Maryland-based singer, pop auteur and producer Zeph (Zephani Jong, 22) releases her debut EP Scared of Everything
Last month, she released her self-produced single about platonic mixed signals, “friends or not” HERE, and earlier she debuted “are you?” alongside her first music video, filmed in Los Angeles and directed by Erik Rojas (Isaac Dunbar, Rich Brian, Jessie J etc).
About the Scared Of Everything EP she says: “everything makes me nervous. i also realized that every song on this ep is about me being insecure or paranoid so i thought the title was fitting”
If Zeph’s life were a coming-of-age flick, she wouldn’t just be the star; she’d also be the writer, composer, and director. Not only enlivening every lyric, but also cooking up each beat herself, the Maryland-born singer, songwriter, and producer cobbles together dreamy alternative pop underscored by soundtrack-worthy cinematic flourishes and the kinds of confessions that inspire empathy in the comments section.
Growing up in Ellicott City, she took piano lessons at three-years-old until middle school when she learned how to play songs by ear and make mash-ups. Throughout high school, the self-professed “weird art kid” populated her Instagram with drawings and paintings of her “favorite internet people and artists.” These posts drew a fervent audience as her following grew to 186K on the platform. By 2018, she started writing lyrics and singing. She cooked up a sound of her own, layering strings and orchestral elements over organic keyboards, MIDI, and D.I.Y. beats. Her guitar-driven debut single “Forever & Always” initially caught fire on Instagram before eventually eclipsing 10 million streams on Spotify. Dropping out of college and juggling a waitressing job, she continued to unleash songs such as “Lucky” and “Ways To Go.” Good Charlotte and MDDN co-founder Joel Madden commented on one of her posts and kickstarted a conversation, leading to her joining the MDDN family. Like her singles before it, “are you?” is written, recorded and produced by Zeph herself, and follows on the heels of her stunning Thomston collaboration “Magnolia” from earlier this year.
After amassing over 20 million streams independently and receiving acclaim from Alternative Press and more, she invites everyone into her world on her 2021 debut EP, Scared of Everything.
Inspired in equal parts by film composers like Hans Zimmer as she is her pop contemporaries, Zeph has continued to hone in on her own cinematic alternative-pop songs, which sound like they were pulled right from her diary and onto the silver screen. Channeling this medium to share her own insecurities and emotions, Zeph often creates soundtrack clips set to anime and comic shorts posted to her Instagram feed. She likes to describe her music as a soundtrack to a coming-of-age movie where everyone is the main character, especially those who feel like they are not.
Zeph – Scared of Everything EP – tracklist:
1. un-unnoticed
2. miss me
3. friends or not
4. could you love me while i hate myself
5. are you?
6. scared of everything
