With every new album an artist makes, there’s an evolution, another chapter. But for Zella Day—her new record, Sunday In Heaven, is a whole other book. It’s not so much that it’s a step away from her debut Kicker—although this new record’s expansiveness, ambition, and bare-bones intimacy is significant. It’s that Zella has entered a new era personally, and the effect of this on her music is pronounced and powerful, creating an album that is lightyears forward in sound and scope from its predecessor.

But to grasp how far Zella’s come it’s important to understand where she came from. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Zella spent her formative years in Pinetop, AZ, raised by a bohemian family (who hail variously from Long Beach, CA and Mexico), Zella was brought up on a soundtrack of Lauryn Hill, Agent Orange, Digable Planets, and Edie Brickell, among others. She cut her teeth performing at her grandma’s coffee house, and then, at just 13, the young singer appeared on MTV reality show Camp’d Out: I’m Going to Rock Camp, recording her independently-funded first album, Powered by Love, the same year.

When her parents divorced a few years later, Zella, her mom, and sister headed back to CA