Gina Zo was on the NBC hit show, “The Voice” Season 10. Her real name is Gina Castanzo, and this was a huge moment in her young singing career.
“Absolutely, all my hometown was so excited. It was so much fun,” Zo recalled. “There are about six auditions to get to what you actually see on television. As you can imagine being 17 at the time was wild. I was like, ‘Am I ever going to get on the show?’ You never really know. You are just guessing. It just weeds out the people who need more work.”
Having a lot of songs ready isn’t easy for a young artist.
“It was like six songs. But when you get to the judges, you prep your song for a month with the Voice team,” Zo stated. “So, you have one song that you’re doing. There’s no other preparation.”
“Faking It” is a song that has some special meaning to her and now to many others.
“It happened a year ago. Last year it meant a lot to me and as you said it’s gutsy to come out that way. Of course, my family and friends knew before. That would be wild, “Zo smiled. “This year I’m excited about others hearing it and being comfortable with it and being something they are excited about sharing. Whether you are talking about your sexuality or who you are as a person, or something everyone can relate to.”
The concert venue in Camden is very busy and has hosted so many big names in the music business, and now will be there at the Xponential Music Festival on Sept 20th in Camden, NJ.
“Dude, I was supposed to play last year, and it got rained out. I’m not the lowest on the list for names now. Which is so exciting,” Zo smiled and leaned back in her chair. “It’s like I didn’t need to perform to get my name higher. It’s been a dream since I was a little girl to do a performance of that magnitude. And to be associated with a radio station in Philly that has been so supportive of me in WXPN. To be invited by them is so massive.”
Seeing shows in Camden was something that goes back to her childhood.
“When I was in high school and the first time I was “tailgating.” I went to see Zac Brown Band. That was so much fun. I’m not a massive country music lover. I appreciate it but Zac Brown I really dig.”
On her latest self-entitled EP, the song “Fire in the Building” had a great guitar intro.
“When I’m listening, I lean more into the Folk style. I do like Maren Morris, country women’s singer vibe. I agree there is some country in there and WMMR loved it,” Zo exclaimed.
“What’s interesting about radio, is they aren’t always telling you when your song is being played. We were their pick of the month last March when the song came out. So, they played it all the time,” Zo said with glee. “So, when I moved to LA my U-Haul guy, and I were talking, and he was like what are you moving for? I said I was in the band Velvet Rouge, he said ‘You’re kidding me, you were the pick of the month last year’, I just moved four weeks ago. I felt wild.”
One other strong struck me. ‘Lonely Since the Day We Met.’ I liked the way the guitar and voice mixed.
“That is definitely a part of it. When we are writing, guitar and vocals aren’t always going to be in sync. For this song we were going very 90s style,” Zo revealed. “Which leads to the guitar and vocal moments.”
The song “Shattered” was just released on June 26th and on July 26 the whole thing comes out.
