Zuzu: Liverpool's Hook-Slinging Independent Comes Through the Queensway Tunnel

Photo: Wilbald / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zuzu_-_Liverpool_2018-11-06.jpg

Some songs grab you in the first ten seconds and don't let go. On U-Rock® Network, one of them is "Get Off" by Zuzu. The BROADCAST server's AzuraCast history shows 3,841 plays of the track between July 2 and October 12, 2026. That makes Zuzu the second most-played act on our WURN-dB Underground playlist, where her later single "What You Want" also appears.

Who is Zuzu?

Zuzu is Zuzu Stranack, a singer, songwriter and producer born in Liverpool. The Royal Albert Hall's performer archive lists her birth year as around 1994. The same archive's biography calls her "the definition of a millennial artist": front person, songwriter, producer, director, actor and comic book illustrator. She stars in and directs her own videos and records much of her music at a home studio in Liverpool.

AllMusic's biography (by Marcy Donelson, as carried on Qobuz) describes her music as "hook-centric indie rock" that takes in "the noisy spirit, tunefulness, and swagger of the Brit-pop and Merseybeat of her hometown." She wrote her first song at seven, got serious about music at 14, and signed a publishing deal by 18. Then she moved to London to put a band together and start gigging.

The early run

Zuzu first stepped out under the single name, without giving her full name or background, at the FestEvol emerging-artists festival in August 2015. Later that year she landed a support slot for Courtney Barnett at the O2 Academy. In mid-2016 the indie label Hand in Hive released her debut single, the "spiky" "Get Off," which is the song U-Rock® listeners now hear most. The "fuzzier" "What You Want" followed in early 2017.

Guitarist and producer Kurran Karbal joined her, and she kept touring and playing festivals with a changing backing band. In early 2018 she signed with Virgin EMI, which released her debut EP, Made on Earth by Humans, that June. A six-track EP, How It Feels, came out in 2020.

Queensway Tunnel

Her debut album, Queensway Tunnel, came out on November 12, 2021, on her own label, Planet Z Records. Kurran Karbal produced it. The Line of Best Fit reported contributions from Kieran Shudall of Circa Waves (another band on the WURN-dB Underground playlist), Simon Tong (The Verve, Gorillaz), and Red Rum Club, among others. The ten tracks include "Timing," "Lie To Myself," "My Old Life," "The Van Is Evil" and the title song.

The title is local. The Queensway Tunnel is a road tunnel under the River Mersey, and it is where she shot the video for "Lie To Myself." Talking to Clash in October 2021, Zuzu said spending lockdown back in Liverpool shaped the record: "It's heavily influenced by the turn of phrase, by the way that we speak to each other, by the River Mersey." Clash reported that the songs cover alien abductions, toxic relationships, addiction, the climate crisis, self-care and her hometown.

When she announced the album, she described "My Old Life" to The Line of Best Fit as being about having "to dig really deep to find enough self-worth to move on from an emotionally exhausting situation," and said writing it "really helped me to shake off all of the toxic energy I was holding onto."

The city in the songs

The Royal Albert Hall biography places her in Liverpool's line of fiercely independent guitar music, citing The La's, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Zutons, The Coral and Cast as touchstones you can hear in her songs. That fits U-Rock®: an artist who built her own label, makes her own videos and writes songs rooted in a particular place.

On U-Rock®

"Get Off" is almost ten years old now, and it still sounds as tight and catchy as anything in the WURN-dB Underground rotation. If the 3,841 spins brought you here, start with Queensway Tunnel and keep going.

--- U-Rock® play data: BROADCAST server AzuraCast `song_history`, artist "ZuZu", title "Get Off", 2026-07-02 to 2026-10-12 ET (3,841 plays).

Sources

1. Royal Albert Hall performance archive, "Zuzu (c.1994); English musician" — https://catalogue.royalalberthall.com/Record.aspx?id=DS%2FUK%2F22309&src=CalmView.Persons 2. Qobuz, Zuzu biography (AllMusic text by Marcy Donelson) — https://www.qobuz.com/au-en/interpreter/zuzu/129940 3. Clash, "Authenticity Above Everything: Zuzu Interviewed" (25 Oct 2021) — https://www.clashmusic.com/features/authenticity-above-everything-zuzu-interviewed/ 4. The Line of Best Fit, "Zuzu announces debut album with new single 'My Old Life'" (30 Jul 2021) — https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/zuzu-announces-debut-album-with-new-single-my-old-life 5. Spotify, "WURN-dB Underground" playlist (embed) — https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/0bZ0fCQCL7IkKfqcQycsMI