Bonzie

In the year 2010 at age 15, BONZIE released her debut EP, The Promise, as Nina Ferraro, and began using the stage name[5] BONZIE shortly thereafter. In a 2013 interview with the Chicago Tribune, she explained her decision. "There was something about it that felt egotistical to me, and music was never that sort of pursuit. BONZIE feels a lot better to go under, not only because it's a pseudonym, but also because it doesn't subscribe to a language. There isn't a conventional definition of BONZIE, and it's more something where I can become its meaning."[6]

BONZIE wrote and co-produced her first full-length album, Rift into The Secret Of Things, which was released in August 2013 at age 17.[7][8] It was preceded by the single "Data Blockers," which premiered on Spin.com,[9] It was followed by a second single "Felix," which features The Milk Carton Kids' Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale.[10] The album's title was inspired by a passage from Henry David Thoreau's Walden.[11]

In 2016, BONZIE released a double single, "As The Surface Rose" via Under The Radar, who said it "conjures an emotive vacuum where BONZIE's voice and piano keys hover and haunt."[12]

The New York Times featured the music video for "As The Surface Rose" shortly after its release, where chief music critic Jon Pareles writes, "This song is an ambitious interlude, a statement of commitment... A guy in a skinny tie pursues her, rowing into a storm. He has a film camera, she wears a glittery dress. There are no bubbles as she breathes underwater, but she tells her story. "You won't let go," she sings."[13]

This was soon followed by another double single, entitled "How Do You Find Yourself, Love?," a 7" vinyl that premiered on BrooklynVegan.[14] It is described as a companion piece to "As The Surface Rose."[citation needed]

The live-to-track, "How Do You Find Yourself, Love?," was recorded by Steve Albini, and includes instrumental B-side "Back to an Insurmountable wall", which was produced and performed by BONZIE, and recorded by Tortoise member John McEntire. "As The Surface Rose" was backed by a lyric-free B-side,"Half Full."[15]

She has opened for Iron & Wine[6] and toured with Cayucas.[1][2][16]

BONZIE released the second full-length album called Zone on Nine in May 2017. The album was fully written and produced by Ferraro herself, and co-produced with Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Conor Oberst) and Ali Chant (Perfume Genius, Youth Lagoon).[12]

The album was released to critical acclaim, namely two front-page articles in the Chicago Tribune[17] by the top music critic Greg Kot who called Zone on Nine "Stunning". Kot also wrote "BONZIE has shown a consistent refusal to be pinned down to a genre or simplified descriptions of the kind of music she makes."

Other reviews for Zone on Nine included VICE[18] who wrote "Her intricately layered music taps into personal connections — the relationship you have with yourself, the connection between the body and the mind... [it has a] gorgeous sonic palette that's hard to pinpoint but instantly alluring".

Paste Magazine[19] wrote about the album ""The way certain notes bend on the Chicago songwriter's latest tune only draw you in closer as you wonder 'What's that sound?'".

A music video for the song "Crescent" shortly followed, featuring BONZIE nude in bodypaint depicting an AI investigating the mind.[20]

In September 2020, BONZIE released a single and animated music video for a song entitled "alone". It was written by BONZIE and co-produced with DJ Camper. NPR[21]'s All Songs Considered premiered the track, writing "brilliantly talented. The atmospherics in this song are stunning." In the All Songs Considered podcast, NPR's Bob Boilen also announced a forthcoming full length album. The music video for "alone" was animated by Japanese hand-paint artist Miyo Sato and won a number of international film festival awards.[22] The New York Times also wrote about the song remarking that "the isolation is palpable,"[23] and named it one of the Best Songs of 2020.[24]

The third full-length album entitled Reincarnation was released in March 2021.[25] In a feature long-form article in The New York Times, Jon Pareles wrote "It would be the continuation of a fully independent career that has consistently yielded richly melodic and mysterious songs."[26] Pareles reviewed the album and included portions of an interview with BONZIE, as well as Steve Albini, who said "I was impressed by her drive and her seriousness at a very early age". The article appeared in print in the Arts section of The New York Times