Shoe designer Steve Madden has revealed his first signing to the newly launched 5Towns Records – the label founded by Madden and music/marketing veteran Steve Feinberg – with the release of “REDEMPTION”, the debut single from EZI.
5Towns Records has partnered with ADA, Warner Music Group’s independent distribution and services arm, for global digital and physical distribution, as well as full label services including radio, press, digital, and marketing.
“I was six years old when I saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and from that very moment until right now music has been a vital part of my life, and by extension an equally important role in the DNA of the Steve Madden brand,” Madden tells Billboard. “Starting the 5Towns Records label with Steve Feinberg seemed like a perfect next step in my desire to always aim for the commercially viable cutting edge. Our first artist, EZI, fits that mission perfectly. When I heard the music I was hooked… She is wildly talented. My kids had seen her on TV and I was intrigued. Then quite by chance she came into one of my stores. It seemed like it was meant to be.”
EZI (also known as Esther Zynn), a Long Island, New York native wrote the song in August 2016, during one of the lowest points in her life. On hiatus from Nickelodeon’s The Other Kingdom, which she starred in for its one on-air season, EZI bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles to focus on her music career for a few months (EZI grew up acting and singing). But when she arrived in the City of Angels earlier that summer, she found herself at an unexpected crossroads.
“I’ve always struggled with depression,” EZI says. “I’m a very emotional person. [When I wrote “REDEMPTION”], I was living alone in Hollywood, my schedule was all over the place, I was going through some stuff personally … but more than that, I don’t even know what triggered it—I was honestly so lost, so detached, so removed from myself. Most people actually think [the song] is about a relationship [with another person], but it’s actually about the relationship I have with myself. You wake up loving yourself, you wake up hating yourself, [or] being upset or disappointed.
Feinberg whose company 8spoke, consults for Madden’s brands on music/culture, has been working with Steve Madden on all brand music endeavors for the last 5 years. His achievements as a former artist manager, that discovered and managed multi-platinum artist Good Charlotte and worked with a dozen more including, Flight of The Conchords and My Morning Jacket, his work with the major labels, publishers and distribution groups to curate music programs while establishing artist/brand relationships, lead them to create this new venture.