“This is one of my things that will be out in the world, and that will be a part of who I am and my legacy. And it just feels really good.”

For the better part of a decade, Zan Strumfeld has been playing the long game. She is, rightfully so, one of the most revered artists in the Capital Region’s musical community, and so it should surprise almost everyone that she and her band – Zan and the Winter Folk – have only just released their debut full-length album this past June.

New Morse Code fittingly debuted on the first day of summer, the majority of its breezy songs written over the last four years, plus one that dates all the way back to 2012. Discussions around the record began in earnest at the beginning of 2020, and then we all know how that story ended. But in Zan’s mind, it all worked out for the best.

“I'm actually grateful for the pause that we had because I wrote some of my favorite songs on the record during COVID,” she admits, “including the title track, ‘New Morse Code’”.

That song in particular is the emotional heartbeat of the record, a waltzy number featuring Zan’s timeless voice gliding effortlessly over an Americana-infused backdrop of stringed instruments and brushed drums. It’s deeply affecting – apropos, considering it’s the most personal song on the record, birthed from a tragedy.

“I had just lost someone very close to me in my life, and I wrote that song within a day of finding out that he had died,” Zan recalls. “I just sat on the floor and it sort of poured out of me. So it was the quickest song I wrote on the record I think, but absolutely the hardest. To this day, I have to compartmentalize when I'm singing it, to not really think about what the song is about, and it still makes me feel that way every time I sing it.”

When it came time to release a first single from the record though, “New Morse Code” was an obvious choice to everyone but Zan, who was worried about making an overly vulnerable situation that much harder. Thankfully, it paid off.

“It was so terrifying because I’m giving the most vulnerable thing in my life to the public, and I'm asking them to listen to it. I'm asking them to like it. And we did receive incredible feedback.”

Despite this being their first proper LP, the quintet – Zan, alongside guitarist Will Brown, upright bassist Sean Fortune, banjoist Michael Gregg and drummer Brendan Tompkins – have been writing and performing together for the last seven years. The group came together almost by accident, as Zan tells it, forming for a one-off show and sticking together after discovering their truly palpable synergy. It wasn’t long after that Zan and the Winter Folk was born.

“My name's at the front of the band which, for the record, I did not want,” she laughs. “The boys were hard on that; I wanted us to be The Winter Folk. Sure, these are songs that I've written. I'm doing the majority of the managerial side, etc. But in reality, everybody is volunteering their time, and that’s where it gets so humbling for me. Here are some of the deepest friendships that I have in my life, and it's just a beautiful feeling that they want to be a part of this. I think it adds to the beauty of our music, too. I just thank them a lot.”

Since that fateful show seven years ago, the band has convened almost every week, rehearsing for shows, arranging covers or writing new music. The collaborations have yielded a pair of EPs, the first of which was recorded in one of the member’s living rooms. Contrasting that with the very polished, ten-song collection that is New Morse Code is a huge point of pride for Zan.

“My favorite thing is to go back and see how much we as a band and myself as a songwriter and a singer have grown. A lot of people can see their growth through their careers or whatever it is, but it's not like this public facing thing. Mine is out in the world to see, and it's been pretty amazing.

“[For New Morse Code] we really wanted to do a high end version, and make something that we felt immensely proud of. Not that we're not proud of the other works, but quality wise, when I listen to this versus those, it just feels like the level of professionalism that we really strived for.”

One of the things Zan is best known for is her ability to bring the community together. Over the past couple years, she has curated two high-profile tribute events, honoring a pair of her all-time favorite songwriters, Joni Mitchell and Carole King. The acclaimed shows featured an array of undeniable talent from the Capital Region all putting their spin on songs from those respective artists.

In that same spirit, Zan recruited a smattering of locally-based guest performers for New Morse Code, including Caity Gallagher and Hold on Honeys who respectively sang on nearly half the record, and Sophia Vastek who played piano on “Sunday’s Snow”.

“I always saw this record as being more than just the core five of us,” Zan tells me. “Throughout my time here playing music and connecting with the creative community, there have been so many incredible musicians that I’ve played with and respected. It was really important to have some of those additional layers on this record. Hold on Honeys are phenomenal when it comes to harmonizing with each other… Caity has such a gorgeous voice. And Sophia is one of my favorite pianists of all time! I wanted people to add to this record however they wanted to and I think everyone did so phenomenally.”

For underground musicians in the 2020s, it is a more daunting task to release and promote a record than it ever has been. The sheer amount of effort that goes into not only writing and recording the songs, but promoting and marketing and talking about them can take a lot out of you, especially when it’s not even your full-time career.

“I'm very tired,” Zan admits. It’s probably one of the most relatable things I’ve ever heard in an interview.

“Making this record, promoting it and putting it out took everything from me. Even if you go on our Instagram, I have barely pushed the record, which is not a good thing. I've just been so exhausted from all that it took, and luckily, people are just listening to it organically.”

Despite the completely understandable exhaustion that Zan has encountered post-release, she and the band are reveling in the success that has come from New Morse Code. It’s an astonishing feat from a group of musicians that have been wowing local audiences for years, including the sold out crowd that came to witness their release party at The Hangar.

This outpouring of love and support for a group that’s constantly raising the bar for the rest of us is not lost on Zan as she beams over the accomplishment of releasing one hell of a debut album.

“I'm really proud of this record,” Zan gushes. “I don't say that about too many things in my life or music, but I can still listen to these songs and feel so good. I was on a plane home recently, and the turbulence was so intense, like, scary intense. And the flight attendants said it was going to last for 45 minutes. Great. So I put on my record, because – this is the way that I think about life – if the plane's about to go down, what am I doing? And I thought, ‘I'm going to be listening to this record, because it took everything to make it, and I feel so proud of it.’ This is one of my things that will be out in the world, and that will be a part of who I am and my legacy. And it just feels really good.”