Zolita | Advocate Now

"Most of us have experienced ... falling out of love and then falling in love with somebody else, and the sadness [or] the bitter sweetness that comes with with both of those things," she tells Sonia Baghdady of Advocate Now. "So, I think just getting to hear your experience in art is liberating always. Getting to tell my experience ... for me, is liberating."

Zolita shares that she put her lesbian identity at the forefront of her upcoming album, Falling Out / Falling In. While the music industry has seen more LGBTQ+ voices in recent years, Zolita believes that representation is still not only powerful, but necessary.

"I think it saves lives. Like period. I think people seeing representations of themselves helps them realize that they'll be able to live their lives proudly," she explains, adding, "I think that I would have realized my queerness a lot sooner if I had had accurate representations of lesbian love growing up."

Zolita's music often incorporates religious imagery, which she describes as a powerful tool to reclaim a space for queer people in spiritual communities. Personal power is important to the artist, which she channels in her work through modern witchcraft.

"I love the idea that the power is in yourself to create your own destiny and to manifest your own destiny. And it's not in some other entity," Zolita says. "And I think I think that's why I like exploring religious imagery too... Because obviously queer people have been so excluded from from religion for so long.

She adds, "I feel like getting to take that imagery and then, you know, reclaim it and take it back and re-appropriate it through a queer lens is very interesting to me."

Falling Out / Falling In will release February 10. Zolita will be performing at Boston Calling Music Festival, which takes place from May 26 to May 28 this year. She will also perform at the Governor's Ball Music Festival, occurring June 9 to June 11.

For more interviews like these, watch Advocate Now on The Advocate Channel.