“I’m a 27-year-old guy who’s worked with music for ten years, but these days, I do as many different kinds of performances as I can,” says Zia, gazing around his living room. Given that, for now, Zia sings in Swedish, we wanted to begin with his music – particularly how he’d describe it.
“I’ve always done quite romantic music. Music, for me, is everything at different times. Sometimes therapeutic. Sometimes, exploring a feeling I’m missing in my life. But it’s always an extension of me. I am in my music. It’s very personal to me,” he explains. Pushed a bit more, he offers a more visual metaphor; “Explosive pop!” with a laugh.
During his decade in the business, Zia has formed a strong bond with his fanbase. We asked whether he felt his fans would agree with his synopsis of his sound. “I don’t know. My thing with music is that it moves me; I have to feel it for others to feel it, too. But hopefully, the fans connect through this as well. When I play live, they should feel some trauma or experience and go through all these feelings with me. The music connects the audience and me as a performer somewhere in the middle. I’m always exploring new sides of my personality through my music that they might not know as well to capture a freshness.”
Like many creative souls, Zia has been very open about his struggle with stage fright. For many performers and artists, this is a crippling infliction but, if approached with care, can lift a performance to new levels. Sensing the answer already, we ask regardless – how does his stage fright affect his showmanship and craft?
“My stage fright comes from when I question what I’m doing. I’m always myself on stage, but a different version, perhaps. Everything has to be right, you know, and then I feel some sense of assurance. But then there’s the flip side, like that dream you have when you’re doing something before an audience and you’re not prepared as you should be,” says Zia.
We continue along this track, asking: Are you a perfectionist? “Yeah, but I don’t know what my definition of perfect is, so I don’t know if I’m happy even if something was perfect,” he continues with a smile, his eyes resting in a corner of the room.
With so many years of gigs under his belt, in so many shapes and constellations, Zia has a chameleon-like way of shifting energies to the size of his audience. Keen to find out if he has a favoured type of gig and how he tailors his performance, we ask if he has a preference. “Think of it a bit like this. If you’re a lion in a zoo, you’re restricted in how far you can run and at what speed. But on the savannah, you run faster with more energy and freedom. When a gig is intimate, you have more connection with the audience, but I’m the kind of artist triggered by more energy. It’s a powerful feeling to be in front of the audience and use your voice, tone and words to create a feeling. It’s cool.”
Many sources and interviews over the years point out Zia’s drive and sense of direction in his career. As an integral part of being creative, self-drive is hard to maintain. We wonder where Oscar’s comes from.
“There’s still a sense that I must prove myself to everyone who might have doubted me. This is only from my perspective. But I have such a huge love for standing on stage and working with music. No matter how hard it is, it’s worth it. That’s where the drive comes in,” he says.
Now that he’s acting as well as performing, does his performance technique differ from stage to screen? He explains that Oscar Zia, the artist, is larger, more free, and fantasy-driven. Oscar Zia, the actor, allows the emotions to evolve more naturally. Both are still driven by his emotions and places of personal reference but are given different energy levels to resonate with the audience.
Moving to merch and his collaboration with Creator Studio, we discuss his relationship with merch as a performer and a fan. “I buy a lot of merch, actually. It’s like a tattoo; you’re part of the family. It’s nice and warm to see fans in my merchandise,” he says, explaining that, while he buys lots, the only piece of merchandise in his closet is a Beyonce t-shirt. “My friends steal all my stuff,” he cackles. “Seriously, they borrow my stuff, and I never see it again.”
For Oscar’s forthcoming tour, fans will not only be able to buy from his merch store but create their own pieces of unique merch using Creator Studio’s Create:Kiosks. If his fans are anything like Zia’s own friends, they’d probably best buy two, just in case!
Berlin is a centre of culture that refuses to stop innovating, a place that
embraces changes in direction, styles and ideals. We took a road trip to Germany’s capital to host panel talks with some of its most innovative creatives in an event that blended merch with discussions on digital processes, communal bonds and progressive brand building.
Huston’s journey to the land of on demand merch is inspiration and refreshing. A compact but effective design and advertising studio by trade, its founders use merch as an extra communication channel and a way to exercise their creative muscles when ideas hit. We hopped on a call with co-founder Andreas Lucaci for a fascinating chat on the creative landscapes.
Swedish esports organisation Godsent was formed in 2016 and has built a legacy of world-class performances in competitive Counter Strike. Today, the organisation can claim to be one of the primal forces in Nordic gaming. With merch playing an important role in the competitive gaming universe, we chat to Godsent’s CEO and head of E-commerce and merchandising to find out more.
Based in Åre, Northern Sweden, The Nomads Family are Valerie Cook, Tim Boffe and their two children. Hailing from Belgium, they spent many years travelling and experiencing life’s nuances in Central Europe and America, living in their ‘Nomads Bus’ before settling in Åre. Immersing themselves in the culture of Sweden’s skiing and mountain biking mecca, the multi-tasking Nomads already have many projects bubbling. With their new merch collection dropping, we spoke to them about life on and off the road.
