Zanna

Genre: Singer/Songwriter
Secondary Genre: Pop Mission Viejo, California USA Contact

Zanna sounds like trying a little bit of everything at the salad bar. She pulls from folk, jazz, and world music, creating a sound that is ultimately about the message, the lyrics, the voice. This Boston-based artist draws listeners in with her candid self-portraits and compelling storytelling.

Print Version

Artist Information

Biography

Zanna was born in San Diego, CA and raised on an Orange County street that means “platinum.” Her mother, a singer and a teacher, always filled the house with music, playing classical, showtunes, and opera, while her father, a physicist and a professor, supplied everything from Simon & Garfunkel to the Beatles to Gregorian chant and whatever new world music he could find. They signed Zanna up for piano lessons at age four, when they noticed that she was often running from the TV to her mother’s piano to play the commercials she had just heard. She soon gave up the slow-paced lessons for soccer practice, but it was obvious she hadn’t given up music, as she became the youngest performer at her school talent show the next year, and went on to take the lead roles in her school musicals. At summer camp in her early teens, Zanna became fascinated with the guitar during the camp sing-alongs, and so she snatched one of the chord songbooks when no one was looking and took it home to teach herself how to play. From that point on, she often found herself sitting on the bathroom carpet, furiously scribbling lyrics into her journal.

After being kicked out of Catholic high school one semester before graduation, she immediately headed north to San Francisco. She became involved in the underground rave scene, and even threw a few raves in warehouses while she studied philosphy at San Jose State and Music Business at San Francisco State. She left the bay area for Boston and the Berklee College of Music, and quickly started performing at local Boston and New York venues. Zanna sang live backup vocals for Gwen Leathers, on Erik DiNardo’s “Different Shade of Blue,” on tour for Gabrielle Louise including a performance on the TV Show “Backstage with Barry Nolan”, and for “Alley Blues,” which won the 2008 Boston Blues Challenge.

After graduation, Zanna took Route 66 back to California with plans to start her musical career at home in LA. But only a few days later, she scrapped her LA plans, and flew back to Boston to continue work on her album and make music with her band. She moved into a house of musicians and started singing live with Four Piece Suit, and adding vocals and songwriting to the albums of Miguel De Braganca, Auditorium, Berklee professor Dan Bowden, Four Piece Suit, Dwight & Nicole’s album “Signs,” and two Gabrielle Louise studio albums, “Journey,” and “Around in Circles.” Zanna also became the lead singer for the world music-influenced band, Bangalore. Zanna does voice over work, writes jingles, sings for weddings, works as a model, and teaches voice, piano, and guitar for Jammin’ With You! Just and just to make sure that every inch of her plate is covered, she is also the Assistant Engineer and Production Manager at Rear Window Studio, where she originally worked with Nate Dubé to record her debut album, “Snapshots from a Sanctuary,” which features: Dave Mattacks, Milt Reder, Bruce Bears, Eguie Castrillo, Scott Aruda, John Aruda, Paul Ahlstrand, Jeff Galindo, Dean Cassell, Mark Hickox, Jeremy Carter, Manami Morita, Andrei Matorin, Uziel Colón, Tolga Sursal, Calin Peters, Alan Uhler, Chris Primeau, and Josh Cuadra. Until it is fully released, you can hear Zanna’s music on any of her websites, on 88.5 KSBR or the LIVE 365 Channel “Women of Substance.” She has been honored by the Billboard World Song Contest and asked to perform at Berklee’s Songwriter Night, and can be seen regularly performing around local Boston venues.

Instrumentation

Zanna - Vocals/Guitar/Piano
Jeremy Carter - More Guitar
Alan Uhler - Bass
Josh Cuadra - Sticks & Skins

Discography

Currently recording first album:

"Snapshots from a Sanctuary"

Official Website

http://www.zannamusic.com

Links

Audio

Lyrics

Video

Photo Gallery

  • Zanna 1

  • Zanna 2

  • Zanna 3

  • Zanna 4

  • Zanna 5

  • Zanna 6

  • Zanna 7

  • Zanna 8

  • Zanna 9

  • Zanna 10

Press

  • 16th Annual Billboard World Song Contest [+ Show ]

    "Stuck" won in the 16th Annual Billboard World Song Contest! Here's what they said: "Only the hi...

  • Zanna hits #1 on JamWave Music charts! [+ Show ]

    May 30, 2008 "Everyone Knows" by Zanna hits #1 on the JamWave Music pop charts, #2 all music char...

  • Christmas in California on 88.5 KSBR!!! [+ Show ]

    "Christmas in California" now in rotation on 88.5 KSBR!!! In the spirit of the season, you can no...

  • Zanna on LIVE 365! [+ Show ]

    Zanna on LIVE 365! Zanna's song "Everyone Knows" and "I Will Be Your Home" is now on regular ro...

Setlist

I usually play an hour set. My set list is a combination of originals, pop songs, and jazz standards.

Basic Requirements


Calendar

There are no upcoming dates at this time.