Elizabeth & the Catapult revolves around New York songwriter Elizabeth Ziman, whose indie pop draws from Brill Building traditions, coffeehouse folk, and piano jazz. The trio entered the major-label sphere via their 2009 album Taller Children. Functioning as a duo while bringing in guests such as Blake Mills and Gillian Welch, the project delivered the Leonard Cohen-inspired The Other Side of Zero in 2010. Proceeding as a collaborative solo effort, Ziman reached the Billboard Americana/folk chart with Like It Never Happened in 2014. The fifth studio album, sincerely, e, arrived in 2021 as a topical set captured at home during COVID-19 isolation.
An active musician from childhood, Ziman studied classical piano until age 16 and was enrolled in composition at Berklee College of Music when Patti Austin came to campus seeking singers. Ziman earned a place in Austin's touring group in 2002 and sang background vocals for the soul legend over the next 18 months. After returning to New York in 2004, she formed a trio to present her own material, recruiting drummer Danny Molad and guitarist Peter Lalish before self-recording and producing a self-titled EP two years later.
After cultivating a D.I.Y. approach and drawing interest from several major labels without signing, the band secured a deal with Verve Records in 2008. Elizabeth & the Catapult headed to Nebraska to work inside Mike Mogis' Omaha studio, where the tranquil setting prompted swift completion of an album's worth of songs before the group returned to New York. The resulting Taller Children marked their major-label debut in June 2009. One year later, Ziman and Molad issued a second album, The Other Side of Zero, whose dark humor drew heavily from Leonard Cohen's Book of Longing. Guests included co-producer Tony Berg, guitarist Blake Mills, yMusic's Rob Moose, and, on the title track, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. It debuted at number 24 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart.
Elizabeth & the Catapult subsequently parted with Verve, after which Molad left the official lineup to join Lalish in the indie pop group Lucius. Around this period, partly for easier travel, Ziman took up guitar and began busking at New York subway stops. She also built credits composing for documentary films and television scores, among them 2013's The Other Shore and The Republic of Two, both created with writing partner Paul Brill. Beyond her own shows, she toured as a member of Kishi Bashi's band in 2013.
Both of Ziman's former bandmates appeared on her third album, Like It Never Happened, released by Thirty Tigers early in 2014. Her first record to include guitar-written songs alongside piano material, it reached the Top 20 on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts. Later that year, Ziman and her band opened for Sara Bareilles at Madison Square Garden. While developing material for the next album, she co-composed scores for documentaries such as 2015's In My Father's House and 2016's Trapped, again with Brill.
Elizabeth & the Catapult worked with Compass Records on 2017's Keepsake, which contained tracks produced by Molad, Ziman, Richard Swift, and others. The project returned in 2021 with the self-produced sincerely, e. A pandemic-themed collection, the album was recorded in Ziman's living room during months of sheltering from the COVID-19 virus and addressed isolation, connective technology, and related anxieties. It included long-distance contributions from Molad and Lalish on "the muse," as well as Adam Minkoff and additional musicians.
