SZNS is a Los Angeles based female pop group comprised of four members, each representing their own season, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The groupʻs music is fun and full of real-life scenarios any woman can relate to. From their hit, Tequila w Lime, to their latest single, Behave, SZNS hold no punches and explore all variants of pop with a consistent Hispanic flare in their instrumentals.  

Q & A

Who are some of your fashion influences?

Summer- Ariana Grande, Hailey Bieber.

Autumn- Kim possible and john B from The Outerbanks.

Spring-Those are actually her parents.

Winter- Halsey, Miley, anything a little bit more edgy/rock.

Spring- Selena, her bustiers, belts, that tight body-con look. I also like Rihanna!

Summer, looking at Spring- I guessed yours.

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What is your song-writing process?

Autumn- our process is always different because it always starts from a conversation. We donʻt write anything we wouldnʻt say in real life. It Always starts where weʻre all lying on the floor or chilling out in the kitchen and weʻre all talking about something weʻve all experienced. Tequila w Lime, for example, weʻre talking about what its like to go out. With Behave weʻre all talking about things people have told us to do that we donʻt want to do. It all stems from our personal life experiences and then Iʻll be like ”WINTER WRITE THAT DOWN!”

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How has playing different instruments helped you with creating songs? Do you see that your instrumental capabilities help you with your lyrics?

Winter- I would say yes, we usually start with a conversation and then producers that we work with will be like “Oh my gosh, I have an amazing beat for you that I think fits that concept perfectly.“ So, weʻll listen to beats and once we find one weʻre good with, weʻll start on the song and the concept that we stated. Like Summer plays trumpet on a lot of our songs but weʻre not like breaking out the trumpet

Winter put her hands in front of her faced and mimicked Summer playing her trumpet.

Autumn-We donʻt start with trumpet.

They all busted out laughing agreeing with Autumn.

Winter- I do play guitar and Autumn plays piano, so hopefully one day, her and I will get to play in our tracks but, personally, I love for someone else to give me the leeway like the producer its so nice to have somewhere solid to work and the four of us can focus on the words.

“My name’s not baby, ‘cause if it was, you’d already be mine” is such a cutting line, how did that come together?

Summer- It was the first song we ever wrote together so we were still trying to get to know each other and we were at my old apartment and just trying to relate on different exoeriences weʻve had—just trying to get to know each other—and see what we can write about. One thing we all had in common were lame encounters with men at bars/clubs.

Spring- Theyʻre pretty lame…theyʻre pretty lame.

Summer- Theyʻre pretty lame, I agree, but also, I canʻt say anything. Weʻre were all like “yeah this really sucks, why canʻt anybody take no for an answer? Why do you think you can call me Baby? My nameʻs not baby.” It was something we were all saying “yeah, same.”

Winter- we were all just sick of being catcalled for sure. We have names, if you really want to talk to us, ask us a question and don’t just be like “Youʻre hot.”

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What juice would you be?

They all began to repeat the question aloud while thinking, Spring looked me dead in the eye with a confused expression, “Juiced?!” Nothing but chaos—delightfully welcomed chaos, but chaos nonetheless—ensued as they all started to assign each other juices to fit the otherʻs personality.

Summer, pointing to Winter- you would be orange juice! Winter would be orange juice. I donʻt know why but Winter would be orange juice.

Winter- I do LOVE orange juice.

Summer- bean juice! I would be coffee, which we call bean juice. \

Spring- EW! It sounds horrible—bean juice!

Spring & winter- It is bean juice.

Summer- It is bean juice when you think about it

            I retorted- Tea is just leaf juice.

Spring-I would be jamiaca

Winter- yeah, jamiaca!

Spring- Yeah, jamiaca, a red juice.

Winter- That’s Hibiscus

Spring- Yeah that, I didnʻt know what it was called in English.

Winter- Or I would say horchata.

Spring- No I would definitely be horchata.

Summer- Does that count as a juice?

Autumn-Itʻs milk Juice!

Spring- PINEAPPLE JUICE! Little sour, little sweet mhm.

Winter made the final decision pointing to each girl:

Summer is Orange juice, Autumn is tomato juice, Winter declared herself to be cucumber-lime juice, and Spring is pineapple juice or horchata.

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I didn’t see Bad Bitch on Spotify, is this something we can expect in the near future?

Summer-Honestly, maybe.

Spring- Itʻs something weʻre sitting on.

Winter- Yeah weʻre thinking about it.

Summer- I want to put that song out so bad.

Spring- Itʻs so fun!

Winter- We had the best time writing that song. It was a crazy day.

Summer- we were like “everybody write your own rap in 30 minutes and come back.” So, we were all silent trying to write.

Spring- Wait, Summer! That’s another song!

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What does bad bitch energy mean to you?

Spring- Fierce confidence. Embodying your own self ; sitting in that energy and not giving a shit what anyone thinks.

Autumn- Thatʻs who you are.

Spring- yeah that my brand—just kidding!

 

Where do you pull vocal inspiration from? Is there a particular singer or era you admire?

Summer- I can actually answer for all of you! Spring is Amy Winehouse, Autumnʻs is Josh Grobin, Winter would be Miley Cyrus or, like, Halsey, and I am, Miss Grande.

Winter-That was amazing.

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What does the success of Tequila w Lime mean to you/signify?

Autumn- I think everybody probably feels this way with their first song like, “ I think that this is something but, are other people going to actually going to feel this too.” And when weʻre working with the people weʻre recording with weʻre like, “right? This is real right?” After we wrote it, we sent a voice memo to our manager  and she immediately called us—holding up her hand like a telephone—“What is this about girls? I had no idea that you guys could do this!” So, we relaxed a little and were like “Okay, this is something.” Youʻre always going to doubt it until it actually comes out and you see peopleʻs reaction.

Winter- To see the reaction on Tik Tok, it was actually Autumnʻs sister that made the first viral video of Tequila w Lime; it was so organic and real that people grabbed on to it and we were just like “Woah! Is this really going to happen, are people really going to like our song?” And the comments were just, “We need girl groups! This is amazing! We need this song!”

Spring- It was just special. This is going to sound corny but, you know when you take a picture o the moon and your phone just doesnʻt capture it? That’s what we were feeling, like “are people going to see it well?”

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How did you all decide on what season to represent?

Winter- It was definitely just who we are. We each fit our seasons so perfectly. Like me, I am a bit more spiritual and emotional and that to me is just Winter in a nutshell. A little icy but brings rebirth! I just think that each of our seasons (or should I say SZNS) really who we are and our personalities.

 

I saw summer call autumn, Romeo, on Insta, do you have cute nicknames for each other that you all use?

Summer & Winter looking at Autumn and pointing- This is Autumn-bot!

Winter, pointing to Summer- I call her Summerton.

Spring, pointing to Winter- This is Wintress.

Summer, pointing to Spring- Springy.

Winter- Springy. Sometimes I call her Springles.

Spring confirmed the nickname by mimicking the motion of sprinkling something.

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Advice for a safe night clubbing?

Winter- I have a very important tip actually, this is something I am very *slamming her fist into her palm showing the seriousness of this tip* about. Never put your drink down and always hold it with your hand over the top of it with the straw between your fingers (if applicable). This way, even if youʻre not looking, no one can ever put anything in your drink. That to me, is one of the scariest things and of course when youʻre out having fun with your friends, you want to dance and go have fun, but you have to be responsible and know where your drink is and whoʻs around it.

Summer- Never go out by yourself. Look out for your friends and make sure theyʻre looking out for you. Its not worth it to leave your friend with a guy even if sheʻs like, “No, no, no I like him!” If she just met him that night, youʻre taking her home—you two are still going home together. I think its really important for girls to look out for each other.

Autumn- I think that this may be too micro, but I think that people forget that employees—I used to be an assault trainer—wait I need to start over. The employees—the bouncer, the bartender, anybody who actually works there—is going to want to help you because theyʻre legally liable for anything that happens at this place. So, I feel like, a lot of times, we forget that they want to help you. If anything is sketchy to you or making you uncomfortable you can go over to the bartender and be like “Help!”

Winter- 100%, if you find someone that you like, youʻre gonna like them the next day. You can go on a date and you can go home with them after youʻve known them for more than a night, just to be safe. We all watch crime documentaries so weʻre all scared straight.

 

So…I have never used Tik Tok before, but I figured out how to use it on my computer and looked at some of your videos and absolutely LOVE the Cheetah Girls video y’all did. Do you have any other iconic girl groups you would like to do for something similar? I strongly suggest the original Bratz group (which the girls overwhelmingly loved)!

Winter- Weʻve been thinking on it.

Spring- Honestly, let’s do the Great Gatsby.

Summer- What if we did as Friends?

She immediately pointed up to Autumn and said, “You would be Ross” and that she would be would Rachel.

Winter- I would be Monica. Spring would be Chandler.

Spring- Joey!

Winter- Or Joey. Yeah, you would be Joey.

Spring- Iʻm Joey.

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Did you have the Bratzʻs design in mind when doing the music video for Faster?

They all exclaimed variants of confirmation.

Summer- We were like, “Letʻs make it very Bratz-y, cutesy, fun, with the big eyes, big lips, and everything.

Winter- That was something we all grew up on as well, so it was really fun to see us as cartoons.

Summer- The animation felt very nostalgic, Like Poly Pockets.

 

What was the process of shooting the video for Tequila w Lime?

Summer- The only reason we did an animated one was because we were releasing that in the beginning of the pandemic, we had to figure out what we could do to make the video. For Tequila w Lime, it was like one of the best days of my life. That was so much fun, it was a long time coming, lots of dance training, and lots of fittings. It was super fun and I canʻt wait to do it again.

Winter- We all woke up at 6 am, left our house together, got into hair by like 7:30 (am), and then we did not leave the filming location until 3 am. It was a long day, I was like, “Can we come back tomorrow pleeeeease?”

Spring- It was a stressful day! I didn’t have my outfit until the day of so I was freaking out like ”Uh?? Uhhhh what am I going to wear? Everyone else looks like stars!” So Iʻm trying on a million things and they were all saying no, no, no. finally we found an outfit and it was great.

Autumn- it was my first time, ever, getting acrylic nails. I literally could not do anything. I couldnʻt even text my mom—my parents came to support us—I couldn’t do anything. I had to have the girls put my pants on for me, feed me snacks…

Winter- it was the funniest thing though. The moment she got them on, a whole new person. Autumn is the dad of our group.

Summer- She suddenly became the mom.

Winter- Yeah! She was like “Hey girls (in a sultry tone while coyly waving her hand in a slightly pinched motion to show off her nails).”

Spring- I was just like “This energy!!!” and she kept tapping her nails and clicking them.

 

How do you see Tik Tok’s dance culture elevating the fan interaction with your music?

Summer- So, I made a little dance to Behave, and every time I see somebody do it, Iʻm just like “Youʻre doing the dance I made! OMG that’s so cute!” It fun and I feel like it’s a really good way for everyone to enjoy the music in their own creative way. They can all put their own spin on it, do whatever dance they want and just vibe out.

Winter- Weʻve seen such incredible videos from our fans, itʻs definitely our favorite thing about putting out music because we can tell that people actually like it. Commenting that you like is amazing but for us to see you jamming out to what we jam out to, it’s just another level.

What has been your favorite experience with SZNS?

Spring- I was actually in my hometown! I was at my local CVS and it was like late at night, like 11, and I can’t remember what I was getting there probably some chips or something. I had just drove into my hometown of San Diego and I hear, “Spring! Spring!” and it was still pretty fresh, so I turn around like “Oh! Iʻm Spring.” This guy comes running up to me and he says “Oh my God, I love Tequila w Lime, can I take a picture with you please? I work here and I have been following your journey since you lived here.” I was like, “Yeah! Of course. Wow.” It was really cool being asked to take a picture in my hometown.

Winter, grabbing Autumnʻs hand- I donʻt know if weʻre going to say the same thing, but Autumn and I just got a message yesterday—because we are part of the LGBT+ community—we received a message from a fan and she had done her make up where one side was “Winter” and the other side was “Autumn” and her eyes were rainbow. It was just so sweet, Autumn said she cried.

Autumn- Oh, I did tear up.

Winter- It was just incredible. She was like, “You both make me feel that I can be whoever I want, I donʻt have to care what anyone else thinks, and I can be creative and still be exactly who Iʻm supposed to be.  

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~Reagan Thornley