Zaccaï’s “Rancid” Was Born From Heartbreak… But She Wants You to Have Fun With It
BY: CALLI FERGUSON Zaccaï wrote her brand new single, "Rancid," while navigating a breakup from a complicated ‘situationship.’ While it moved with her through anger, distaste, and a lot of healing, she hopes the end result is something people can truly have fun with.
“Rancid” Cover : photography by Aidan Mansfield
Back in October, Zaccaï released her debut single, Cryptic. The emotional dark pop track was featured in warmly zine’s first print issue with a Q&A released around the same time. When I met with Zaccaï a few weeks ago in Central Park, I was anticipating hearing about the exciting, celebratory experience of releasing a first single she’d put so much love into. But the reality of the artist’s past year was a bit more tumultuous than that.
"That whole year was like such a fog for me. I can't believe I even made it through 2023," she shared, describing the period as one of depression and personal struggle after a hard breakup. Zaccaï went on to open up pretty immediately about the healing journey that she’s moved through in the time between “Cryptic” was released and “Rancid” came to life. Seeing a man about a decade older than her took more of a toll than she really knew at the time.
With perspective, Zaccaï could see the inherent imbalances that often come with a significant age gap. “Power dynamics are so real in age gap relationships,” she said, "And the thing is, at first you don't really see it. But it does poke in areas where it needs to kind of pop its head out.” It doesn’t help to see it glamorized in the media. “I think there is a big over-glamorization of it from pop culture,” Zaccaï pointed out, “Like Lolita, Lana Del Ray, and that whole subculture. Which is fine. There are shared experiences. But I think there's a lot of danger in it.”
But as these things go, there is always that one silver lining: she learned a lot about herself. Things about familial patterns, attachment styles, and true desires when it comes to independence and relationships all came to light. “It was interesting to see how all this turmoil kind of created something beautiful,” she said. And it’s true. It’s true for many (if not all) of us through our heartbreaks and hardships. But how cool, I thought, for Zaccaï to have this creative project, this new song to come out the other side of it with. Almost like a little memento of that “something beautiful”.
Despite the pain that fueled the song's creation, Zaccaï aimed to create a track that listeners could enjoy and dance to. It started when she handed the song to her producer, Jake. “He thought it was so funny,” she remembered, “He was like, this is about a man right?” The fuel of a breakup with an older guy was gold. And at the same time, when Zaccaï expressed wanting it to be a pop song, she felt totally heard. She wanted “a Gaga-type aesthetic,” and he agreed… no break up ballads, something, “fun and grungy”. So that’s what we got from “Rancid”.
The song is intentionally vague, allowing listeners to approach it from wherever they are. But it definitely encapsulates a visceral rejection of Zaccaï's past relationship, making it fun to dance to… but also fun to be angry to. During our talk in Central Park, Zaccaï credited music, particularly Doja Cat’s "Scarlett," with helping her through her darkest times. "Scarlett really got me through. That album literally healed whatever I was feeling I think cause she’s so angry in it. She’s such a hater." We laughed.
And the way the ‘angry’ album felt like such joy for Zaccaï seemed, in one way or another, to show up in “Rancid”. When I asked her what she wanted her listener to feel from it, she said, “really it’s just a fun song.” And it is. From the moment you lay eyes on the cover art that Zaccaï designed in collaboration with Aidan Mansfield to resemble a movie poster it is.
With the release of "Rancid," Zaccaï is looking forward to continuing to expand and evolve as an artist. She plans to continue making music and start performing live shows. "...The thing with music is it’s just endless. You can keep doing it when you’re 95," she expressed.
Zaccaï also told me about her dreamy ideas of a music video for "Rancid," which she envisions to be something of a short film and reminiscent of an era of music videos past. Think: Gaga, Alicia Keys, Britney… "I know exactly what I want to do, I’m obsessed with it. Working with all of these creative, lovely people that I know and putting that all into one big project would be such a dream".
So yes, “Rancid” holds the weight of a past relationship and emotional turmoil, but it transforms all that into something that listeners are meant to have fun with. It’s giving Gaga, and hot summer nights, and girls-on-the-dance-floor catharsis. And if life experience materializes as relatable tracks (be they emotional, sassy, grungy, or fun) we can likely expect quite a bit to sing along to inn the future as Zaccaï continues to grow as an artist.
🎧 “Rancid” is out today (05/24); You can stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube
📻 follow Zaccaï on Insta TikTok and X
Andddd if you wanna get to know a little more about Zaccaï, here’s our warmly rapid-fire Q&A :
Calli: What are you listening to right now? What’s on the summer playlist?
Zaccaï: There’s this cool girl- she does like dance, house pop. Her name is INJI. She sings this really cool song called “The Gaslight” which also kinda got me through my breakup. She’s so cool. She’s a college student, she wasn’t sure how she was gonna graduate and then her song kind of blew up on TikTok. We love it. Right now I’ve also been listening to a lot of Charli XCX. I’m listening to Between Friends as usual. I listen to a lot of hyper-pop. I like Camila Cabello’s new song, “I Love It”. It’s interesting seeing her direction.
Calli: If you could see any artist live this year who would it be?
Zaccaï: I wish I went to Coachella to see Lana Del Rey.
Calli: Are there any places in NYC that you feel most inspired or creative?
Zaccaï: That’s hard, it’s such an inspirational place. One place I’m always drawn to is the end of Chinatown. You know where that little park is near the bridge? Where the LES Skatepark is… I love going down to that area and seeing the water. On a hot summer day in the evening you can see the summer glow, the sunset, it’s my favorite spot.
Calli: What advice would you give someone who wants to start making music or put out their first single?
Zaccaï: Just go for it! Even if you think it’s shit, just make a song. You’re always gonna find a niche. I was so afraid nobody would like my music, but people listen to it everyday! Even if it’s one person, somebody will listen to it! Don’t gatekeep yourself too hard.
