Bonzie Releases New Single 'Spiritual Violence' With Teo The Artist

Independent pop innovator BONZIE has released her new single “Spiritual Violence” featuring Teo The Artist along with its official music video. Watch the music video, directed by Jasper Soloff, below.

The R&B-infused track, written, produced and engineered by BONZIE, is a haunting tale of personal trauma and evolution, representing the shattering and dismantling of a certain intangible violence. Utilizing the unique voice of Chicago rapper Teo The Artist on his crushing verse, “Spiritual Violence” is a balance of two perspectives that resonate with the song's universal message.

“There is suffering that exists on a deep, fundamental ‘living thing' level, where our spirits recognize that what's happening isn't right or just,” shares BONZIE aka Nina Ferraro. “I really wanted to pay attention to the energy in and of itself because everyone, even bigoted people, have experienced their own personal kind of spiritual violence. It's sort of a spiral on itself – that trauma begets trauma – and the song is trying to squash that spiral; that's how I wanted to feel when I wrote it. When I sing the lyrics ‘spiritual violence ends now,' that's the sensation that I want the song to elicit.”

Since first arriving on the musical landscape as a teenager with her 2013 debut album Rift Into the Secret of Things, BONZIE has endlessly found new forms of expressing her vast imagination. The Chicago-bred and Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist has explored everything from post-rock to folk to fantastically surrealist pop, executing each with extraordinary grace.

Over the years, she's also drawn high praise for her captivating live show with The New York Times chief pop music critic Jon Pareles hailing, “Delicacy and drama, surrender and anger, made a riveting combination when BONZIE performed,” following an especially magnetic SXSW set.

BONZIE's most recent release is her acclaimed third studio album, Reincarnation, which continued to redefine the limits of her musicality, ultimately creating a listening experience not unlike lucid dreaming: immersive and infinitely spellbinding yet touched with a transformative clarity.

Co-produced by BONZIE alongside DJ Camper, a musician known for his production work with R&B and hip-hop artists like Jay-Z, Big Sean, John Legend, and Teyana Taylor, the 2021 release represented a departure from her past output as it alchemized elements of electro-pop and art-rock, and even gospel music, unfolding in potent rhythms and shapeshifting textures.

Reincarnation, the follow-up to her 2017 sophomore effort Zone on Nine, is highlighted by the lead single “alone” – praised by NPR as a pick in Bob Boilen's All Songs Considered and deemed one of the “Best Songs of 2020” by The New York Times.

More from BONZIE coming in 2024!

Photo credit: Jasper Soloff