Zara Smile Talks “Listen,” Getting Louder and Finding Their People

There is a difference between being heard and being understood, and Zara Smile has spent enough time dealing with the gap between the two.

Their new single “Listen,” out now, takes that frustration and gives it somewhere to go. Guitars get heavier, the full band gets louder, and even a banjo finds its way into the arrangement. Underneath all of it is Zara’s voice, still direct and vulnerable, but noticeably less interested in making itself easier for anyone else to understand.

“I think ‘Listen’ came out of such a place of despair after being so fed up with so many things in the world,” Zara tells Everyday Jams. “Maybe it says that I’m getting less patient.”

That impatience suits them.

The London born, Manchester based artist has spent the last few years moving between alternative, rock and folk while resisting the idea that any one of those lanes should completely define the project. After releasing their debut EP Rewind last year, “Listen” introduces the next version of Zara Smile and serves as the title track of their forthcoming second EP.

This time, everything hits a little harder.

The Moment “Listen” Clicked

“Listen” started with a phrase Zara kept finding themselves coming back to.

“I just want you to listen.”

The line followed them through different parts of their life until eventually, while sitting at another gig, the song started coming out.

“I think growing up mixed race, queer and neurodivergent you are basically destined to a life that people won’t understand,” Zara says. “Alongside deciding a career which people also don’t understand, I have sort of resigned myself to always just be doing the things I needed to do without needing any confirmation from others.”

That feeling could have become something overly polished or carefully explained. Instead, Zara let it be frustrated.

The song holds anger, but they are quick to point out that the anger is only one part of it. Underneath is the exhaustion of repeatedly trying to fit into spaces that were never built with you in mind.

“It ended up being about so many different circumstances because I think I’ve been sitting on this feeling for a really long time.”

The title of the EP came from a similarly instinctive moment.

Zara was finishing a funding application, two questions away from submitting it, when the entire process started becoming overwhelming.

“I was starting to get the feeling that I just wanted things to be easy for the first time,” they explain. “I already had the idea for ‘Listen’ as a song, and sat at my kitchen table, I said ‘screw it!’ and submitted it as the EP title.”

What began as a split second decision eventually became exactly what the project needed.

“It now represents that moment of saying ‘listen to me!’ and maybe actually finally being listened to.”

Getting a Little Louder

The heavier side of Zara Smile does not feel like a sudden reinvention.

If anything, it sounds like something that had been waiting for permission.

Zara grew up around punk and hardcore, still loves Riot Grrrl, and describes themselves as a former emo kid. That background has always existed somewhere underneath the softer acoustic writing, but “Listen” gives it much more room.

“I love love love a heavier sound,” they say.

The confidence to push further arrived partly through the response to “Fight Back,” one of the songs from Rewind that Zara had initially worried might be too strange compared with their earlier work.

Instead, it became one of the best received songs on the project.

“It inspired me to get a bit heavier and gritty with it.”

You can hear that confidence throughout “Listen.” The production pushes against the softness of Zara’s vocal delivery rather than smoothing it out, creating a tension that feels important to the song itself.

“I really like the balance between the soft, acoustic vocals and vulnerable lyrics and the heavy angry sound,” Zara says. “There’s so much emotion in me that the heavy backing feels appropriate.”

The track really came alive when Zara brought it to the band.

“The delayed beat from the drums pushed it forward so much,” they explain. “I work with such a talented group of musicians who really listen, ironic I know, to not only the song, but the feeling and idea I’m trying to portray.”

Recording it became one of those rare studio experiences where everything seemed to confirm that they had found the right direction.

“Recording ‘Listen’ might have been the best two days of my life.”

Letting the Song Decide

Trying to neatly label Zara Smile becomes difficult pretty quickly.

That seems to be the point.

Alternative, folk, punk, rock and pop all appear somewhere in the project, alongside increasingly unexpected ideas. Zara mentions experimenting with time signatures after listening to Black Country, New Road and jazz fusion, while a recent hyperpop fixation has been feeding another part of their creative brain.

None of that enters the room as a checklist.

“I never think about genre while I’m writing,” Zara says. “I love just creating without an end idea and having fun with the process of it instead of worrying about how it’ll sound to others.”

Their musical upbringing was similarly wide.

Zara grew up hearing everything from German punk and Bollywood to mainstream pop, with those references now surfacing in different ways throughout their own writing. The punk background comes through in the aggression. Pop influences sit inside the melodies and harmonies. Whatever they are listening to right now can enter the next song without needing permission.

“I think it comes more from the heart that way.”

That openness is part of what makes Listen feel like a natural progression from Rewind rather than a complete reset.

A New Kind of Confidence

The biggest shift between the two projects might not actually be genre.

It is confidence.

“I think I feel more confident in myself in this release,” Zara says. “Listen feels like the next step both musically and lyrically.”

They still love the songs on Rewind, but the new material carries a different energy.

“It feels less wild and panicked and more like, ‘I know what I’m doing and what I deserve.’”

That distinction says a lot about where Zara is now.

Writing is still how they process the things they cannot always immediately name. They describe emotions as sometimes registering simply as “good” or “bad,” with songwriting helping turn those feelings into something more specific.

The new EP reflects that process.

There is anger. There is grief. There are questions around identity. But there is also friendship and, maybe most importantly, hope.

“I’ve been exploring feelings of identity, grief and anger since my teenage years,” Zara says, “but exploring my more positive feelings, my amazing friendships and having hope for the future is a new lovely experience.”

That makes Listen feel less like a collection built around one emotion and more like a document of someone learning how many different things can exist at once.

Finding Their People

Zara is taking the project on the road this September for their first UK headline tour, with dates in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.

“Listen” is already a favorite for the band to play live, though Zara is also particularly excited about “Grapes.”

“It’s a really new sound for me and I like catching people off guard and seeing their reactions to it.”

That desire to surprise people runs throughout this entire chapter.

The heavier production may pull someone in. The genre shifts might keep them guessing. But underneath all of it, Zara’s goal is surprisingly simple.

They want people to find each other.

“My biggest dream with this project is to build a wonderful little community so people don’t feel like they’re fighting anything alone,” Zara says.

It is a fitting destination for a project that began with the exhaustion of not feeling heard.

Because Listen does not stay angry forever.

“There’s angry and sad moments, but it ends with a positive note,” Zara says. “I’d like to think it leaves people feeling hopeful.”

For an artist who started this chapter wanting someone to finally listen, Zara Smile is making it increasingly difficult not to.

Stream “Listen” by Zara Smile, out now. Their second EP, Listen, follows this October.

Photography: Connor Di Leo