Cheyanne Zadia leans back into her cushioned seat reeling from a long day directing a photoshoot across town. The restless 28-year-old – donning a mustard-colored hoodie matching the golden walls of The Demo Tape office –adjusts the shiny, smoked out lenses perched on her face. She schools me on her lengthy resume as one of Baltimore’s most creative playmakers in the underground music scene. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to come across motivated artists dedicated to their craft. But Zadia’s tireless work ethic is unlike any other. Most people Zadia’s age are busy settling into their life’s work, but her journey as an artist is just getting started. The fashion designer/stylist turned event curator turned musician wears many hats. In her eyes, she’s a vessel that connects people from different walks of life through her talents. When she’s not working on songs for herself or other artists, Zadia is teaching her class of students in performing arts, off planning a festival, or producing and directing films for her own music – the list goes on. No one day is ever the same for Zadia, but the home-grown curator finds comfort in staying busy. The raw talent and passion as an artist is apparent, but her drive to show the world her city’s beauty is even more clear.
During the summer months, Zadia treks through her stomping grounds with her live band in tow for the East and West Baltimore tours promoting her newly-released project, Vacants. On a neighboring corner in West Baltimore, she rocks to the sounds of striking percussion, a blaring trumpet, and a jamming keyboard. She, along with an eccentric Al Rogers Jr., draw a small crowd of watchful listeners as they tag team another one of their musical collaborations. She waves more spectators over saying “Come on over, we don’t bite.” The Vacants tour, originally called the Sidewalk Serenade, is fully underway with an important message for Baltimore – one Zadia felt necessary to deliver personally.
Vacants, composed of 9 short tracks, is the soulful singer’s debut album she began composing more than five years ago. The jazzy project serves as a loving ode to Zadia’s West Baltimore roots, but furthermore proves she has more to offer. The thoughtful artist, who is normally concerned with putting her team on first, took this as an opportunity to put the spotlight on herself. Her shy approach to making music put her lyrical prelude on ice for years, but 2020 showed her it was now or never. “You're either going to put the music out or you're going to be scared for the rest of your life or you could die tomorrow.” The daring singer emulates this message on “Live Alive (shower song),” the acapella track that serves as the halfway point on her project. “It seems like we don’t get the recognition til we die, I’m gon’ celebrate myself til the day I close my eyes.” The absence of instruments on the interlude echoes her poetic words that toss fear out the window and preach the gospel of life’s bittersweet truth. Her gentle voice fuels the pleasant, melodic composition her project maintains on opening and closing tracks “Sunsets” and “Protection,” respectively. Zadia’s harmonious debut starts and ends on the same accord, driving home her point of spreading love, peace, and understanding to all.
Much like her artistic path, Vacants bridges the gap between West Baltimore’s charm and shortcomings as Zadia sees them. I spoke with the budding vocalist to talk about her career as a creative, expectations for her music, and how she wants her legacy in the city to be remembered.
Everyone comes into their artistry through their life’s journey. So, where does Zadia’s story begin?
Zadia: My story starts at a very early age. I was probably maybe one or two when I first started singing in the choir at church. That kind of morphed into making music as a hobby and helping my friends who took music more seriously. My career as an artist, as a curator started with curating events for different artists in the city. That helped me build bonds and connections with artists that I now call my friends. Some of my friends who knew that I actually could create music and sing and stuff outside of curating would push me to make a project and to drop some music and I finally did in 2020. So, now we're here.
What was life like for you growing up here in the city?
I'm from West Baltimore — Beechfield, Treemont, Yale Heights, Irvington; you got to list them all like that, the whole zone 29. Growing up I was always surrounded by family and extended family. I grew up on a lot of love. I was always surrounded by art and culture and I grew up in a family of singers and musicians, so that played a major part in my love for music.
How did you get introduced to Baltimore's creative community?
I don't think anybody introduced me to Baltimore's creative community.
You introduced yourself?
Yeah. Even though it was a community that existed way before me. I feel like I definitely cultivated my own section of Baltimore's creative community and that kind of added other areas of culture within the city. I've always been creative and I just started curating my own shows. And from that it kind of attracted all of the creative people that I needed.
Did you see a trend start from you creating these events? What kind of void did it fill in the city?
I don't want to call myself a trendsetter because it's so cliché and kind of corny to me. But, I will say that I think I created experiences that gave other artists, like myself, permission to create space for themselves.
Have you had a turning point in your career yet where something lets you know you're on the right track?
Honestly, this year was the turning point for me. For whatever reason, I hadn't put out music. This year showed me don't hold back and ever since I dropped music it's been blessing after blessing, opportunity after opportunity, press after press. I know 2020 has affected a lot of people in negative ways, and me too in certain aspects, but I feel like we all needed this break. Taking this break allowed me time to really tap into myself, into my purpose, and into the music that I feel so many people need to hear and can relate to.
You put a project out in June called Vacants. What's the meaning behind that title?
Vacants represents Baltimore to me, West Baltimore particularly. There's 18,000 vacant homes in Baltimore city alone. You know how small our city is. 18,000 vacant homes to me was a reflection of the city as a whole. I feel like Baltimore has been going through something, even since I was younger, that we haven't quite been able to pick ourselves up from and this project is a reflection of that.
I wanted to tell my story while also reflecting on all the untold stories of those vacant homes. I always knew when I first dropped my project that I wanted it to be something Baltimore-related that reflected my experiences in the city and life growing up.
You had a couple artists like Al Rogers Jr., Sennison, and others featured on the project. What was it like working with people like that?
They all family. This joint was really like a family affair. Mostly everybody that was on the project I've known for years and years. Al, that's one of my dogs since 2012; 2011, 2010 I don't even know. That's been my guy. Sannison has been my guy. Bobbi and Josh, I tell them all the time they family for real. I feel so connected to them in many ways for many reasons. I could just relate to them. It really just felt like I was working with family. What I'm used to. Like when I grew up in the church singing amongst family. I don't really do friends, I do family. This project really felt like I just brought in some family members.
For the project, you and a couple local artists got together to do pop-up concerts in East and West Baltimore. What was it like doing those pop-up shows and being able to give back to the city like that?
It felt like it was needed. It was something that was necessary. We had been cooped up in the house for months. No live music, no live interaction, no hugs, no daps, no nothing. It was like when we hit the streets with the music it was kind of like almost an awakening. A lifting of a dark shadow. It was like you could literally see and feel that this is something that we all needed. We needed that interaction with the city just as much as the city needed that interaction with us.
Is there anybody in Baltimore that you look up to right now?
Creatively, I look up to authors in the city like D. Watkins from East Baltimore. He just recently got married and had a baby and he's still writing books. I look up to stuff like that. One day I hope to have a family of my own and still be a creative force and also an impact in the city and give opportunities to younger artists. I look up to Miss Tony too because she said, "How you wanna carry it?" And she meant it and that's how I'm carrying the rest of my music career. Yeah, like what's up, what's up? I'm taking it to the top.
When it's all said and done, how do you want your legacy to be remembered in the city?
I want to be remembered as someone that cultivated love and connected so many people. Someone that was just a bada** artist at all levels. Whether it be directing, producing films, making music, I just want to be like someone who lived fully and completely and didn't hold anything back. I feel like a lot of people are talented and they know that they're talented and gifted at certain things, but society tells you that you have to stick to one thing. They make it seem like you can't do everything and I feel like I can do all things, you know? I just want to be an inspiration to people and I want them to know that you don't have to just stick to one thing. You can do all things.