An amalgamation of soft guitar tunes with pop elements create a mid-tempo melody for singer-songwriter, Yuping Zhu ’21, to utilize with her country voice.
Amassing over fifteen thousand plays on Spotify, “Love You Too Fast,” is one of the five compositions in Zhu’s recently released EP, titled “High School.” Zhu noted that “High School” reflects her Andover experience and friendships.
“Music has made a big impact on my life [in] the sense that I used to be shy and I [not] be able to understand my feelings that well. I’m the [type] of person that has a lot of thoughts at all times. So, music has just been a great outlet for me and a way to [put] words into feelings,” said Zhu.
Although Zhu grew up playing the viola, ukulele, and the guitar, her musical journey began with the piano at the age of three. Zhu started songwriting in elementary school, yet only took songwriting and performing more seriously after eighth grade. Since then, Zhu has released three singles and two EPs. Tracking guitar and piano on “High School” distinguished Zhu’s most recent EP from her previous works.
“The experiences I’ve had in high school influenced the music that I was writing [and] in turn influenced the experiences that I was [having.] It was this duality in that sense. I think especially making this record being at school has allowed me to reflect so much more and reminisce on the past and stop at certain moments and soak up what’s happening,” said Zhu.
Zhu’s five-song-long EP debuted on May 14, where she worked alongside her producer to write the lyrics for her music and put the harmonies together. Last Friday night, Zhu performed a collection of her most recent music and past songs in the Graves Tent.
Zhu’s friend and attendee Maggie Zhang ’21 said, “listening to her songs brings me back to specific memories of Andover—especially songs from “High School.” She references a lot of memories in her lyrics, so they are emotional to listen to. Whenever she releases music, my friends and I all celebrate and blast her songs on repeat, so hearing any of her songs brings me back to those times of joy.”
According to Zhu, she plans to continue music by becoming more involved with the creative and business aspect of the music industry. In the future, although Zhu doesn’t have any set musical goals, she is considering minoring or double majoring in music at college.
“I think the best thing as a writer is to let yourself live and then sort of write off of those experiences that life sort of takes you on. I hope to take everything wherever I end up going in life, like taking the journey and be able to capture those feelings and experiences and just write a bunch of songs about them,” said Zhu.
