There’s a family story about Diana Zinni’s first experience with music.
She was just a toddler. And MTV — the music video channel — wasn’t much older.
“Apparently, the first time they plopped me down in front of it, I saw the Beastie Boys’ ‘Fight for Your Right (To Party!),’ ” said Zinni, a Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter who grew up in Le Roy.
“I just went nuts,” she added. “And that was it — I was obsessed with music.”
Years later, her childhood obsession resulted in an internship at New York City’s Chung King Studios, where the Beastie Boys once recorded.
Clearly, some things have a way of coming full circle, like a chance encounter or a musical motif.
Zinni will close a circle of her own on Nov. 25, with an acoustic performance at Le Roy’s Smokin’ Eagle BBQ & Brew. The “Thanksgiving Eve Party,” which also features DJ Jimmy B, will support an Indiegogo campaign for Zinni’s as-yet-untitled debut album.
The crowdfunding effort was officially launched on Tuesday. Supporters can pre-order the album and receive other perks by contributing via Indiegogo. (See link below)
Zinni was recently described as “one of the hardest working indie artists in the game” by the music blog Evensound. Another music writer called her a “dreamy folk goddess.” (“I swear I didn’t tell her to write that!” Zinni says.)
Zinni calls her own work “folk-pop,” and has developed a style that mixes clever wordplay with catchy melodies.
“I focus a lot on lyrics,” Zinni said. “The lyric and melody usually pops into my head together as a unit. I finish it from there, and kind of figure out what chords make sense for it.”
Her songs, she said, “all have their own little story.”
An example is “The Moon,” which was featured on a digital EP titled “More.” Zinni said the song arrived one evening during a walk in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn.
“I literally stopped in the middle of my walk, sat on these church steps and the whole chorus came to me immediately,” Zinni recalled. “It was a beautiful way to receive the song, by just sitting on those church steps.
“Fortunately, I take walks with a notebook!”
She calls it a very spiritual, very personal song; and one she’s especially proud of.
Can you forgive me for making the moon?
Can you forgive the world you see?
I’ve got a god-like longing with a human reach
The EP’s title song, “More,” also explores issues of love, loss and longing.
Everybody’s got a card up their sleeve and one foot out the door
some just have an anchor that won’t let em sail from the shore
and we all want more
Her latest, is “Love Me Like New,” the debut single from her upcoming album. You could call the song — available for streaming via Soundcloud — a teaser for a project Zinni launched before she really knew how to make music of her own.
Her parents, Rick and Cathy Zinni, can attest to that. (As can her "exremely supportive" brother, John.)
“You should have seen me in the car growing up,” Zinni said. “I was such a control freak about what was playing the radio.
“It was my lifeline — hearing songs was my lifeline.”
Zinni knew she would be a songwriter. And early on, she was committed — someday, somehow — to moving to New York City and making a record.
But if she was a dreamer, she was one with her feet planted solidly on the ground.
She focused on the guitar, and took lessons from Dan Clor, who founded the Le Roy-based heavy metal band D-ZL. Clor also helped Zinni make her first song recording.
After graduating from Le Roy High School in 2003, Zinni chose to attend Oneonta State College for its well-regarded Music Industry program. She earned degrees in music industry and business economics and completed a minor in Audio Arts Production.
Currently, she is the studio manager at Joe Lambert Mastering in Brooklyn. As it happens, Lambert, the studio’s owner, is a native of Batavia and a Grammy-nominated recording engineer.
Zinni’s move to Brooklyn was a leap of faith that paid off.
“It was a magical time in my life, because I was in the right place,” Zinni says. “And I finally met the right producer.”
Bryan Kane is also a native of Upstate New York, in his case Corning. They met during a studio party in 2011, and a year later began a working relationship that resulted in the EP, “More.”
The idea of performing back home in Le Roy, was sparked in June. Dan Clor, who now lives in Los Angeles, was returning east with his band, Weapon-X, and a reunion performance with DZ-L at Rochester’s Montage Music Hall. He asked Zinni to share the bill.
At the show that night was DJ Jimmy B — James Barsaloux — who often appears at the Smokin’ Eagle.
“I was selling homemade, burned CDs,” Zinni said. “He came up to me with a card and said ‘You have to play the Eagle sometime when you’re home.’ ”
This fall, Zinni began to work on a live, hometown show in support of her Indiegogo campaign.
Zinni plans to release her first album early next year. After that, she’ll assemble a band and schedule a CD release performance for an appropriate venue in the Rochester area.
Hard work she hopes makes a dream come true.
“I’ve been working on it for a while, and I’d really like to get it finished,” she said. “I’d like to make the debut real.”
The “Thanksgiving Eve Party” will be from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Nov. 25 at Smokin’ Eagle BBQ & Brew, 9 Main St., Le Roy. For information call (585) 768-4770 or visit www.smokineagle.com.
Learn more about Diana Zinni via the following links:
Diana Zinni’s Debut Album on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/diana-zinni-s-debut-album#/
Listen to “Love Me Like New”: https://soundcloud.com/diana-zinni/love-me-like-new
Listen to the “More” EP: https://dianazinni.bandcamp.com/releases
Music videos, including “More” and “The Moon”: https://www.youtube.com/user/dianazinni
Facebook: https://facebook.com/dizinni
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dianazinni
Instagram: https://instagram.com/dianazinni
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