Los Angeles, CA – March 12, 2024 – Independent pop innovator BONZIE, hailed as “brilliantly talented” by NPR, has released Live at EastWest. PRESS HERE to listen. The 2-song EP features live recordings of her recent single “Spiritual Violence” and her hit “alone,” hailed as one of the “Best Songs of 2020” by The New York Times, in new, spontaneous arrangements. The newly released audio versions follow the performance videos from the famed Hollywood studio BONZIE issued at the beginning of the year, which have amassed over 200,000 views combined. PRESS HERE to watch the “Spiritual Violence (Live at EastWest)” video and PRESS HERE to watch the “alone (Live at EastWest)” video.
“To start 2024, I released a couple live in-studio videos on YouTube and have received messages requesting I also release the audio on streaming,” shares BONZIE aka Nina Ferraro. “My band (Jonathan Pinson, Wes Nelson, Takoda Barraza) and I spent an evening at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles just playing a couple songs of mine. I always love playing with them; we get into a groove and it’s a great energy. These two versions of my songs ‘alone’ and ‘Spiritual Violence’ are quite different sonically than my produced versions – just the result of a few people in a room playing their instruments. It’s a different way to experience the songs. We really had fun that night, and I think the audio captures that energy.”
BONZIE, who writes, produces and engineers all of her music, released the R&B-infused “Spiritual Violence” in December, with the original version featuring Chicago rapper Teo The Artist. The song is a haunting tale of personal trauma and evolution, representing the shattering and dismantling of a certain intangible violence. The folky and atmospheric “alone,” the lead single off BONZIE’s acclaimed third studio album Reincarnation, has also received high praise from All Songs Considered, where Bob Boilen called it “stunning,” and PopMatters, who declared “the song’s production is fascinating,” in addition to its acclaim from The New York Times and many others.
Since first arriving on the musical landscape as a teenager with her 2013 debut album Rift Into the Secret of Things, BONZIE has endlessly found new forms of expressing her vast imagination. The Chicago-bred and Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist has explored everything from post-rock to folk to fantastically surrealist pop, executing each with extraordinary grace. BONZIE’s most recent album, Reincarnation, continued to redefine the limits of her musicality, ultimately creating a listening experience not unlike lucid dreaming: immersive and infinitely spellbinding yet touched with a transformative clarity. Co-produced by BONZIE alongside DJ Camper, a musician known for his production work with R&B and hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, Big Sean, John Legend, and Teyana Taylor, the 2021 release represented a departure from her past output as it alchemized elements of electro-pop and art-rock, and even gospel music, unfolding in potent rhythms and shapeshifting textures. Over the years, BONZIE has also drawn high praise for her captivating live show with The New York Times chief pop music critic Jon Pareles hailing, “Delicacy and drama, surrender and anger, made a riveting combination when BONZIE performed,” following an especially magnetic SXSW set.
BONZIE recently released the dreamy single “Citrus” along with an animated visual simulator set amid an immersive 3D world – PRESS HERE to watch. Upon its release, FLOOD Magazine noted the track, “pairs BONZIE’s vocals with an ominously building ambient hum created with looped piano samples that unravels into twinkling keys in the track’s final moments.” Look for more new music from BONZIE coming soon!