Life
Meet the Jewish child table tennis ace who became a music icon
Zak Abel discusses the connective power of music, the terror of hearing loss and how he nearly became a professional table-tennis player
August 18, 2023 08:54
Zak Abel discusses the connective power of music, the terror of hearing loss and how he nearly became a professional table-tennis player
August 18, 2023 08:54When singer-songwriter Zak Abel was 21, he woke from an operation to fix the hearing loss he had suffered due to the condition otosclerosis, unable to hear anything at all.
“It absolutely terrified me,” he says softly. “The thing that I was scared of the most was not being able to make music again.”
After all, the 28-year-old musician born Zak David Zilesnick, who grew up in Hendon and who had his bar mitzvah at St John’s Wood United Synagogue, had been writing songs for the stars since he was a teenager.
Thanks to a well-connected cousin in Israel, he was introduced to his manager, and the co-writing sessions that followed led to a major record deal at 18.
And hits he has since co-written with dance producers have racked up millions of streams: Unmissable with Gorgon City, Freedom with Kygo, Beautiful Escape with Tom Misch, Ten More Days with Avicii, and more. His profile rocketed when he performed at the Coronation Concert in May.
Abel, who had re-learn how to hear over months after the operation, arrives at the West Hampstead café where we meet to discuss his new album, with headphones around his neck (he’s off to the studio after our interview), a warm smile and his arms out for a hug.
His debut album Only When We’re Naked, he is quick to admit, didn’t do well commercially.
However, Abel is one to focus on the positive. “It gave me a fan base, so it was a big success,” he says. “It meant I could tour Europe, have a career and be able to continue doing what I love.”
Zak Abel (Photo: Mariano Vivanco)
Coming nearly six years after his debut, Love Over Fear has emotion coursing through its melodic soul and dance beats — and its title track encapsulates his newfound intention to face his fears.
“As opposed to running away from what scares me,” he says. “The only way to overcome fears is to face them.” A “statement” of the entire album, the song is an “affirmation” to follow your passions even when things are tough.
Winging It, for example, deals with personal insecurities, while the anthemic Cry was written for a friend who was numb with sadness, to help him to feel again.
The musician found his hearing loss particularly “scary” to talk about, which wasn’t helped by the fact he’d long been discouraged by his team from discussing it publicly. “That was coming from a place of fear,” he points out.
“They didn’t know what the response would be, and whether it would jeopardise my relationship with my record label.”
The response to his powerful Let Me Sing, with its lyrics “Shocked to the system I was not prepared/ For the deafening silence spreading everywhere/
The future’s out my hands and no one seems to understand”, has been nothing but positive. And he saw the effect of sharing his journey so openly after an interview he did for ITV News prompted messages thanking him for speaking about the little-known condition.
“I’m so proud that I did decide to be open and bring people together and not run away from it, even though it is scary,” he reflects. It was cathartic, too, to finally open up, but he maintains that the benefit to his listeners is what most drives him.
“It was a relief,” he agrees. “But while music is about expressing myself and getting what’s on my mind off my chest, it’s also about how it’s going to be useful to other people. In so much of the music that I love, the [musicians are] revealing something about their life. And that’s necessary to connect with people.”
