Artist Spotlights: Noa Zimmerman, Indie Folk Sensation in the Making
Combining the clever lyricism of Taylor Swift with the effortless sound of Clairo, Noa Zimmerman has everything she needs to fit into today’s music scene.
Written by Gracie Warhurst
Photo courtesy of Rhythmic Quietude Productions
Recommended If You Like: Taylor Swift, Clairo, Phoebe Bridgers
At just 14 years old, Noa Zimmerman wrote and produced her first album. Now, as a recent graduate from the University of Southern California’s (USC) Thornton School of Music, she has two of her albums and a collection of EPs and singles available on Spotify. Her motivation at such a young age is certainly worth noting, but the open space waiting for her in the indie folk world is even more enticing.
Despite the slight gap in her two 2017 album releases — Night’s Gentle Crash and On the Bright Side of Oblivion — and most recent EPs and singles, Zimmerman has only improved in her sound and production quality. In 2020, she released “Rapture,” “Palindrome King,” and “Invisible Strings” as singles, showcasing a naturally matured voice. This year, she’s dropped a new EP, Indus, and another single, “Circle.” Her most recent music explores emotional vulnerability and nature in a philosophical way, drawing you in for a closer listen.
Although Zimmerman has about 2,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, “Invisible Strings,” undeniably her most popular work, has received nearly 15,000 streams. There’s no question as to why — the song is catchy, the lyrics are beautiful in their imagery, and the song is pleasing to the ears even as it twists the heart. It begins with only her voice and an acoustic guitar that builds in intensity through the song, and is accompanied by a violin and an electric guitar solo. In the song, Zimmerman speaks to someone she was unhealthily attached to, someone who had their own unhealthy attachments (“I’ve got it bad / I’ve got it bad boy / But you’ve got it worse”). She uses comparisons to the natural world to give herself and her listeners perspective, shown in her lyrics: “Billions of stars prove we’re small and we’re free and we’re lost.” Upon first listen, “Invisible Strings” sounds like a love ballad, but upon a more careful inspection, the lyrics tell a story of Zimmerman’s younger self, who is overly caught up in someone else, from her now matured perspective.
Zimmerman wrote Indus about her trip to the Indus River, which she called a “mindheartsoul trip” from “many lifetimes ago” on her Facebook page. She easily transitions from descriptions of her surroundings to how they affected her internally at the time, bridging nature and emotion in a way that could easily escape a casual listener. The title track follows Zimmerman’s stream of consciousness as she explores the titular river. Zimmerman sings, “The sky sits soft on the golden ground / I’ve never owned a thing, I only make these sounds / I don’t stand up, I don’t bow down / So love me for exactly who I am right now.” The song sounds like traveling somewhere you’ve never been, thanks to its subtle tambourine and explorative conga beat.
Another notable song on the EP, “Stray Dogs,” takes a marginally slower pace as Zimmerman reminisces on feelings just below the surface and wanderers in the street. She sings, “The stray dogs of India / The strange loss I feel / Every time I walk on by.” The contrast between her lively surroundings and internal conflict creates a bittersweet loneliness. She captures the feeling of being in a room full of your favorite people but still carrying the dread of what awaits when you leave. The piano, guitar, and harmonizing vocals only add to this isolation as they weave in and out of each other.
Zimmerman adopted many Buddhist influences on both her music and life after attending a lecture at a Monastery at a base camp on Mount Everest in 2019. This is reflected in her newest single, “Circle,” which condenses big ideas about the universe and human connection and puts them together simply yet intuitively. She sings, “When I dream of you / Do you dream of me / Or will the circle always be left incomplete?” exploring the Buddhist idea of “no-soul” (anatman) and how the belief that humanity is made of individuals instead of one intertwined life force is harmful. Although she sings of these concepts plainly (“We’re tied to each other / By love, suffering, and everything in between”) the beauty of her music exists in these simplicities because it’s accessible to everyone.
Although there are endless things to say about her small portfolio of music, Zimmerman as a person is even more impressive. She was the first woman to graduate from USC’s Music Production program while also double majoring in Songwriting. She founded Soundwaves, a music program for an elementary school whose arts program was being cut, and co-founded the Artivist Foundation, a non-profit organization that combines music and activism. She is an everyday activist as well as a multimedia artist. Her poetry background is evident in her songwriting, and she showcases her poems and art on her personal Instagram.
Zimmerman is very clearly a person who is unapologetically herself, fearlessly following her passions and helping others along the way. Everything she does, from her fight for a better world to her soul-touching music, is exactly what music and artistry need today. I’ll continue following Zimmerman in her music and aspirations, and I highly recommend that anyone reading this does the same.