Great in-depth interview with Zuzuka Poderosa and MTV Iggy.
They went to Zu’s apt in Brooklyn to shoot this video interview and take some fly photos, but I most enjoyed reading Zu’s interview here, so posting some excerpts below. Click on the link all the way below to read the entire in-depth piece. ‘Carioca Bass‘ EP with Kush Arora is out now on Little Owl Recordings.
Zuzuka Poderosa Is Ready To Show the World Her Beautiful Carioca Bass
February 21, 2013
Zuzuka Poderosa’s bio is a lot like the story of global bass music itself. The Brazil-born, Brooklyn-based bass vocalist is inspired by baile funk but her music has taken on the flavors of everywhere she has been and everything she has heard. Now she spreads her ass-shaking hybrid inspirations around the world collaborating with producers like New York’s DJ Rekha and DJ Sujinho and (soon, we hear) Serbian folkstep duo Shazalakazoo.
We’ve been waiting for awhile for a new statement from her and now we’ve got it in the new Carioca Bass EP, out now on Little Owl Recordings. Produced with Kush Arora, it’s a molten ball of socially conscious funk composed of the tracks “Seda” and “Psicodelia” with remixes from Nego Mozambique, Jubilee & Burt Fox, Chrissy Murderbot, Sonora, HxdBc and CEE. But what is this Carioca bass?
In a recent interview at her colorful, record stocked Brooklyn apartment, its creator was happy to tell us. We talked to her about the EP, baile funk culture, the complex mixture of musical influences that make up her sound, and how, growing up in Brazil and on Grand Cayman Island, she fell in love with all things bass.
What is “Psicodelia” about?
It’s about what you were kind of asking me before about living in the favelas. There has been a lot of distress in the favelas because they have been pacified by the police. Now, people have curfews they can’t really throw baile funk parties anymore. You have to have an approval. You can’t talk about certain things while you are throwing these parties. It is less violent, but at the same time I feel like people really lost their freedom to express what they need to express.
What I’m saying on the hook is that when you look up at the sky and you think it’s beautiful fireworks, it really all this violence with guns and explosions. Psicodelia means psychedelic. It’s the psychedelic skies full of bombs and explosions. Basically, whether it is in the ghetto or the favela or it is in the Middle East. those people that live there don’t deserve all that suffering. The innocents are the ones who end up paying for it. All they want is peace and then people come in and there’s no peace. And I’m, like, “who is going to save us from all this?”
What about “Seda”?
Seda means rolling papers. There’s a lot of double meaning with sexy references but at the same time what I’m stating that it’s time to legalize marijuana. There’s all these people, kids and rock stars, dying from prescription medication. I wish I could just go somewhere when I have a pain because I need to smoke marijuana. I don’t even smoke marijuana every day. I smoke when I need it. I smoke when I work. I get really focused. I smoke when I have pain. It’s really medicinal. I think it’s time to do it. It’s happening in a lot of places already.