Built around an insistent, driving beat, this new earworm perfectly encapsulates the internal conflict of passion and trepidation of a new attraction. Co-produced with frequent collaborator Josef Page “crush (tom verlaine)” is undoubtedly going to continue to cement Aziya as one of London’s most exciting talents. Comparing the unnamed crush to Television frontman Tom Verlaine, Aziya conjures the perfect image of someone elusive, eternally cool, yet utterly unapproachable. The track is accompanied by a co-directed DIY video centering around Aziya and her frontman in a photobooth, capturing the intimate yet tumultuous sentiment of the track.
“crush (tom verlaine)” follows on from Aziya’s return single “party’s over,” an infectious new-wave inspired track, co-produced by Aziya and Grammy award-winning producer John Hill about a lost romantic connection.
Aziya explains the thought process behind the new offering: “‘crush’ is my response to a fear of falling for someone who looks like Tom Verlaine. It’s a reminder that sometimes it’s easier to avoid having a crush on someone out of fear they might lead me on, or worse yet…ruin my life. I have a habit of putting my walls up pretty quickly so that I don’t get hurt – it’s a shame but hard not to draw conclusions from how someone acts online – sometimes enough for me to put my walls up even quicker.”
“Crush (tom verlaine)” and “party’s over” come after Aziya’s second EP LONELY CASTLES (released late last year). The four track project which included singles “atomic,” “chain,” & the self-produced “wundagirl.” It possessed a wistful quality present in the greatest rock artists, LONELY CASTLES was Aziya’s triumphant answer to internal and external pressures.
Fresh off DIY Magazine’s UK wide Now & Next tour, and packed out Dot to Dot festival performances Aziya has set her sights global. Aziya headlines the Shacklewell Arms in London on 20th June, tickets available HERE.
More on Aziya:
Since emerging with the alternative indie smarts of searing debut single “Slip!” in 2021, London artist Aziya has elevated herself from a promising newcomer into a rising star with a strong grip on exactly who and what she wants to present to the world. Having showcased an enviable mastery of the guitar since her earliest days posting riff-heavy, one-woman-band covers of everyone from PJ Harvey to Jimi Hendrix on TikTok (and gaining millions of likes, alongside praise from Grimes, H.E.R and more along the way), she’s spent the past three years adding more and more strings to her bow.
Across two EPs – 2021’s We Speak of Tides and last year’s LONELY CASTLES – Aziya has determinedly fleshed out her vision, leveling up her skills as a producer and bringing the “new wave-influenced, dark, post-punk world” that she loves to life in increasingly clear fashion. And now comes “party’s over”: the first single from a forthcoming project that marks her most fully-realised work yet. “I saw on LONELY CASTLES that people were really responding for the first time,” she says. “Before, people really loved the covers I was making, which was great. But now people aren’t going ‘What’s that Tame Impala song?’, they’re asking, ‘What’s that Aziya song?’”
Growing up in the sort of open-minded household that would play System of a Down, Santigold and The Stone Roses with equal enthusiasm, Aziya picked up a guitar aged 10 and started to pen her own material shortly after. After graduating school, Aziya found herself in sessions where her tastes and ideas were being ignored. “I remember leaving one particular session thinking, ‘I’m gonna get my guitar playing and producing to a point where I’m able to express myself as a musician the exact way I want to’,” she explains.
Since then, that ethos of working hard to make yourself undiminishable has been at the heart of her outlook. She describes We Speak of Tides as “me saying, ‘Hey guys, you might not think I’m going to make guitar music but that’s exactly what I’m going to do, and here are five different genres within guitar music that I’m going to dip my toe in to prepare you for what’s gonna come next’.” LONELY CASTLES, meanwhile, was a hands-on exercise from start to finish, “from the production to the creative to even distributing it I was involved in it”. “I didn’t have a life for a while, and I’m OK with that!” she laughs.
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