ZOiD is the brainchild of electronic and jazz musician, Daniel Jacobson, a stalwart of the Dublin electronic scene who is set to release an album titled ZONGS in 2022. Dipping into the waters of soul and funk, ‘Wish You’ is a 909-driven track, featuring Nigerian-Irish vocalist Esosa Ighodaro O’Brien, with saxophone from Chris Engel.
From his earliest influences from labels such as Warp, Rephlex, Underground Resistance and Dublin’s D1 producers Donnacha Costello and Rob Rowland, ZOiD’s fertile musical imagination was inspired by techno before evolving to incorporate and write tracks that amalgamated several genres into a populated musical petri dish of new ideas and innovation.
Collaboration has featured strongly during this musical journey, both with fellow artists and various record labels, including Diatribe/D1, Meljoann’s Boy Scout Audio, Front End Synthetics and Dan Curtin’s Metamorphic Records. Over the last year alone, he has worked with several female vocalists (Esosa, Aoife Doyle, SEO, Jenna Harris and others) in developing the new ZOiD repertoire which has been getting warmly received on Irish radio.
Also in the works is a 4-track vinyl EP titled Dexaphonic EP on Metamorphic Records and a 7-track album featuring a String Quartet led by Cora Venus Lunny with four different vocalists – Meljoann, Suzanne Savage, Inni-K and Miriam Ingram. ZOiD collaborated with each vocalist to create the songs (funded by First Music Contact through the Music Industry Stimulus Package), with the String Quartet recorded at Les Keye’s Arad Studios.
Of the track ‘Wish You’, ZOID says: “I’d worked with Esosa before and wanted to write something to feature her soulful voice, with 909 techno beats. The track is a fictional story about the relationship between the singer and her friend, who has decided to leave the small/town country they live in and go abroad looking for fame and fortune. She has mixed feelings about this but in the end wishes him well. In the video the friend is portrayed by the robot puppet Z.I.M.M.Y. (Zoidonian Intelligent Music Making cYborg).”
There is a sense of mischievous playfulness that underpins ZOiD’s music, belying some intricate arrangements and clever songwriting that form the foundations of the new material. From early techno leanings, ZOiD’s musical compass has also been steered by artists as varied as Burt Bacharach and Aphex Twin, ensuring a rich artistic palette from which 2021’s releases have drawn upon.
“I write a LOT, every day, I churn out ideas constantly, and most of them don’t go anywhere, but some of them make it through to become songs. I’ve been productive over the past 2 years so I have 4 albums worth of music that needs finishing . . . “ Welcome to the world of ZOiD!
‘Wish You’ is out Friday September 24th.
