EDMTunes spent the weekend at North Coast Music Festival 2026 in IL to enjoy some of the best Bass, Techno, and House artists in the industry. After a stellar return to Chicagoland, Hyperpop/Hard Dance Icon Zorza sat down with us shortly after her set to chat about her performance, her upcoming debut album, Internet Niche Fame, and more.
Internet Niche Fame releases on October 30th, and the second single, ‘motion sick’, is available now via Zorza’s 4ever label.
Zorza x NCMF x EDMTunes
We’re here at North Coast with Zorza. How are you?
I’m great. How are you?
I’m well, thank you! You just got off the stage at the Shipyard. How do you feel?
Sorza: I feel good; I’m buzzing with energy. It was really fun.
Jay: What does it mean for you to come back to Chicago?
I think it’s really exciting. Last time I played North Coast, I played in the Chill Dome, which was a very different vibe than the Shipyard stage. It feels really good to be playing back and see a lot of repeat fans, which is really cool.
That’s exciting, whenever you’re able to recognize some friendly faces in the crowd. There are people away from home that still support you nonetheless.
Yeah.
You just announced the release date for your debut album, Internet Niche Fame. How does it feel to play a set after you have all that new music coming soon?
Really exciting yet scary. In my set today, I played a lot of album songs that I hadn’t tested yet. They all did great, so I feel good, but leading into it, I was a bit nervous because it’s a bit different. I still think it’s very much my sound, but it’s a bit different than some of my other really Techno-leaning sets.
I do really enjoy the visual aspect of the album cover. Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration for the title and the cover art?
Sorza: They’re kind of inspired by a similar thing. With the title, Internet Niche Fame, I was writing a lot of the songs (there’s one in particular) where I was just reflecting on my journey as an artist and how I’m obviously not the biggest artist out there, but through these little communities on the internet, I’ve been able to tour all over the world, meet so many people, and do so many things that in the past, without the internet, that wouldn’t have been available. So, that’s the niche aspect of it, and those niche Hardcore fan groups.
And then on the other side of that, the internet, and putting music out on there is just so chaotic. There’s so much happening everywhere. And I wanted the album cover to reflect that chaotic nature, and my attempt to break through that chaos and find my own path in it.
I was trying to get some of the track names on the album cover, and I was twisting my eyes. There’s a few there, but you have to really look into it.
I made it chaotic on purpose, so it’d be difficult to read it.
Your lead single for this album is called ‘Haunted’, which speaks to the reinvention and the self-reflection of trying to keep your identity safe while trying to achieve change. Do you think there was a specific point in your life where you noticed this, that you were potentially changing, not for the best?
I don’t think it was not for the best, but I think a lot of the album, when I was writing it, I was reflecting on where my career was about a year, a year and a half ago. I was quite in the Hard Techno scene, which I love, but I didn’t fully feel like I fit in there, and that my music didn’t fully fit in there. With a lot of the album, and even ‘Haunted,’ I’m haunted by the idea that I want to do something different.
I kind of wanted to change. A lot of the other songs on the album are not precisely Techno; there’s variety. I want to say there’s some Trap, some Witch House. It’s still very much Techno, but I’m just haunted by how scary it can be to try and change. At the same time, that’s what excites me. That’s what I wanted to do with it.
What do you feel the turning point was for you? When you realized, okay, this is not for me, I already know what vision I’m going for? How do you take this opportunity to grow and use the internet to your advantage?
I was having these thoughts about a year ago. I had been coming off of so much touring; I was quite burnt out from it. And throughout, I didn’t have time to sit down and make music. I took a little bit of a break, and really focused on making music and what I loved about music from the beginning.
Then, I realized I wasn’t fully making stuff that I wanted to make, but rather what I thought other people might want to hear. I realized that there are so many other communities out there where you can reach so many people, and people have so many different interests all over. I can play a Hard Techno set, but still throw in some fun Hyperpop, which I’ve always done, and I think people are really receptive to it. You can just see so much stuff that’s out on the Internet and then experience it in person.
A lot of your tracks, especially leading into this album, feel very deep and emotional. But then a lot of the BPMs are 150 over, right out on that energy. How do you wish that sound to be perceived?
I think that’s just my sound, because I’m still making fast music. The slowest song on the album is probably 140, which is pretty fast. Fast music excites me. This album feels like the most authentic music I’ve ever made, and it combines all the genres that have inspired me over the years and the diversity I like to see in sets.
People tend to get saturated very quickly when, from beginning to end, the set sounds the same. You do an incredible job offering so many different perspectives.
I get bored. I just get bored really quickly; that’s my biggest thing. That’s why I’m always changing the vibe and the genre during my set. That’s very much reflected on the album.
Are there any other influences we can expect from the new album?
I went back to the music I really loved in 2012, 2013. Witch house was very impactful to me. And the album is not even Witch House—there’s not even a track that’s Witch House, but the emotion that I feel from those songs is really reflected in the album, and it’s similar to that genre. I need to feel something out of it, and that’s what I always got with Witch House.
There was a comment on one of the Instagram posts that said: “This is so Dance Dance Revolution. Bring it back.”
I’m also bringing the euphoria. It’s always the mixture of the euphoria and the melancholy. That’s what gets me.
You had a little clip titled “Motion Sick” before the album release date; is that the next single we’re expecting?
It is coming out next Friday.
Oh, that’s very soon! Do you have any collaborations on the upcoming album?
There’s one collaboration with a Hyperpop LA artist I really love named Julia Cooper. And she is the only feature on the album, but she fits in so well it’s honestly one of my favorites—all the tracks are my favorite, but that one is really, really special.
Beautiful. We are very excited. And one last question: you run your own label, 4ever. I know you had some shows in Toronto and LA. When can we expect upcoming Forever shows?
Probably in the next year, but with 4ever, we have our first releases from artists other than myself coming up very soon. There are about three or four releases lined up for the rest of this year. I’m really excited to dig deeper into the music side of the label rather than just the show side.
