“I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar”: Aziya on her rock journey and the beauty of being “wrong and strong”
“It’s having that confidence to be like, ‘I don’t care if this isn’t perfect’,” says Aziya with a shrug and a smile. The London-based artist and producer adjusts her large cat-eye sunglasses as she chats to Guitar.com among the buzz of cicadas in Athens, Greece. “If Gary from Surrey who’s 68 wants to say the intonation’s not right, I don’t care!”
Perfectionism doesn’t serve Aziya. Predominantly self-taught, her journey began to blossom as she shared covers and original songs from her bedroom on Instagram and TikTok across the early 2020s. She’s yet to release a debut record, but over a flurry of EPs – from 2021’s We Speak In Tides to 2023’s Lonely Castles, and a 2024 mixtape titled BAMBI – Aziya has set her stall out as a unique and interesting guitar artist borne of very contemporary circumstances.
Aziya on the Guitar.com Cover. Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
Her artistry is not going unnoticed. Aziya can count Yungblud and Olivia Rodrigo as admirers (she played both the inaugural Bludfest and shared the bill for Rodrigo’s BST gig last year), landed a spot on Fender’s Next programme – whose alumni include everyone from Phoebe Bridgers and Sam Fender to Orville Peck and Omar Apollo – and signed a major label deal with Atlantic.
Now freshly independent and embarking on a new phase driven purely by an instinctive joy for music, Aziya’s craft as a player blends perfectly with her confessional lyrics of what it means to be flawed, complex and the self-sabotaging type.
“I borrowed my first electric from school, it was a Squier. I haven’t given it back yet”
Something Borrowed
Aziya got her first nylon-string acoustic at 10 years old – and while she knew the guitar would become her extra limb, she didn’t necessarily know she was on the path to becoming an artist.
“I didn’t know that what I was trying to do was be an artist. It’s always been something that’s a passion of mine and has evolved with me. When I got to 16, I knew that I wanted to discover who I was as an artist. That’s when I finally took it seriously,” she shares.
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
At the state school she attended in Hackney, music resources were limited and spread thinly to accommodate all children. Aziya was tasked with singing, but knew she was destined to play guitar too. Taking part in her first show at school, she got to sing Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, which changed the trajectory of her future.
“That just relit this love I had of rock music, so I was like, I can’t not play the guitar, guys! I managed to borrow one from school, my first electric, it was a Squier. I haven’t given it back yet,” she admits, “but I will when I make it big…”
“I’ve gone back to why I first started doing this, and a lot of that reason is the guitar”
Locked In
Aziya attended the BRIT School of performing arts for the last two years of her education, following in the footsteps of Adele and Amy Winehouse. The prestige of the BRIT School means that you don’t get in without passing an audition. But as Aziya recalls, that’s pretty much the easiest part. It’s no machine churning out manufactured pop-stars, she assures us.
“You have the studios, you have the guitars, you have other great musicians, but it’s up to you to go and speak to those musicians, to use the studio, to hone your craft. There’s no one there saying to you, ‘This is what Adele did, so we’re all going to do this.’”
As it happens, Aziya’s moment to cut through happened in a very early 2020s kinda way. When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, she took advantage of her home set-up to begin sharing bedroom recordings on social media – a mix of original music and guitar-driven covers. One of them, which interpreted Grimes’ Oblivion with a wailing guitar solo and a punchy harmonic-laden riff, quickly racked up thousands of views and brought her to the attention of some big names.
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
Back in lockdown, Oscar- and Grammy-winning guitarist H.E.R. started a weekly livestream on Instagram called Girls With Guitars. The series welcomed artists as diverse as Willow, Lianne La Havas, Orianthi and Melissa Etheridge to talk about their shared love of the instrument. And one of those guests, being broadcast to the roughly 300,000 people watching, was Aziya.
“That was one of the solidifying moments for me of, ‘Honestly, it doesn’t matter that I’ve only been shredding for like a year,” she reflects. “Because people are acknowledging me and my work: great people.’”
“Every guitarist goes into it with the confidence to be like, ‘I’m going to be wrong and strong, and I don’t care’”
Strong Roots
Growing up on a wide catalogue of artists from My Chemical Romance to Patti Smith, as well as a palette of early punk, Aziya’s sound reflects all that she absorbed through osmosis in her youth; it’s a melting pot of pop, rock and romantic R&B. She also found courage in the examples set by women with guitars and founding Black female artists, including the Godmother of rock ‘n’ roll, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
“It’s a shame that her flowers are only coming now. She definitely set the path for me,” she declares. “All my favourite guitarists, from Jimmy Page to Jimi Hendrix – even people that look like me, like Hendrix and Prince – they’re all men! I was like, where are the women? They’re there, but they’re hidden, from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to June Millington from this band called Fanny. There’s also Viv Albertine from The Slits. They are out there.”
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
Many of these women set the template that Aziya now continues to champion in her own craft: the brilliant defiance to be “wrong and strong”, to give things a go without worrying about being good enough. Playing an electric guitar is not brain surgery after all, it’s art.
Aziya points to something Albertine said about electric guitar in her memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. “She liked how obnoxiously loud it was and the fact that she didn’t know how to properly play, but she was being amplified. I think that’s how every guitarist goes into it, you go in with the confidence to be like, ‘I’m going to be wrong and strong, and I don’t care.’”
“I can’t ever lose my creative autonomy again”
Altar-d State
The days of an artist needing the heft of a major label and the resources of a massive studio to make their mark are long over, but Aziya embraces the bedroom aesthetic more than most. Her distinctive but distinctly DIY online backdrop has become a magnetic aspect of her art. It’s a wink to other budding artists that they can do this too. You could argue that for modern musicians, the bedroom is a creative altar – a place where they can grow as artists in safety and security, while still sharing their music with the world.
“Describing it as an altar is really interesting,” Aziya replies. “Because like an altar, like going to God and wrestling with things that are going on for you, it’s the same as when you’re in your bedroom [making music].
“There is sometimes the creative identity struggle of doing it from your bedroom, especially as a female producer. Sometimes it’s like, is this official enough? Will people take it seriously? But [there’s] a peace that comes through for me, the comfort of it being my space. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think there’s more female producers because of it as well.”
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
As for her setup, she’s “happily moved away from the Squier” these days, but still favours quality over quantity. Alongside her Novation Launchpad, you’ll mostly find her with a Fender Telecaster (affectionately named Dove by her fans), but she also uses a Mustang, a P-Bass, and one particularly special treasure she purchased on London’s iconic music retail district, Denmark Street.
“A guitar I always come back to is my 60s reissue Jag. It’s Japanese-made, and I use that a lot on quite a few of my songs. Wundagirl, that’s one where you can hear the Jag for sure,” she says. “I’ve also just got myself a [Neural DSP] Quad Cortex, it’s got every pedal you could desire and want. My usual setup with it is a lot of chorus, a lot of delay, reverb. And then occasionally my [Pro Co] RAT when I want to get a little heavier.”
“There is sometimes the creative identity struggle of doing it from your bedroom, but I wouldn’t have it any other way”
Self Sabotage
Guitar is woven through the DNA of Aziya’s songs. Even in tracks where it is less obvious, like He’s Mine, it’s there as a constant spine. Don’t expect that to change any time soon as she embarks on her new phase as an independent artist. Details are limited and her lips are sealed for now, but Aziya can confirm she is working on a new project, with the first taste being latest single Sabotage!.
“This one sets a precedent. A lot of the writing stems from reflection on being this saboteur type, but not to anyone else, just to myself. That’s what I wanted to do with this first song, lay that out and the direction of where we’re going in terms of what I’ve experienced this last year.
“This is probably the nicer, sweeter sounding of the songs. I love sitting in that world where it’s like rock meets hip-hop almost,” she reflects. “Sitting in that weird alternative space is something I love to explore. I think the deeper we will get into this project, the more stripped away things will get. There’s a lot of reference to Nirvana as well in there. There’s guitar in every song.”
Her forthcoming ‘Saboteur’ project is looking to be a significant mark in the sand for her independence. Being dropped by a major label is the sort of blow that would drive many artists to pack things in – especially so early on. But instead it lit a fire under her to create on her own terms. Whatever comes next, it will be wholly and truthfully Aziya.
Image: Danica Robinson for Guitar.com
“When I got dropped, the first thing I wrote down were the non-negotiables for me as a creative,” she explains. “The first was me saying I can’t ever lose my creative autonomy again or people-please, and I think that is sometimes an unfortunate byproduct of being an artist.”
Aziya has emerged through her early tumble through these weeds stronger and wiser. She’s got unapologetically big dreams, from scoring films to soundtracking fashion shows, not to mention a spot on Glastonbury’s famous Pyramid stage. She is wickedly smart and switched on, and there’s undeniably a quiet genius about the way she works.
Relaxing in her seat on her hotel balcony, there’s an assured energy about Aziya today. She’s certainly done her fair share of work to chase her dream, and this next era is all about attracting the success she’s duly earned.
“I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar,” she smiles. “I’ve really gone back to my roots. Being independent now, the only voice that I’m listening to and that matters is my own, and the collaborators I’m in the room with. I’ve gone back to why I first started doing this, and a lot of that reason is the guitar.”
Aziya’s Sabotage! is out now
Words: Rachel Roberts
Photography: Danica Robinson
Location: The Shacklewell Arms
The post “I feel the most ‘me’ whenever I’m playing guitar”: Aziya on her rock journey and the beauty of being “wrong and strong” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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