Zay Lewis Interview
by Joseph McCain
12 February 2026
American Idol
Zay Lewis is an NYC-based artist who blends personal lyrics with political undertones. He talked to us about his influences and process in making his most recent release, American Idol.
When did you first realize making music was something that you needed to do?
I realized I needed to do it only after I started. I realized I wanted to do it before I realized I needed to. I realized I needed to do it kind of recently, in the last two or three years. But I've been playing music since I was ten. I started playing saxophone when I was a kid, and then I started producing around the end of high school. So I think when I released the songs Higher Power and Fly on the Wall, I was like, “Oh, I actually need this to help me process life.”
Your artist project, does it feel like an extension of you, or more like an alter ego?
I think this one is like both. Sometimes it's a dramatized version of me, but it comes from my experiences, from my perspective.
Your music seems like half confidence, half vulnerability. Is that balance intentional?
I think that's kind of reflective of how I feel moving through the world. I think that's just a reflection of me.
When did you know it was time to make an album?
I was working on a project two years ago, and I showed it to these two guys that I was making Body Slam with, Bird Language, and they kept it so real with me. They were just like, “This isn't that good.” And I was really hurt by it. But the more I sat with it, I thought they were right. Like, it's just not, I can do better. And so I decided not to release that project publicly; I kept it private. So you had to have one of the CDs to hear it.
I just started making more music. And I think it's around the time that I finished Secret Police that I realized that this is a separate project, and it's better, and I should finish it. So around last spring.
What period of your life do you feel like the project comes from?
It's mostly my twenties. Mostly recent, current stuff, but there are hints to my childhood; it's being informed by my childhood. But I say a lot of it is looking at the way I'm living right now and thinking about how I want to live.
How did the people around you help shape the album?
I definitely had plenty of help on this project. As I said, that conversation with Bird Language kind of spurred me into making the project because it probably would have just been a different project if that whole interaction hadn't gone down. I also worked a lot with Jack Helfrich, who's a really talented guitarist from a really talented family of artists, and he helped to embellish a couple of the songs.
Just lots of producer friends who added things here and there. I'm a producer myself, so those kinds of conversations are always good for me just to get new perspectives and complicate my style a little bit.
Now that it's out there in the world, is there anything you hope people will take away from it?
I want to give people space to interpret things in their own way, but I hope that people start thinking about what it means to live in this country differently and plan accordingly. And I hope it encourages people to reflect and decide which aspects of themselves they want to keep and which they want to change.
Follow Zay on Instagram. Listen to American Idol on Spotify and Apple Music.