Heleina Zara: Nice, Timid, Perfect Polished Girl. Pushed To Her Breaking Point.

Knowing someone throughout a pivotal journey (good or bad) in their life, is a true gift in many ways. But to see them transform it into a body of work like Heleina Zara has with her sophomore EP ‘Breaking Point’ is truly an honour. When Heleina asked me to sit down with her for an interview, I was so excited, but diving into the process of asking questions about the EP when you knew that person throughout that time period, is quite the challenge.

Meeting with my dear friend Heleina Zara on a cold June morning to discuss her second EP, Breaking Point, felt less like a typical interview and more like a full-circle event. Having watched the lead-up from its start at the end of 2024, the build-up to its release was intense.

"I’m really excited that the time to release this EP is finally here so I can move onto the next chapter," Heleina says, a clear spark in her eyes as if Christmas were near. "Given how close and personal this project has been for me, it’s been hard to write anything else.” Although the emotional shifts we experience while listening are strong, I knew family remains Heleina’s anchor. I’ve enjoyed time with her family, and her mother, partner, and Filipina heritage clearly offer steady support and ground her within the music industry’s chaos.

The path to Breaking Point started in her most sacred space: her bedroom. From those four walls, Heleina moved into sessions with a notable group of artists, including Elin Sandberg, Harry Charles, Julia Gartha, Alisa Xayalith, Caleb Dee, and Yorke.

Leaving her sacred space for sessions can be intimidating, but Heleina found ease in places like Elin Sandberg’s LA studio, which echoed the familiar, intimate feel of her home setup.

"It was just me word-vomiting everything that was going on in my life, but we would all just pick up the pieces like a puzzle," she recalls. With all collaborators on the EP, the energy of writing a song during the session and the varied tastes in each room naturally can be heard in the tracks. "Everyone’s tastes and inspirations in the room that day can be heard in the EP.”

Listeners who have heard her debut EP Autopilot will observe a clear shift in her work. Although earlier influences such as Gracie Abrams and Taylor Swift remain central, Heleina’s sound now blends the warmth of vintage jazz with the grit of modern pop.

"I lost my Lola Mum a year ago, and since then I haven’t been able to stop listening to jazz and the records she loved and shared with us growing up," she notes. The same applies to her physical collection gathered through her remarkable talent for vintage shopping, filled with Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Leslie Lore, and Doris Day. Reflecting, she adds, "It’s been putting me at ease to listen to similar artists that my Lola Mum loved. And Remi Wolf is still on my rotation; I was actually listening to her on the way to meet you this morning.” I think it’s safe to say that It, Heleina’s pop era isn’t going anywhere for a while.

On ‘I Almost Fell For It’, Heleina combines upbeat pop energy with heavy, vulnerable lyrics, marking a distinct change from her usual approach. "It’s always easier for me to write 'sad girl' music, so this was out of my comfort zone," she admits. "You get to a point where you have to laugh about these touchy subjects, which led to making it a more welcoming space for people.”

If there is an emotional centrepiece to Breaking Point, it is my personal favourite ‘Canada’. Written at the start of 2024, just after New Year’s, Heleina received news that a now estranged parent was moving out of the country. Overwhelmed, she retreated to her room and wrote the track in one single, cathartic session.

"That was probably the turning point for me, when I knew this might be the start of something new," she says, adding a nod to another pop powerhouse. "Sabrina Carpenter’s title track for Emails I Can't Send made me realise I could write about really hard truths. I want to extend my thanks to Sabrina for inspiring me.”The title Breaking Point carries weight, arising from a session that felt closer to therapy than songwriting. “I was letting everything out and just said, ‘I’m at my breaking point,’ which formed the through-line,” Heleina explains.

She joked that if the EP had a tagline, it would be: Nice. Timid. The Perfect Polished Girl. Pushed To Her Breaking Point. I found nothing more accurate. This leads into track four, ‘Middle Man’,which captures that tension; the song became her key to ending a lifelong habit of people-pleasing, offering a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel.

The EP’s third single and final track, ‘Hunting’, emerged almost by accident after her return from LA during a session with Harry Charles and Yorke. It includes one of the record’s most confronting lines: “I guess I'm a songbird and you clipped my wings / did you take pleasure in hunting me?”

“I recall the image of songbirds drifting through my mind and thinking of ‘Songbird’ by Fleetwood Mac,” she says. “It became a strong metaphor for the whole EP.” Once her team heard it, they agreed it had to close the project.

The visuals are equally important to Heleina’s storytelling. In the ‘Canada’ music video, her team “drew on the idea of Shakespeare’s Ophelia submerged in water,” she explains. “Since I was young, I’ve been fixated on her story, and I wanted to use that in my personal experience of being driven into madness, or in my case, a breaking point.” She recalls a moment of total immersion during filming: “I remember almost blacking out in one scene while looking straight into the camera.”

Beyond the release of her own feelings, her main hope for Breaking Point is that it guides anyone in their darkest moments. “No matter the chaos, the pain, or the hurt that consumes you, it’s not the end of the story.”

Breaking Point is out October 16! Pre-save/pre-order now!