Bringing new music to the scene after a brief hiatus, Zoe Mina returns with a bang, dropping new single “Butterflies” on June 20th, 2025. Another self release on which the artist herself holds credit as writer, producer, mix and master engineer.

“It was like catching up with an old friend, starting to mix and master again after such a long break especially with how fast the industry moves forward in regards to new software, plugins, and tech,” she shares. “But it’s been the highlight of this year (so far) for me, finally dropping a new song, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.”

Having been in production since September of 2024, the track features Zoe Mina’s unique vocals and production style – with a twist. The artist wrote the song on the road while visiting a family member in San Diego, California, on a laptop and Akai MPK mini MK3 (a great travel accessory for any producer or writer on the road.)

“I actually was outside in the patio of a nearby coffee shop, luckily I was the only one – or I would have had to wait for the vocals and melody until I’d returned to where I was staying.”

The artist went on to describe how the inspiration for the song had started with a classic, traditional drum patch for latin-based music. A good friend of hers had been introducing her to a few artists utilizing the percussion style, and like any good ear worm, stuck in Zoe Mina’s brain.

“Originally I just wanted to try something new, put my own spin on a classic rhythm. Unknowingly, I had just written my next single to be released months later.”

The drum rhythm is accompanied by Zoe Mina’s deft piano playing, using colorful sevenths to create a fun chord progression as a stage for the melody.

Strings, horns, and even synths are compiled together to flesh out the composition and accompany Mitch Pirtle’s grounding bassline, driven by a fingerstyle groove that blends funk, finesse, and a wink.

This release also marks a special milestone for Zoe Mina; the artist has in previous releases done all of the vocal recordings personally, but this time utilized a professional recording studio in Norwalk, Connecticut—Factory Underground.

“Highly recommend Factory Underground. It’s a very professional setting, with the right equipment and well-knowledgeable engineers. I get a lot of stage fright as a singer, and can sometimes get nervous easily, but found the environment there comfortable and relaxed despite the driven go-go nature of a recording session.”

In regards to the mix, the artist did a light dive into her process. Revealing that she usually does a high quality premix for the demo versions as she adds different layers and tracks to the project, she mentioned how it is imperative to give starting the mix from scratch a chance; even if going off of the preexisting premix can be tempting. After having concluded the production finished, Zoe Mina saved a copy of the project to keep a backup, and jumped into mixing.

“The very first thing I do, and it always puts me on edge but is absolutely worth it, is lower ALL faders for every single track so they are muted. Then, hit play and slowly begin adding the tracks into the mix little by little. What is the focus? What track do I want to be front and center? That’s the first thing I add, followed usually by the main chordal instrument, the bass, and the drums – again, in order of importance. I learned this trick from my instructors in college, and it’s a highly undervalued way to begin the mix. It gives you a place to start.”

Once all the tracks have been added, is when she starts to play around with panning, reverb, automation, and supplementary EQs. Supplementary EQs make sure that instruments who share frequency space, each have a little bit of the spotlight to avoid muddying or over-colorizing the mix. The best example here would be the bass and the drums.

“For supplementary EQs, start with the instrument you’d like to give more space to. In this case, I used a few – there’s a supplementary EQ between the kick and the bass; there’s an additional supplementary EQ for the bass and piano, though I try to compose the piano in a higher octave than the bass where possible to preemptively help with that; and there’s even a complimentary EQ on the piano to let the vocals shine just a little brighter. None of these EQs are set drastically, and never notched more than -3dB at a time. One thing to remember, is that when you solo the instruments they might not sound as great but the idea is for the bigger picture to be clearer, and when you put the instruments together, they should sound cohesive.”

In the drop of the song, the vocals take on a lovely radio-like quality. Done with a simple EQ, using a low cut and high cut filter, Zoe Mina notes that she tries not to overuse the effect but loves having it in her mixing toolbox.

The final chorus of the song is entirely about building up, creating a dance-worthy groove to complete the experience.

“I had so much fun on this song. While working on it, I constantly had to remind myself to focus – I kept getting lost in listening to it. When I sing this song, I can’t sit still,” the artist laughs.

On mastering, the artist insists she keeps it simple.

“I’m an old-fashioned mastering engineer. I use mastering to enhance the mix on a very basic level as I master the loudness to industry standards; if the mix is good, it’ll make it sound even better. If it’s a bad mix, it’ll show and I need to head back to the mixing board. My chain is nothing crazy. There’s a multimeter for the original levels, two compressors with different compression targets, an adaptive limiter to help with the dynamic fluxes in the song, and occasionally a dual mono gain in case there’s a -0.1 difference between L and R (as well as a multimeter for the new, mastered levels.) My mix has to be done for the mastering to work, and so far this mentality has served me very well.”

As a whole, “Butterflies” reveals the growth of Zoe Mina as an artist (someone willing to try a new spin on an art form) and audio engineer, leading us to wonder… what is next?