Time to get out your Breakup Shoes!

Nick Zawisa shares his thoughts on touring, songwriting and Breakup Shoes’ new album

The heart of the desert is not where one would usually expect to find an eclectic, four-piece alternative shoegaze act. Breakup Shoes, formed in Phoenix in 2015, have been breaking this mold for several years- and people are starting to notice. After attracting a following within the Arizona alternative music community for their smooth, understated indie pop that stood out among the local music landscape, Breakup Shoes have found themselves at the pinnacle of their career. The band has since grown a loyal, national following as they prepare to release their third full length album, ‘The Death of Everything Worrisome.’

While Breakup Shoes popularity has recently grown exponentially, the band has been hard at work for almost a decade. Nick Zawisa, lead singer and songwriter for the band, feels more confident than ever as his band plays for larger and larger crowds.

“We just love getting out on the road and playing a different show in a different city every night and meeting new people. That’s always been the dream for us and it’s really cool that we get to do that,” Zawisa said. “Seeing our audience start to grow has actually been a huge motivator for me and a reminder that I’m where I’m supposed to be in life.” 

Zawisa and his bandmates have never been shy performers- having experience playing music on stage from a very young age, it was a natural progression for the band members. The band met while performing music at church, but after high school, Zawisa and his bandmates realized that performing in a church group no longer suited their values. 

“We all met through the same church where we played music, but once I graduated high school and began to move on to Arizona State, I started to realize that I wasn’t even sure if I still believed in God. I couldn’t, in good conscience, continue to work for the church,” he said. “But I had fallen in love with playing music, and luckily the band was on the same page. Even without the church aspect, we still wanted to make music together.”

The years performing in church did serve the band, who had no problems getting into the swing of playing live music and going on tour.

“I feel like we really did have a leg up even when starting as a band because we were already comfortable on a stage, which isn’t always the case.”

After coming to the mutual decision to continue the band without the church performance aspect, Zawisa began to write songs his freshman year of college. The band’s early shows, mostly do-it-yourself style sets at local bars and house gigs, gave the band a platform to share original music. Over the next few years, Zawisa completed his degree at ASU, but had no desire to continue down a traditional career path, instead opting to continue writing music. 

“I don’t think I could have done anything else,” he said. “I went to college and got my degree, thinking it was the safe thing to do. I thought that once the band inevitably fizzled out, it would be important that I have a degree so I could get a real job. But the reality is that it never really felt like there was something else I should be doing.”

“I knew that if I didn’t give music a real shot, if I didn’t throw myself into it completely, that I would probably regret that for the rest of my life. I might have hated myself for never trying to make music work.”

Regardless, even with the confidence that music was the right choice for himself, Zawisa still questioned what it might be like to live the more traditional life that many of his fellow graduates had started. At the beginning of the band’s career, he often felt anxiety over this.

“It used to really stress me out that I had all these friends that have gone on very normal career paths and were already very successful at that point. Some of them were even getting married and starting families, and seeing the stability in those people’s lives is hard when you’re a starting musician,” he said. 

Photo by Athena Burton

Over the last few years, however, Zawisa has found comfort in his less-than-traditional lifestyle. Continuing to work on bettering his songwriting and playing with his band across the country taught him how to get over any fears that he could be making the wrong decision. 

“It scared me that I had chosen this weird route for my life where nothing is guaranteed and there isn’t a straightforward path. But I’ve really made peace with it, and I haven’t been so caught up with that need to feel prepared like I used to. I am trying to hone my craft as a musician and do what I love.”

Zawisa also found confidence in the relationships he has with other bands in Breaking Shoes’ orbit. Having friends that could understand exactly what he was going through as a starting musician helped him stay focused. The friendships he formed with other musicians while on tour are particularly valuable to him. Bands that Breakup Shoes have toured with include We Were Promised Jetpacks, Okey Dokey, Convey, and Carpool Tunnel. 

“I love that kind of built-in camaraderie that you have when you are able to talk with another musician who is at a sort of similar point in their career. They fully get you in ways that your non-musician friends don’t always do. Especially because there are a lot of aspects of being a musician that have nothing to do with music.”

Zawisa says that he didn’t originally anticipate all of the non-music related work he and his band would have to do, especially at the beginning of their career. Some of these things can be monotonous, like doing taxes for the band before starting spring tours or working out merch orders. Of course, all of these things are worth it when Zawisa and his band mates get to perform for a new crowd. 

“I think one of the craziest changes over the last few years is starting to hear more and more people in the crowd singing the words to our songs,” he said. “It’s so special to be able to share that moment and hear how much the audience cares. I love that they know all the words when they listen to these songs and that it means something different for everyone.”

Musically, Breakup Shoes fit alongside other indie pop acts from the West Coast like Bad Suns, Best Coast, Day Wave and Local Natives. Their style has shifted over the years, with the band’s earlier work channeling the type of laid-back, smooth slacker rock that became popular in the Mid-2010s. Zawisa described Mac DeMarco as being one of the most influential musicians while he was writing for Breakup Shoes early on in their career.

“At first we really wanted to emulate that kind of cool, effortless vibe that you hear from someone like Mac DeMarco. You’ll see that style a lot when listening to our first releases, but over the years we’ve drifted away from that a little and found our own sound within that space.”

Zawisa said that when he began listening to more punk rock and angsty indie he began working those sounds into the band’s music. He says that artists like Modern Baseball and Joyce Manor have influenced his lyric writing more recently. The different tastes of each member of Breaking Shoes can be heard throughout their career and with each new release. Zawisa said that having different music preferences became a strength as it helped Breakup Shoes identify and create their own sound.

Photo by Kyle Dehn

“All of my bandmates have music tastes that differ from my own, which really creates a fun fusion of music styles,” he said. “I feel like we’ve really melded a whole lot of our influences into one semi-coherent sound that we really like.”

Zawisa said that his songwriting process is constantly changing, but that he usually writes based on strong emotions he is feeling at any given time.

“I usually start writing on an acoustic guitar and riffing a few different melodies, or I start some lyrics, and that’s when the band gets together and helps fill in the missing pieces. When I’m writing it usually is in response to an event in my life or just a moment of heightened emotion. It’s all fairly free-flowing for the most part.”

Zawisa said that one of his favorite parts of meeting fans is hearing about how they connect to the songs he’s written. 

“It’s an interesting dynamic in a lot of ways,” he said. “Even though I’ve never met most of these people, they have been listening to songs that are about these pretty intimate and meaningful aspects of who I am. It always means a lot when someone tells me that one of our songs helped them through a certain time period or event. It’s really cool to know that it connects with people.”

As for the next few months, with their tour having wrapped up in mid May, Breakup Shoes are looking forward to releasing their new album this summer. A few singles have been released so far- “Monotony” and “Get Lost.” Zawisa said he and his bandmates can’t wait to share their new music with fans. 

“We’re really hoping to do some cool things leading up to the release of the album. It’s a really exciting time for us, especially because we didn’t release anything last year,” he said. “We’re really proud of the record we have put together and I’m really excited for people to hear it.”

Listen to Breakup Shoes’s new single “Rat Race’ out now.