Jeremy Zucker, a freshman here at Colorado College, released his first EP Monday, March 2, and I’ve had it on repeat since. The EP, titled West, has six tracks on it, each one produced entirely by Zucker himself, with a couple of featured artists. Each track weaves a unique story, featuring many different styles from R&B and trap to hip-hop. I was able to catch up with Zucker and talk to him about his inspiration behind the EP and why he got into music:
What inspired the EP?
The inspiration for my EP definitely came from leaving New Jersey and coming to CC. A lot of the conflicts I talk about in my songs come from being torn between two different physical places.
What was your favorite song to produce?
My favorite song to produce was by far “Nada.” My homie Ben (Benjamin O) and I were staying with my friend Danny (Daniel James) at Syracuse, and we kinda made the beat in an afternoon, wrote a hook to it, then went out and partied. The next couple days and even the drive back home we were just bumping the beat, and came up with this two-part feel-good track. It all happened over a couple days.
Who are some of your biggest influences?
My biggest influence at the moment is Jon Bellion. He’s insanely creative and a dope producer/artist. But I’ve been on J Cole since he started, and his concepts really made me realize that songs should have some real substance behind them, and if not, they should be bangers.
How did you start producing?
I started producing on Garageband back in middle school. My homie Danny and I started this electro-pop thing called Flow Beats. It was cool for a while, but I ended up playing in a band called Fourshadows in high school, which I wrote a bunch of original songs for.
We won battle of the bands in my sophomore year of high school, and a local producer contacted us to record a song. We spent hours in his studio, and I learned how to record live music by watching him. I was so interested in it, I started producing my band’s music myself, and at that point I just decided to go solo and produce a ton more. It wasn’t till late last year that I decided to actually sing my own songs, and I’m really happy I did that.
Why do music?
I do music for a couple reasons. First is because I love to. There’s no recreating that feeling right after I come up with a part or instrument that I myself love to listen to, and then building that into a song. I also make music as a way to sort of vent. I really try to recreate emotions that made me write certain songs, so that way when someone else listens to it, they can understand a little bit of what’s going on inside my head.
The EP definitely reflects Zucker’s talents really well. Every song has its own unique vibe. Definitely be on the look out for this kid in the future; he is going somewhere.
His EP is available for free on his bandcamp: jeremyzucker.bandcamp.com