Zilla with Her Eyes Shut [unedited] Music Review


Zilla with Her Eyes Shut (Accidental Records)
Zilla with Her Eyes Shut
(source: Accidental Records)

I was told for years that I always talked in my sleep, and most of the time the things I would say were the most bizarre things ever. I was always interested to hear what I said, so I downloaded an app that records what you say in your sleep. I had it for years, and caught a lot of funny moments.

But then one night I had a horrifying nightmare…

I never heard myself scream like I did in that recording, it was like I saw something that would effect my life in the worst way possible. I cried as I heard myself crying in fear, and I shut the recording off immediately.

I deleted that app after I captured that, and I haven’t downloaded since… And I probably won’t ever again.

Zilla with her Eyes Shut’s song Sleepwalker is about her own sleep talking and her own adventures with sleepwalking.

Based around the artist’s own sleepwalking adventures and even featuring her own ‘sleeptalking’, the track takes on an almost dub vibe at times, laced with heavy beats, deft vocal work and a penchant for the strange. It does well to delve into the singer’s fears as she opens up about anything and everything these night terrors can bring out in her: ‘I’m scared of who I might become if I never wake.'” ~(Vinyl Chapters)


Zilla’s musical path begun by learning classical music with a piano teacher in Paris, France. She quickly discovered her true passion was to make music, “I’d always been into painting as a kid and writing poems but piano hit me really hard. That day I knew I had found my passion,” she tells me.

In the beginning, she was only learning and playing classical piano, wanting to learn as much melodies and compositions. “There’s something surreal about playing someone else’s piece to the point where it becomes part of you and the experience never leaves you, it’s like biting a piece of the composer’s memory and intentions and adding it to your psyche,” she says.

She naturally progressed into writing music, because that “is what songs do, they travel with you, get you through pain and joy and they compliment your psyche,” she says.

Her music is about what happens whenever she dreams, what she calls her “creative gifts” that come up when she’s asleep. These things that come about in her dreams more often than not could be related to whatever trauma she endured in her childhood.

The music she creates lacks a description, and defies any boundaries of a specific topic. “I’m inspired by so many things, moments of the day, sounds around me, people’s accents, there is flow everywhere. I like to call it surrealist pop because I layer unexpected vocals with unexpected sounds of unexpected objects,” she explains. She equally values a fan base that likes to be surprised, but is unclear if this has been achieved.


“Instead of denying my trauma, I tend to embrace it through music and even celebrate it. There’s no other way to get over it for me. I recorded myself sleeping talking and sleepwalking. We used objects that are related to the songs as instruments.”

~Zilla with her Eyes Shut (4/20/2020)

I am absolutely inspired by Zilla’s music and songwriting, especially since I can relate to having such vivid dreams and nightmares myself. The fact that she finds her dreams to be a source of musical inspiration is very unique, and makes me want to explore this on my own.

Whisper Whisper was written “when I was about 10 I started hearing whispers when I played the piano, it was really scary until I turned the whisper into my imaginary friend that would help me go through sh*t,” she says. It’s really cool to see that Zilla could take a really scary scenerio and make it into a very unique song that looks on the bright side.

If you’re a fan of Billie Eilish and Bjork, then Zilla’s music is definitely a must listen to. Her style of music is definitely a mix of those two artists, but more.

There definitely is a storyline in each song, it’s just a matter of time until the whole story is told. But not everyone needs to know everything about everyone… But I hope this article can provide more clarity to her story.


“Although the inspiration is my trauma, it’s so important that it is not a self pitying song, the trauma made me strong because I accepted it and turned it into something else. It’s an explosion of innocence and control.”

~Zilla

At the moment, Zilla is working on songs that take a brand new approach. She wants to maintain a sense of surprise for her listeners, but is not to compelled to release any more music at the moment.


I would like to thank CEO of Independent Music Promotions Inc., James Moore, for connecting me with Zilla. I would also like Zilla for answering my questions and also staying in touch through Instagram.

You can follow Independent Music Promotions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can stream their playlists on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Youtube. Also, you can follow Zilla’s record label (Accidental Records) on Facebook, and Twitter. Stream Accidental Records on Spotify, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud.

You can follow Zilla with her Eyes Shut on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also stream her music on Spotify, and Bandcamp.

Finally, you can follow Unedited Music Blog on Instagram and Facebook . You can also stream our playlists on Spotify and SoundCloud.


Zilla with Her Eyes Shut [self-titled album] (2020)

Overall: 4.7/5

Zilla with her Eyes Shut: 4.7/5

Top Song: Sleepwalker (2020)

King Calaway (unedited) Music Review

There is a bar that was set in the 90’s when the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC came on the scene for boy bands. Then everything seemed to shift… To me the first shift was One Direction‘s song Night Changes. Then it was 5 Seconds of Summer. This band and song came to my interest in a matter of a few years… To summarize why they caught my attention is because of their genres. While OD were mainly a very pop boy band, their song Night Changes was a more alternative pop song. 5SOS are, in my opinion, an alternative pop rock band. King Calaway has set their own bar by storming into the music industry with an alternative pop country theme… To me that’s good progress for where boy bands seem to be headed.

King Calaway are made up of 6 unique musicians… Chad, Jordan, and Simon are the primary frontman singers, while Chris, Austin, and Caleb back them up with their own instruments. Their shared influences for KC are bands like the Eagles, Keith Urban, and Ed Sheeran. I was fortunate to get Chad’s main influence as he answered some interview questions, “for me, it all started with Elvis Presley. I started listening to him when I was around 9 years old and my whole world changed. He had energy in his voice that I so badly wanted to have”. King Calaway have been so lucky to achieve already so much together, they’ve had the chance to play on James Corden’s Late Late Night Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and multiple other large venues and tours. They have also been very successful with their solo careers, including anything from CMA Award performers to BBC TV appearances. But what is more important to them is their fan base. “We’ve been so fortunate to make fans that range across different generations. From people who grew up spinning classic country vinyl, to kids who live in a world with Spotify and TikTok. We love getting to meet fans of all ages and backgrounds, and we welcome everyone. It’s been amazing to see how people relate to certain songs and what each one means to them,” says Chad.

“For ‘Rivers’, we wanted to find songs that could help us develop a new, unique, and original sound. We were all heavily influenced by The Eagles, CSNY, and other classic harmony-based bands, so we wanted to incorporate those inspirations with a contemporary sound.”

-Chad Michael Jervis (King Calaway Frontman/Vocals) [10/18/2019]

I’m really happy that I had the chance to review King Calaway, especially since country is a genre I’m beginning to listen to a bit more of. I’ll say that my favorite songs by KC are Rivers, Grow Old, and World For Two. Those songs are really catchy, but the rest I don’t really feel the same about… I’m sure I will further down the line, but for now I’ll jam out to those three. Furthermore, I want them to expand and push their sound and abilities. They have a lot going for them right now and I would just love to see them keep the ball rolling.

“It was one of the first songs pitched to us for the record. We have the best time playing the song live, and the chorus lyrics really speak to us. ‘I know where we belong, I know where we feel free.'”

-Chad

King Calaway are currently working on promoting their music as much as possible, their PR Advisor (I’ll mention him below) said to me that they were working on putting the band on the Today show. I’m not sure if that has happened yet however. For their sound, Chad tells me, “we’re always gonna be evolving our sound. I think though, no matter where we go with the music, it’s mostr5 important to us that we always keep a live feeling to our sound. We recorded the album mostly live, recording the instruments altogether, as well as the vocals. I want us to keep that element of our sound alive in our future songs and albums.” In fact, they’ve already started working on their second album with bunch of Nashville musicians… And they are hoping to hit the tour bus in 2020. So it looks like everything is on the way up for King Calaway.

I would really like to thank everyone of my readers and friends I’ve made in the music industry. I never thought I’d get to know so many amazing musicians and people. I also wanted to address the weird things that have gone on this Halloween week, whoever or whatever that was let’s hope it’s the last of them… But I have my suspicions that it won’t (if your out of the loop then just check Unedited’s social media (link below))… Thank you to Asher Alexander from Republic Media for reaching out for a review. You can check Asher’s page on Facebook! Also, go follow and like King Calaway on Facebook and Instagram as well. You can listen to Rivers and other music by them on Spotify and SoundCloud. Finally, Unedited Music Blog can be found on both Instagram and Facebook. You can also listen to the other music I’ve reviewed on Spotify. Good night now! I hope everyone had a happy Halloween, just don’t finish off all the candy (you’ll be very sick tomorrow when you go to work or school!)

IMG_0527 Rivers by King Calaway (2019)

Overall: 4.7/5

Rivers: 4.7/5

Top Song: Rivers (2019)

MoonDreams Music [unedited]

MoonDreams 

Interview & Review

        At this moment, I’m in a happy place and getting entranced with MoonDreams songs on Spotify, it’s like some sort of country lullaby. “I’ve loved music as long as I could remember and really loved starting to sing at 6 years old.  I started writing lyrics at 11 years old when there was an ice storm and I wrote a poem about icicles on the trees.  Later on, in my late teens, I started putting music to my lyrics and started playing in bands in my early twenties, (believe it or not I used to sing Led Zeppelin and Aretha Franklin songs with rock bands.) I was inspired by many eclectic female singer/songwriters such as Joni Mitchell.” (Prior to giving birth to her daughter, Susan was pop/rock music.) Susan Moss seems to be a great human being, a lot like one of my favorite people I’ve talked to recently (Nate Mainegard). These musicians are another part of the reason I respect soft rock and soft country…. Because of its pure innocence.
        “My fan base consists of all ages.  My first music release was a lullaby CD, so those fans were babies and their parents!  But even people who didn’t have babies have bought the lullabies because they aren’t typical lullabies – they have a new age quality to them.  I have just released a soft rock song called, Diamond Dreams, and I’ve gotten nice feedback from all ages.” Diamond Dreams has currently pass 5K listens on Spotify (congratulations Susan Moss!) and continues to do well on Jon Magnusson’s #MonsterThread Spotify playlist. That is a growing community of all music, and her and I are very grateful to be a part of it. Susan says, “I have to (thank) Jon Magnusson. (Whose Facebook) group, #MonsterThread Playlist, has brought together so many great musicians of all genres. (And) we all support each other!” For her record label (MoonDreams Music Recording Label), “I’ve made connections with music distributors, music licensing companies, bloggers, radio, social media and more recently, Facebook music groups have been a great resource for promoting my music, especially on Spotify.”
       “My lullabies were inspired by the birth of my daughter and won parents choice and other awards.” Moss says about her lullaby’s recent success and reception.
      “Originally my genre was lullabies, music for babies. But now I’m focusing more on soft classic rock sound, pop, and different styles for the future.” Maybe the break through of listeners have been attracted to this genre exploring. Her imagination is certainly full of unique ideas (including her song writing), “all kinds of things influence my songs.  Relationships, observing people around me. (When I was) sitting on the beach I used to sing into a mini tape recorder or call my answering machine when a song would pop into my head – now I sing into my phone.”
        Susan says, “I’m inspired by a lot of artists, but as far as bands and artist inspirations go, Kansas, Heart, Joni Mitchell, and many others.” These inspirations definitely fit in well with her goals, “my goals are to experiment with different genres.  I don’t want to stick to just one style of music, there are so many different styles to experiment with.” 
        In 5 years, Susan sees herself producing music and “building the MoonDreams brand.” Her current future plans are to “(work) with some older, dated songs and (make) them more current sounding in the studio. I also have a whole bunch of new songs. Recording is a very long process, so not sure yet when they will be released, but will do my best to put them out there as soon as I can!” She is hoping to come out with her new material sometime in 2018.
         Although MoonDreams isn’t the type of music I would typically blog about or listen to on my Unedited Music Blog playlist on Spotify, but it’s nice to have some diversity in the blog with different sounding rock songs. I will continue to add to the diversity of the blog in the following 2 months. 

Overview: ★★★★1/2
Diamond Dreams: ★★★★1/2
Night Song: ★★★★☆

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