineering team- we do it from start to finish ourselves and write all our own songs while still collaborating with others. We focus on every little detail of the music making process and try to perfect everything from a harmonic, melodic and lyrical standpoint, to every sonic detail in the production to obtain that wall of sound we always strive for. This track came about in my bedroom studio while collabing with our fellow NYU homie Nic Hanson Music.

What’s your songwriting process like and where do you draw inspiration from?

We pretty much start by making a demo in our bedroom studio. We lay down the foundational instrumentation, usually a mix of live instruments and electronic synths, and lay a rough vocal down too. We then hit our main studio to finish producing, recording final vox, mixing, and mastering.

We draw inspiration from all of our mistakes, mishaps, and issues when dealing with life as it comes. We really try to write from personal experiences, whether they be sad or happy.

How has your classical training at NYU informed your approach working with a more modern sound?

It’s the backbone of everything we do. We use all the theory training, aural comprehension skills, and knowledge about classic songwriting methods and techniques in all our music. We usually have tons of instruments all locking in to groove together, and they are always a combination of the classic live instruments (horns guitars keys bass strings) with electronic synths, basses, and drum programming. We started ZiG to apply all of our jazz and classical training to a modern 2017 sound- and created a sort of Pop 2.0 while combining all these different elements.

What’s your new single “Paris” about? How did it come to be?

Pretty much Nic and I were in our bedroom studio and layed the entire vocal and instrumental down in 2 hours – the entire track was finished front to back.

For “Paris,” the song is not necessarily about a heartbreak, its a song meant to help you conquer your fears of letting go of people that may be toxic or hurtful in your life. Its really about having that determination to get out no matter how much you love the other person your with- when its at that point when you both know it needs to end.

Any new NYC-based artists/venues/purveyors of the arts you could turn our readers onto?

Tons – we are all about collaborating, and work with alot of local artists of all genres. First shouts to Treble.fm – a iphone app where you can meet other musicians to collaborate with.

Our homie Taro – who is featured on our debut album a few times.

Nic Hanson Music – our main writer and collaborator.

Sol Dojo – our guitarist and live bands other project!

Where can we follow you and where can our readers catch you live next?

Our next show is at Piano’s in the Lower East Side August 4th!

You can follow us on Soundcloud, Twitter, Instagram at @ProdByZiG, on our website, and on iTunes and Spotify.

Any parting thoughts? Open platform!

This is our follow-up single after hitting top 30 on the iTunes charts with our collab with Luke Christopher, “SmallTown” – co-written and co-produced by ZiG.