Zak Abel for Issue 12

We are all lonely in a big crowd of people. Musicians today have this unspoken power to make us all feel a little less alone, and it's something British singer-songwriter Zak Abel has much respect for. In a music diary feature for our recent Spring Summer issue, he talks about what music means to him, his recent EP 'Only When We're Naked', what it's like growing up today and who he is without any masks.

Oak hallways are at the centre of Zak’s interview. Cecilie Harris captures the reminiscence through her lens. Warm, wooden structures mix with musical notes and they fix themselves inside the hollow building of UCS Hampstead, Zak’s old school. She freezes that unequivocal love for losing himself in each press of a the piano key. Within the composed notes that Zak plays, there’s a remembrance and a comfort that echoes through the grand halls where he once called himself student.

Stylist Lee Holden weaves in quirky threads that look out of place in a school hall, but perfectly exact on the young musician. Patterned white waves from Dries Van Noten and cool suede from Ralph Lauren are unexpected styles in the surrounding wood, and helps Zak stand out. It’s a far cry from the school boy uniform that Zak would have worn when gracing the hallways of UCS Hampstead only a few years earlier. Cecilie Harris finds answers to unexpected questions, thoughts on ever present issues of mental health and how Zak wants to impact with his music.

Take in Zak’s full feature, beyond this brief teaser, in our brand new Spring Summer Issue ‘Young Hearts’, which is now available to buy in selected stores and on our website.