Self Love and Spoiling Yourself: Electro-Pop Artist IZZA Releases “Love Bracelets”
With her gritty soundscapes and unapologetic lyricism, IZZA explores the duality between fantasy and reality as she attempts to find purpose in a materialistic world.
Since making her debut in 2020 with the release of her first single, “405,” Izza has risen as a unique force in LA’s pop scene. In the past two years, she’s gained over 200k streams, generated noteworthy blog buzz, and performed at 320 Festival – an online mental health music festival – alongside acts like Chris Martin (Coldplay), Kiiara, Elohim and Echosmith.
IZZA’s single “Love Bracelets” is set to release on April 29 and is the artist’s latest cheeky, infectious song that touches on finding self-validation and buying yourself expensive things to treat yourself. Blending trap-inspired beats and electro-pop melodies, IZZA’s empowering message of self-love is raw and unrestricted.
Expanding on the new song, Izza says, “I used to value my worth based on how people viewed me and what relationships I was in or wasn’t in. I wrote ‘Love Bracelets’ when I started focusing on myself and discovered that true happiness doesn’t come from loving someone else, but by loving yourself.”
[UNPUBLISHED]: Our readers would love to get to know you. Can you tell me about yourself and what type of music you make?
[IZZA]: I make pop music. I'm heavily inspired by hip-hop. So there's a lot of trap influences in there. I started making music professionally in 2020, so I've been doing it for about two years now and it's been really fun being able to make my own sound. I'm from Los Angeles, so a lot of my music is inspired by LA for sure. I grew up here and went to school for music here.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You're a singer and songwriter, how did you first know that music was the career and passion you wanted to pursue?
[IZZA]: I think I just loved music ever since I was a kid. I grew up in a household where my parents were always playing music and they always took me to concerts and I really fell in love with songwriting. When I was younger, I didn't really have anyone to talk about my feelings and I think it's hard to express how you're feeling as a kid sometimes you don't necessarily have a therapist or zone you can go to, so I found songwriting as an outlet for my emotions, and then also became really something that I could do creatively and enjoy putting melodies together and different lyrics.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How would you describe your music?
[IZZA]: My music is definitely upbeat. I'd say I want to send positive messages to people because I think with pop music, sometimes the messaging can get lost but I think you can still have really fun with bad bitch energy music, but still have important messaging behind it. So I definitely want to inspire people to follow their dreams and do what they want to do because I really believe if you love something, you should pursue it because why wouldn't you want to do something that makes you happy?
[UNPUBLISHED]: What artists influence your music or songwriting processes?
[IZZA]: I really like early 2000s pop artists like Gwen Stefanie and Fergie. Those are females that I really look up to like sonically for sure. I think they have hip-hop elements to them, like Gwen Stefanie was produced by Pharrell a lot during her career. I love Pharrell and his music so I think she's [Gwen] super dope and a badass. And Fergie had will.i.am and he comes from hip-hop too. So definitely influenced by those people.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Your newest single “Love Bracelets” is set to release later this month. Can you talk to me about the inspiration behind the single and what your creative process looks like for that?
[IZZA]: I wrote “Love Bracelets” because I was feeling down about myself and I’d always think I'd find validation through other relationships. I think it's easy to get caught up in wanting someone to like you, but you don't necessarily like yourself. So it's a song about self love mostly. It's really fun and it gives a lot of imagery about buying love bracelets spoiling yourself on expensive things. It’s also focusing on yourself first because you can't love anyone unless you don't love yourself.
[UNPUBLISHED]: If you could describe “Love Bracelets” in three words, which would you choose?
[IZZA]: Expensive, sassy and energetic.
[UNPUBLISHED]: In “Love Bracelets,” what was your favorite lyric to write or something that really resonated with you that you hope your listeners can take away?
[IZZA]: I don't know if this is something so profound, but I like the pre-chorus where I say ‘I’m gonna grab that ghost and go, grab the ghost and go home, ghost you on your cell phone,’ and I liked that pattern because it's all using ghost but in like different ways. So it's like a ghost is a car, but then you also ghost somebody on their cell phone, so I was proud when I came up with that. I thought it was a cool kind of cheeky thing.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You’re LA-based, I was wondering if your environment influences your music or songwriting in any way?
[IZZA]: I definitely am inspired by my everyday interactions with people, like these are all like my stories and it's real life and LA is just a great place for creativity and being able to connect with other musicians and create, it’s just really amazing. It's also just home, so I feel like whenever you're in a place where it's your home, it just feels the most comfortable. It's been really nice to live in a city where it's also my home and it's also where I work because I definitely have a familiarity with it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How would you say your music has evolved over the last two years since you pursued it professionally?
[IZZA]: It's come a long way for sure. When I started releasing, it was definitely more darker hip-hop and I love that kind of music, but I think my current sound is more pop and more confidence and promoting confidence and being yourself and a bad bitch basically. I like to resonate with that more now. I think I used songwriting mostly to get out my demons and things. I definitely think the music has evolved to a more fun atmosphere for sure.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What advice would you give to young aspiring musicians hoping to begin their own careers?
[IZZA]: You have to put in the hours, it's a 24 hour thing. You're always constantly working and you have to put in the work for sure. I think what I've learned is just be yourself because there's a lot of artists that try to be something they're not and it doesn't work out. So I think what's been my Northstar is just knowing what I stand for, and that's definitely helped me throughout the ups and downs because it's my purpose, the reason why I'm doing this and it's because I love music. I love creating songs that make people feel good. I love the creativity of production and lyricism.
[UNPUBLISHED]: My last question for you is what is your wildest dream as an artist? If you can have one thing happen to you or like a milestone or collaboration, anything you want to achieve in your career, what would that look like for you?
[IZZA]: I would love to play Coachella, it's very in season and I've been going since 2014. I've been like seven times. As an LA kid, it just meant a lot and it's one of the first times where I actually discovered a festival setting and how much that impacts the fans and the artists and it's just such a cool experience. So it'd be definitely cool to play that.
