Notable Quotables
"Zoe Boekbinder opens her mouth, and the voice that comes out is ageless, beautiful, heartbreaking and wise. Zoe looks so young, and so innocent. I think she kidnapped a marvellous singer from long ago Paris, and stole her voice. It's the only explanation." - Neil Gaiman
"A melody, a cadence, there is always something special going on with Zoe Boekbinder’s music. This album reflects it all brilliantly." - Ani DiFranco about Shadow
““Sometimes losing a friend can be just as devastating as losing a lover.
Zoe Boekbinder explores this terrain in their new music video, "What Have I Done." According to the artist, who identifies as queer, the song was inspired by "a friend who cut me off without a word."
A resident of New Orleans, Boekbinder has collaborated with Ani DiFranco, Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley, Neil Gaiman, Mal Blum, and Mirah in their music career.
During a nearly four-year break in this career, Boekbinder also served as a volunteer teacher at New Folsom Prison. It was there that they had an epiphany to address issues beyond the self in art.
“I wrote about feminism/violence against women, privilege, and prison abolition. I wrote about my best friend who committed suicide. My songs started to feel important,” said Boekbinder. “This album is the least and most personal -- it feels terrifyingly vulnerable.”
"What Have I Done" is a track on Boekbinder's latest album, Shadow. Watch the music video below, and learn more at ZoeBoekbinder.com.” - Advocate Magazine
“While some of the music on Zoe Boekbinder’s Shadow could be described as delicate, Boekbinder [themself] is anything but. Described as “ageless, beautiful, heartbreaking, and wise” by Neil Gaiman, Boekbinder’s voice is a powerful thing. Throughout Shadow, the New Orleans singer-songwriter looks straight into the darkness that follows [them] and pierces it, finding something like light on the other side. Boekbinder throws a bit of Amanda Palmer into a songwriting style reminiscent of Songs: Ohia, with a bit of the ol’ Big Easy for good measure.” - Good Times (Santa Cruz, CA)
"Zoe is a real person with human parents, but it's tempting to imagine her springing from the pen of Astrid Lindgren. From a childhood spent vagabonding between the United States and Canada with her family (sporting red galoshes regardless of the weather) to the resourceful use of feedback loops when musical collaborators aren't in town, she has carved out an entirely unique space and sound, and may be Oakland's answer to Bjork. Like the former Sugarcube, Boekbinder is an unusual first listen, but let the sound warm in your headphones and you'll find some perfectly caramelized pop nuggets.
At first listen, Darling Specimens' eclecticism threatens to take over: I kept expecting Tiny Tim to leap out of the closet. But Boekbinder's lyrics are witty, and some of the arrangements are little feats of architecture. The looped vocals, finger-snap percussion, and cash-register dings of "Seven Times" are cushioned and undergirded with keyboards.
Boekbinder's inventive production made me lose my own personal game of "Stop--hey! What's that sound?" again and again. The theremin-like "oohs" and "woos" backing Boekbinder singing about stretching intestines into strings to wrap around "Hollow Bones"? Turns out it was a saw. The oom'pahs and beeps that sounded like synthesizers? A brassy trio of trumpet, trombone, and tuba. Add Boekbinder's triply vibrato vocals and clever lyrical slant, and you've got a mighty rich gumbo to digest.
DON'T LISTEN IN BED - Your action figures will throw a dance party and you'll step on them in the morning. You've been warned."
- Heather Seggel - BITCH Magazine
"When Zoe Boekbinder, on tour supporting her new album Artichoke Perfume, took to the stage the entire evening was transported to a whole new level as if by some sort of magical beanstalk. With songs that exhibited playful storytellings containing twists like the barbs of roses, one couldn't help but catch themselves leaning forward as if trying to catch a better glimpse of the stories unfolding in their mind."
- Jamaal Jackson, Seattle Underground
Music Examiner
"Zoe sounds a little like Jolie Holland dancing on Billie Holiday's gramophone player in Tom Waits's New Orleans hotel room."
- Newt Lynn - Read It Here -
Prescott AZ Weekly Paper
"If I hadn't had the chance to meet her in person I would have thought she was years older than she is. She sings with confidence, authority and a wisdom that seems informed by years of regret."
- SepiaChord.com - CD Review
Press Bio
Zoe Boekbinder's voice sounds like it’s being played off a vinyl record, and it soars over their intricately finger picked guitar. They are difficult to define by a genre, but employ pop, blues, folk, and country styles. They have toured all over Europe and North America since 2009, when they released their first album. Now with four releases, Zoe's current project is a collaboration with songwriters incarcerated at New Folsom Prison, where they volunteered as a teaching artist from 2010-2015. The album is produced by Ani DiFranco and will be a benefit for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated communities. It released on May 22, 2020.
Zoe has shared the stage with Ani DiFranco, Amanda Palmer, Jeff Lewis, Kaki King, and Neil Gaiman. They are also known for the five years they spent touring with their sibling as cabaret-duo Vermillion Lies.
