Women
Shaping
The
Future
SZA
48
IT’S PAST MIDNIGHT AT SZA’S HOME IN LOS ANGELES WHEN SHE
disappears to retrieve her set of sound bowls. There’s a car arriv-
ing in just under three hours to take her to the airport, where she’ll
be catching a 6 a.m. flight to Hawaii, but she’s not concerned about
her suitcase. “I’m not packing shit but T-shirts,” she says giddily.
Kauai, where she will go on to write at Rick Rubin’s house for the
next six days, “is a very healing place. It fits my brain.”
SZA, 29, returns and arranges seven bowls, ranging in size from
cereal to oversize salad, on the wood floor of her living room, care-
fully resting each one on a small circular base. She’s been using
them in the studio, recording low frequencies for some of her new
tracks — you can barely hear them, she says, but the bowls create
“an internal hum that feels right.” One of them broke recently,She transformed R&B with her honesty and
warmth. Fans are desperate for new music
— but first, she’s working on herself
By Emma Carmichael
PHOTOGRAPH BY
Campbell Addy