CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Zaneta Ambassa was nervous on her first day of recording.
Because of this, her voice was jittery, and she struggled to hit every note. Usually, singing is a way for her to clear her head and express herself.
But eventually, she eased into a rhythm alongside her ukulele.
“My voice started to get more comfortable. Sometimes it’s really hard to sing on cue.”
Zaneta was recording a song she wrote, “Hurt Me Without Sound”. Her mother, Makena, was at the studio for part of the recording.
At one point, her mother cried.
“She was that good,” Makena said.
Zaneta, who is in Grade 9 at Stonepark Intermediate School, started writing songs about two years ago and learned how to play the ukulele so she could sing them, she said.
“Once I started playing ukulele, I wrote better-developed songs.”
She writes songs that are meaningful to her and relatable for others. “Hurt Me Without Sound”, her first professional recording, is about how people sometimes hurt others without knowing they’re being hurtful, she said.
“It’s kind of just how my overall emotion or feeling was at that time of writing it.”
The 14-year-old originally wanted to make a music video. But her mentor, FilmPEI director Renee Laprise, suggested she do a good audio recording of a song before making a video for it.
Zaneta worked with an Island sound producer, and for about eight hours they recorded and edited the song. Other instruments will be added to the song later to give it depth, she said.
“I realized how much is done in a studio to a song. I don’t think I could have done it just on my phone.”
Besides singing and attending school, Zaneta works part-time for Out of Africa in the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market. Her mother, who moved here from Kenya, runs the business.
Makena aims to guide her daughter as she gets older, but also to encourage her in doing what she loves. It helps that she enjoys what her daughter is making.
“She does her own thing and she does it well. As a mom I want to support that.”
Her daughter has been involved with the Black Culture Society of P.E.I. Two years ago, Zaneta ran an event about privilege, she said.
“For teens, because I felt like it was lacking the representation.”
She also has a history in filmmaking. She has a short film, “Muted”, on her YouTube channel, which was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“I pursue a lot in film, but my passion is more toward music.”
This year Zaneta has been pretty focused on her song and music video. She wishes she was creating more, but it’s sometimes hard to find motivation and balance her creative projects, she said.
“And also trying to, you know, have a social life.”
Now that the song is almost done, Zaneta’s preparing to film the music video this summer. She hopes to release the song sometime in the next year.
