New artist wants people to hear his R&B sound, but wants to give you that Gospel feeling.
Zay-B has plans on being a triple threat. He is currently a sophomore at Life Pacific University in San Dimas, California where he is studying Worship Arts. He says school is helping him to perfect his talents as a musician, while at the same time he is working on strengthening his vocals and even wants to follow in his father’s footsteps one day and take a shot at acting. “My dad is an actor, so I would love to do that one day as well. But, for now, I am just working on my music and then after that, I will see about expanding into other types of performing,” stated the 21-year-old aspiring artist, Isiah Bolton, who goes by the name of Zay-B.
He says his musical influences started as a very young kid when he would ride in the car with his mom and his aunt and listen to Michael Jackson songs. At that point, the music bug was in his bones.
“Since I was a freshman in high school, I have always been writing songs,” said Bolton. But, he says once he graduated from high school and arrived on his college campus, the fire for producing music just really took off. “Recently God placed the right people in my life. In college, I made some friends and we started hooking up music. My friends Christ & Devonte and I started putting down music and almost instantly the songs started coming together. They really helped me put it all together.”
He says he actually had the song finish earlier in 2020 but he actually waited to drop the song on or near his dad’s birthday (his dad doesn’t even know this), so in November I dropped it and to my surprise he says everyone loved it.
Zay-B has plans for a lot more songs. “Honestly, I have songs from years back that are partially recorded that I need to finish. I have other songs that are still in my note pads, I have a good amount of music in the catalog so I am definitely planning to put out more music. Zay-B says, “God willing, I can put out an album before the end of the year, but for now, I plan to release some more singles and maybe an EP.”
“Be There” his first single has been getting a lot of attention. He says he has received interest from labels like Universal and even before “Be There” was released, he had interest from a division of Atlantic. “Right after high school a guy reached out to me from Atlantic who had heard me sing and had some interest in signing me. But, for now I want to stay independent and just keep making good music.” He says he has also gotten calls from producers from around the country interested in working with him, but for now Zay-B says he just wants to work on his own music and make a big push at being an independent artist.
“I want to keep making music, grow my fan base and see where things can go. I want to make all types of music, because I have lots of musical influences. I grew up in the church and my faith has always been what keeps me grounded. My faith, my spirituality, play a big part in my music. The beauty of gospel music is you can feel it and that’s what I want out of my music. I want you to like it, (I want you to love it), but I also want you to feel it.”
Zay-B says another one of his goals is to do some songs in Spanish. My mom is from Costa Rica and a lot of my family are into Latin/Spanish music. So, I really want to do some songs in Spanish. That is one of my goals for right now.
In the end Zay-B says he wants to be one of the best. He wants to continue honing his craft, he wants to keep making better and stronger music. But, he also says that no matter how he grows as an artist, his main goal is to first finish college. “My parents did a good job of making sure I understood that no matter what, my education is key.” He says he wants to that for them and for himself.
One thing is for sure, Zay-B has plans to make it BIG and wants us all to “BE THERE.”
You can download Zay-B’s single “Be There” on Apple Music, Spotify and on YouTube. You can follow him at Zay.B_ on Instagram and you can email him directly at [email protected]
