META MINI Issue 01: Zeph by META

MINI: ISSUE 01

“YEARN TO MATTER”

ISSUE M

IN COLLABORATION SPECIAL ISSUE

SINGER AND SONGWRITER

WITH ARTIST: ZEPH FEATURING KHY 4

ART

CURATED SAMANTHA

ZEPH RACHEL SHIN

LETTER FROM THE CO-FOUNDERS JOY CHEN + TIFFANY HUE

PAGE 06 - 07

LETTER FROM ZEPH ZEPHANI JONG

PAGE 08 - 09

SPECIAL SONGS FROM ZEPH ZEPHANI JONG

PAGE 10 - 11

A NOTE FROM ZEPH ZEPHANI JONG

PAGE 12 - 13

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW JOY CHEN + TIFFANY HUE

PAGE 14 - 25

CURATED ARTIST: KHY ZEPHANI JONG + KHY

PAGE 26 - 27

CURATED ARTIST: RACHEL SHIN ZEPHANI JONG + RACHEL SHIN

PAGE 28 - 29

CURATED ARTIST: SAMANTHA CABALLERO ZEPHANI JONG + SAMANTHA CABALLERO

PAGE 30 - 31

THANK YOU JOY CHEN + TIFFANY HUE

PAGE 32 - 33 5

YEARN TO MATTER

LETTER FROM META

L TTER FR EDIT R-IN-C & CR TIVE

o ea

There are many ways we matter, but there are more ways that we can’t see it. The idea of yearning to matter is interesting as it comes from a place of wanting to belong. Caught in the stages of adolescence and adulthood, we feel trapped in the spaces we know we do not fit in. As we take every day in stride, we cope with the fact that we are ever-changing. We constantly are hoping to gain approval from those we look up to most, and it is quite honestly an exhausting feat. META was created to explicate how we are in a world that is constantly evolving, whether it waits for us to grow with it or not. We have strived to create spaces, where our existences are validated -- where our sense of creativity, wonder, and exploration is not confined to the norms of traditionalism. The debut of our first META MINI is no different. We are excited to highlight creatives in this space and allow you all to get to know them better. Through thoughtfully curated pages, this will be your chance to learn more about some of your favorite artists. For this first issue, we welcome Zeph as our first guest artist-curator. Each page has been crafted to allow you to look introspectively at yourself and see how you matter in this world. The choice of Zeph to launch this series is close to our hearts. Zeph’s songs are magically created in a way that tells stories from the heart. And though they are personal to her, they resonate deeply with many listeners, including us. With themes of regret, longing, and love, her songs hold weight for many, as they grapple with dealing with how life continues to change. How do we matter? We matter in many ways. Big or small, never forget that someone is out there that cares so deeply about your existence, even if you don’t know it.

oM THe CHIeF YEARN TO MATTER

LETTER FROM META

E DIRECT R

YEARN TO MATTER

LETTER FROM ZEPH

H Y IT’S Z P WELC ME T

YEARN TO MATTER

LETTER FROM ZEPH

PH. T MY MINI:

Hello, my name is Zeph, and welcome to my META MINI: “yearn to matter.” I chose this theme because it is a lot of what goes on in my head, and I think pretty much everyone wants to matter in some way, whether it be big or small. Likewise, my EP “scared of everything” is largely about wanting to be seen as more than a background character or an afterthought. I feel like it is looked down upon or difficult to be vulnerable about wanting to be more to people or to be more as a person in general, but I don’t care. It’s what I write most of my songs about because that is how I cope! I talk to myself, and I talk to my music. And now through this music, I will talk to you all. If you relate at all, I am so sorry, but also know that you are very much not alone and also very much valid, and I will continue writing songs and hoping that they can help you in any way. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy it! You matter!

YEARN TO MATTER

SPECIAL SONGS

“SPECIAL SONGS” A NOTE FROM ZEPH

Out of all the songs on the EP, I think “miss me” sums up a lot of my feelings the best. I find myself reciting the lyrics in my head as I think about specific people because I wish so badly that I was more important to them. Another one that is a bit more serious is “could you love me while I hate myself.”

All of the other songs are about me wishing I mattered more to people, but in this one, I am selfaware that it’s on me for needing validation and not on anyone else. I try my best not to project my insecurities onto other people, and this song is like a break in the middle of the EP to acknowledge that fact while still begging for affirmation at the same time. I just realized that these are the two shortest songs on the EP, but I consider them to say the most.

“COULD YOU LOVE ME WHILE I HATE MYSELF?”

YEARN TO MATTER

PERSONAL WRITING

My process for creating “scared of everything” was almost like writing diary entries and putting music to them. I would start by venting in my Notes app about things I felt like I couldn’t talk to anyone about, like my insecurities and fears within my friendships, relationships, and life in general. Sometimes the music would come first, or sometimes the lyrics would, but I think writing songs longer than a minute was the biggest challenge for me since I am so used to summarizing my feelings in short snippets. So in a way, I feel like this EP forced me to think more in-depth about my emotions and I hope it will help listeners to acknowledge theirs! I know it’s often considered selfish to want attention or affirmation so I

A N TE FR

YEARN TO MATTER

PERSONAL WRITING

made this EP a safe space for me and everyone to express those feelings because they are valid and deserve to be expressed. I drew a lot of inspiration from movie scores and my favorite songs because that’s what comes as naturally to me as my feelings do. I also like to imagine my songs as a real-time soundtrack to my life and hope it makes everyone who feels invisible feel like the main character of their own life!

ROM ZEPH

INTERVIEW WITH

Zephani Jong

Zephani Jong, more popularly known under her mononym Zeph, is a 21 year old musical artist dedicated to expressing her emotions through her music. Her passion for music began at the young age of three years old when she first learned to play the piano. She has had a dream to become a movie score composer since she was ten, drawing much of her inspiration from the likes of Hans Zimmer and Jeremy Zucker. Zeph incorporates a combination of orchestral instruments in her art to create the vision of a soundtrack for emotions. Her music stems through her feelings, a process that allows her to release her emotions for others to relate.

YEARN TO MATTER

INTERVIEW WITH ZEPH

YEARN TO MATTER

INTERVIEW WITH ZEPH

Before the release of your first music video, many of your songs were posted as snippets on Instagram using the hashtag “#zephsings”. What is your process behind choosing specific anime or video clips for your snippets, and how does this play into the storytelling of the song? Zeph: First of all, it’s funny because a lot of people will ask me where the clips are from, and a lot of times I don’t even know where they’re from. I like to take things out of context and make my own story with them. It’s kind of like making my own music video or a movie for the song I make, without having to actually make a video. I used to take just one GIF and loop it, but then I realized that I could tell more of a story if I wanted to by choosing clips that match the lyrics.

YEARN TO MATTER

INTERVIEW WITH ZEPH

All of your songs are deeply personal to you. What inspired you to be so vulnerable with the music that you create and how do you feel sharing this intimacy with the world? Zeph: I treat my music like a diary or a coping mechanism. If I’m feeling something really strongly, I won’t know what to do with those feelings, so I’ll just write a song about it. And then I realize that it’s really catchy so I’ll put it out there. A lot of times, I’ll write really specific things about myself or people that I know. I don’t really care if they know it is about them. If they know, they know. If they don’t, they don’t. I said what I wanted to say, and it helped. A lot of times with my own songs, when I relisten to it, I will re-feel those feelings and I’m glad I wrote it. I feel like I have been too comfortable with oversharing about myself online. It feels normal to me. I feel like I know a lot of people who write really personal songs, but then a lot of people who listen to it can relate to it. That’s not what I go into it for. I don’t try to make relatable songs. People just end up relating to what I’m going through, which is really cool.

YEARN TO MATTER

INTERVIEW WITH ZEPH

From your expressive makeup to your brightly colored hair to the clothes that you wear, your style is undeniably iconic. How do you think your sense of style plays into selfexpression, both with music and with yourself? Zeph: I feel like it is me doing whatever I want to do at this point. Growing up, I really wanted to fit in with the popular kids at school. I was trying to dress like them, but one day I realized that it was dumb and I can do whatever I want. It is similar to what I do with music and art. Once I realized that I can do whatever I want and not follow other people, I started developing my own style. With music, I never know what genre I fit into. Other people don’t know how to define it either, which is good. It just means that I’m doing whatever I want and it sounds like me. People will say that they hear one of my songs, and before realizing that it is me, they would say “Hey, that sounds like a Zeph song”. People tell me that I look the way that my music sounds, which is really comforting. Also, in high school, I was trying to fit in. But, when I graduated and started working, I had to wear black all the time. Also, because I was sad, I would also only wear all black all the time. When I realized that I could wear whatever I want, I stopped wearing black. I started wearing more colorful clothes, and I want to surround myself with more vibrant colors. It’s how I’ve been feeling or how I want to feel.

YEARN TO MATTER

INTERVIEW WITH ZEPH

What has been your favorite song that you have created for this EP, and how was the process behind creating it? Zeph: That’s hard because I like all of them. For the creating process, I really like miss me, because the lyrics I still feel a lot. It goes back to what I was saying before with “I said what I said.” miss me versus the rest of the songs has a lot of sound effects and the most strings, which I really like. I wanted to put a lot of orchestra sounds into it because I wanted it to feel intense. If you listen to it, I put little phone sound effects like the dial-up phone. There’s a part in the song when I say “I know that you’re busy”, I put the beeping of the busy phone line. The process for all my songs is the same. I start with a melody that repeats, and then I put in different sounds. I think it sounds memorable and more interesting than just words. The process for literally all of my lyrics is me ranting in my notes app. When I’m upset about something, I think that I’m going to write this all out into a song and make everyone listen to it in a song. I’ll write random stuff and then go back and make it into a song. For friends or not, it just came out. When I’m feeling it, sometimes a song will just appear. I feel like my songs are more like letters to the people that I am having these feelings at, and wouldn’t say to them directly. That’s why I like writing songs better because I can just indirect them. I won’t tell them that it’s about them, but maybe it is.

YEARN TO MATTER

INTERVIEW WITH ZEPH

As someone who identifies as an artist in all manners (drawing, photography, video editing, music, etc), what led you to songwriting, and how does being a multidisciplinary artist contribute to your musical style? Zeph: When I was three, I started taking piano lessons and learning how to play songs by ear. One time, I showed my mom a song I thought I made up. She told me that it was good, but that it was actually Mary Had A Little Lamb. But when I was ten, I quit because I didn’t want to play classical music anymore. I was born with relative pitch, and I took those musical skills and applied them to figuring out songs I actually wanted to play. I was known in school as the quiet art kid. I would not talk, but I would draw really detailed pieces. I started posting drawings on Instagram and Twitter, which is how I gained followers. All of a sudden, I got really burnt out and stopped drawing. Then, I began writing songs instead of painting, and I thought it wasn’t that bad. I decided to post it because I hadn’t posted anything creative in a while. I was so scared because I thought people were going to hate it because I wasn’t drawing anymore. I was also really afraid that people from school were going to hear me sing, which freaked me out. But I decided to post it anyway. I put the shorter clip of forever and always on Instagram, and it blew up. I realized people don’t hate me and that this is actually really fun. I felt more inspired writing songs than drawing. I kept doing that, and now I’m here, which is so weird. People stayed and more people found me. A lot of my work is connected to movies. I love movies and soundtracks, which is why I use cinematic sounds and orchestra instruments in my music because I want it to sound like a soundtrack. The lyrics are how I’m feeling, and I want the music to feel like a soundtrack to those feelings. The same reason why the clips I use look like a movie to those feelings. The whole thing is like a mini production. I feel like everything is inspired by my passion and inspiration from movies. I want everything to look like a little world. I want it to be like my own cinematic universe. I want the sound and the visuals to be very me. I used to think about this a lot, and movies are one of the highest and coolest displays for multiple facets of arts, from visuals to sounds. It reminded me that I can do all of it, and not be stuck in one medium.

*digital artist + tattoo designer

Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy

Khy Khy Khy Khy KHY Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy Khy

KHY is a digital artist and tattoo desginer who finds their muse in creatures from ancient folklore and organisms in our natural world. Influenced by pop surrealism and scientific diagrams, they create displays of organic imagery.

@khy.art

Rachel Rache RACHEL Rachel Rache Rachel Rache Rachel Rache Rachel Rache Rachel Rache Rachel Rache Rachel Rache Rachel Shin is an illustrator and designer in animation based in Los Angeles, California. She is most inspired by the complexities of life. She tells her stories through color, light, and emotions.

Rachel’s work aims to explore discussions of difficult topics, conversations, human relationships, and her Asian American identity.

@drawsabi

*illustrator

el Rachel Lel Rachel el Rachel el Rachel el Rachel el Rachel el Rachel el Rachel

*artist

S AMA SAMA SAMA SAMA SAMA SAMA SAMA SAMA

Detroit based Artist Samantha Caballero (aka VirtualFlesh) melds the world between decay and growth in her tangled world of illustration. At age 19, Caballero finds her work inspired by the complexity and unbridled beauty of youth and girlhood. 30

ANTHA ANTHA ANTHA ANTHA ANTHA ANTHA ANTHA ANTHA While her personal work seems to follow a very certain narrative, Samantha also works very closely with her punk-rock-superstar powerhouse girlfriend Chloe Moriondo, creating a much more alternative brand of illustration and merchandise.

@virtualflesh 31

THaNK Y THaNK Y YEARN TO MATTER

THANK YOU

Thank you for reading the first installation of our new series of META MINIs, which are short-form magazines that explore art created directly by the artist. By partnering with creatives who personally curate their own MINIs, artists are given an opportunity to authentically represent who they are. Our first edition is in collaboration with Zeph, an alt-indie musician who writes directly from the heart. This issue was dedicated to finding yourself and your purpose through the lens of music and art. Thank you to everyone who has helped our dreams come true. It is only with our collective spirit that we can continue to provide a space for artists to share the nuances of their identities with their audiences and beyond. From META to you, thank you. You matter.

YoU. YoU. YEARN TO MATTER

THANK YOU