Elizabeth Ziman says she always wants to lift people with her music. But sometimes that means addressing some heavy subjects, like death, disease and injustice, as she does on her latest album as Elizabeth & the Catapult, “Responsible Friend.”
“That experience of writing about what’s happening, if you’re actually doing biographical stuff, sort of sucks, but at the same time, it is the therapy,” Ziman says. “It’s the thing that slows you down, and it’s the thing that helps you process stuff. I think there’s a different feeling when you first write it. You’re coping. And so that’s therapeutic.”
One song on the new album, “50/50,” was particularly laborious.
“I was trying to take on so much in one song and not make it sound preachy. Because listen, I don’t want to go to a show and have an artist sing to me exactly what I’m feeling anyway and not really tell me anything new. So I have one song on the record that’s that. That’s the song about what we’re all feeling. And ’50/50′ took me years and years to finish because of that. And yeah, it was sort of hard to keep looking at all the injustices of the world and all of life’s contradictions, and then all these personal things that were happening and try to fit them into one song.”
“Responsible Friend” is the Brooklyn musician’s first LP since her pandemic-era release “Sincerely, E.” During COVID, she played livestreams to stay connected to her fans — and pay the bills.
“That’s the way I actually made money through the pandemic. That’s how I was able to survive. When I livestream, I do the lullaby hour late at night, and then I’m telling jokes when I’m singing some of my sad songs sometimes, and I’m very soft. And then, you know, when I’m playing a show, I want people coming to the show to get away from their lives for a couple hours.”
Sweetening difficult subjects with lush music is a technique she uses. She cites the Bob Dylan song “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”: “I guess you could say that’s sort of an upbeat musical accompaniment to a breakup song. And I think sometimes it’s easier to digest that way. I don’t think I do it on purpose. I don’t think I’m thinking about it while I’m writing. But I think it’s really important for all of us finding the balance right now.”
Another song on the new album with a deep emotional bent is “When The Doctor Needs A Doctor.” A fan of hers, an ER doctor, reached out and said he and other medical professionals were struggling with their own self care during COVID. He asked her to write a song about it and suggested the title. A financial award from the DAG Foundation allowed her to hire a string section to adorn the track.
Like most artists releasing new music, Ziman has commissioned videos and so far has shared ones for the title track and “50/50.” Both are whimsical clips made by Nancy Howell and Mark Lerner, aka The Mark of Nancy. There is a barrage of images in the video for “50/50,” which Ziman says “is supposed to overwhelm you a bit.”
“It’s about the contradictions of life and and burnout,” she continues. “It’s like one after another. I’m saying so much that to have these jokes, basically of the lines, even not all of them are jokes, but just to have that edge of like seeing the image.” She again cites Dylan, for his proto-music video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” saying: “I wanted a visual lyric video without lyrics.”
With the album out in the wild, it’s now time for Ziman to take the songs on the road, with shows scheduled in the Northeast, South and West Coast. On Wednesday, she’ll play a sold-out hometown engagement at Joe’s Pub, where she says she’ll feature a women’s choir and string section.
“I just wish we did two shows because the first one sold out like six weeks ago. And so now I’m like, how do I get my friends in?” she says.
Photo by Shervin Lainez
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