Fur, sunglasses, a posse of your best friends at your side: three ingredients that, once combined, form a potent spell capable of defeating any possibility of a dreaded bad night out. It’s an incantation the Los Angeles-via-New York City singer and musician Zoe Ko has become well acquainted with over the past few years.

Zoe says her music is “truly a reflection of how I’m feeling during that time” and credits entering different phases of her life as the catalyst for new projects. Blending the gritty “New York alt-rock and clubby sound with 2000s pop girl energy,” Zoe’s sophomore EP, not ur girlfriend (2025), embodied the untouchable fearlessness of a self-assured party girl, while also touching on themes of what it’s like to be a young woman in the modern era: to be out and partying, to be bumping up against unspoken expectations, to have your own agency overlooked even when you’re in full control.

This bold, playful 180-degree turn stands in sharp contrast to the close-fisted pop-rock sound and gut-spilling introspective stories that defined her earlier releases, such as 2023’s debut Baby Teeth.

Born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in Long Island and New York City by a single mom, Zoe’s musical palette has always been expansive. Weekly library trips turned into a self-curated education spanning everything from The Beatles to Afrobeats and EDM, to Amy Winehouse and Talking Heads. That genre fluidity still defines her approach today, where nothing is off-limits and everything is filtered through her own unfiltered perspective.

At the core of Zoe’s artistry is radical honesty. Her music mirrors her life in real time, capturing the highs, the mess, and the aftermath. And lately, that reality has been louder, wilder, and more unhinged than ever.

Leaning into chaos as a form of healing, Zoe has embraced the catharsis of letting go. Finding clarity in both stillness and movement, in crowded rooms, on sticky dance floors, and in the blur of late nights, she’s tapped into a version of herself that’s freer, sharper, and fully in control of her own narrative.

The result is a new chapter that feels immediate and cinematic: bold, unapologetic, and just a little bit dangerous. Still playful, still polarizing, but now with a more liberated aura.

Because for Zoe Ko, the story isn’t something she’s telling from a distance.

She’s right in the middle of it.