Oxford musician-producer Zahra Haji Fath Ali Tehrani has unveiled her new track and video ‘Waiting‘ ahead of her forthcoming EP For You.
The track is an intimate, hypnotic track addressing the possibility of love after the trauma of abuse. ‘Waiting’ plays with the idea of building someone up in your mind, almost putting them on a pedestal,‘ she says. ‘The idealisation of people that come into your world but learning to set boundaries. The track is about future love, building back after abuse, allowing yourself to open up and feel again.‘
Speaking about the forthcoming EP, she explains she has ‘written these songs as a way of releasing surface level energy in moments of despair during family court proceedings,” she says. “Being a survivor of domestic abuse and supporting my son through all the changes that were to come, I have a very close bond with him through trauma but also in a form of co-regulation, and this EP is for him.’
Having previously recorded as Despicable Zee, the move to using her full name felt natural upon learning more about her Persian heritage through discussions with her father, who left Iran around the time of the 1979 revolution. She explains: ‘The music I’m making now doesn’t feel like it fits with the name Despicable Zee, I don’t want to hide behind a name that is not my given name for now.‘
