Biography

She created her stage name in high school by combining the names of Christian Messiah Jesus Christ and French writer Émile Zola. She says, "There was a dichotomy - Zola was for truth and Jesus was for spirituality. But, honestly, I liked how it sounded.".

Her grandparents came from Odessa, Ukraine, and settled in North Dakota, before moving to rural Wisconsin.

I grew up running out of water because my family home was built on a rock. We would very often run out of water. Our well would dry up for days.

To an extent, I do tend to become vulnerable. Any artist does when they put something out into the world. It's no longer totally yours, you know?

My voice is my main instrument. But sometimes I hate how reliant the voice is on words. My favorite music is often wordless, and instead of being told how to feel, the musical qualities instigate it. I'm very interested in exploring this further and continuing to experiment with musical abstraction.