a look into samia's diary, 'the baby'
Interview by Sydney Hise
Samia has never not known the spotlight. As the daughter of two performers, she grew up knowing that her time would eventually come and she couldn’t picture it any other way. After opening for countless bands—Hippo Campus and Cold War Kids to name a few—playing her own headlining shows last year, releasing a multitude of singles, playing festivals and producing music videos, her debut album The Baby and her time to shine has come. Ease Up Magazine’s Sydney Hise chatted with her about the important places and people in her life and what’s to come next.
Ease Up Mag: So how have you been feeling? Have you been feeling good lately, excited for the record to come out?
Samia: Yea! I’ve been feeling good. I’ve been really excited about it and I think, just given the circumstances, a lot of the pressure is off and I’m just really happy to be contributing something right now. I’m not too worried about it given, like, all the other things that are going on in the world.
EUM: Has it been weird to release a record in the middle of a pandemic?
S: It’s been weird, but it’s also the first time I’ve released a record, so all of it is new to me. It is just really encouraging and comforting to see all the ways people are being innovative and savvy and coming together and trying to make the music industry work still, and try to find new ways to not let these old things that we love die.
EUM: Are you excited to start touring after the pandemic is over, hopefully?
S: So excited. There is nothing that I’d rather be doing. That’s the saddest part of this whole thing for me, I really miss touring.
EUM: I’m sure it’s really weird releasing something and then not being able to release tour dates right after.
S: I’ve always imagined doing that, I’ve always planned for doing that, but I know it’ll happen, and hopefully we’ll be even more ready when the time comes. It’s such a bummer.
EUM: How long was your production process for this album? I read about how you were in a couple different locations for it.
S: I tried working with a lot of different people, and I met this guy named Lars who I loved and immediately connected with, but I also really wanted to work with my friends. It was hard fought, but we ended up being able to do it. The writing process took about two years, honestly. Then I flew out to Minnesota and was able to spend a couple months with some of my closest friends doing that. It was just a dream. It was the best environment, the most conducive to me feeling honest and feeling the freedom to say what I need to say and like trusting the advice of everyone around me. It ended in a good spot.
EUM: I saw that you did a lot of the album finishing in the middle of a Minnesota winter. I’m from Wisconsin so I know how brutal that can be. Are you used to that kind of weather…
S: Noooo!
EUM: ...Or was that something new to you?
S: No, I’m not used to it, it was new to me. I wore a Cuddl Dud for the first time and that really helped a lot. Brit O’Brien came and shot, she made a little documentary trailer about the process of making the record. We just got the footage back and you can just see how chapped my skin is, I was just not ready.
EUM: Do you feel like the places that you’ve worked on your record have influenced your writing in any way?
S: I think thematically it revolves around places and even the people that the songs are about or are involved in the songs are sort of represented by the places where my memories of those people were built. I think those two things are inextricably linked in my storytelling: people that I care about and the places I attach them to. I do a lot of name dropping of states on this record.
EUM: Do you tell your own stories or do you tell other people’s stories through your eyes or is it fictional? Is it nonfictional? Is it a combination of both?
S: It’s totally nonfictional and autobiographical. I wish I could write fictional stories, I think that would be so fun and I, like, really respect my friends who can do that, but I can’t do it for some reason.
EUM: It makes it more authentic that way, I’ve noticed in your songwriting that you are 100% true to yourself, and especially with this record compared to even some of the singles you’ve dropped before, it’s a lot more vulnerable and real.
S: Thank you for saying that. I get worried about being overly specific; I want everything to be relatable, but sometimes I’ve noticed in other songs that I’m inspired by that I relate most to the specific details that wouldn’t even actually pertain to my life. I just try to do that as often as I can.
EUM: Your album definitely tiptoes the line really well between being specific and being relatable, I really enjoyed that about the record.
S: Thank you!
EUM: All of your past singles have been in the same soundscape, but on this album it seems as if you experimented a little bit with different sounds. “Waverly” especially comes to mind. Was that something you really focused on when you were producing this record?
S: Yeah, absolutely. I was just so inspired sonically by my friends who I worked with and the kind of sounds that just naturally came out of them. I think that musical bed was born out of that space and that collaboration, I don’t think we’d be able to do it again with a different combination of people. I think it’s a combination of tiny pieces of all of us who were in those rooms and that’s probably sonically my favorite thing about it.
EUM: You produced with Baby Boys, right?
S: Yea!
EUM: It sounds, in the best way possible, like it was produced by Caleb [Hinz]. I thought it was really cool that you guys found a way to meet in the middle and make it sound like both of you. I really like that about it.
S: Thank you so much. Yeah, Happy Children’s album Same Dif is in my top three albums of all time and I love Caleb, he’s a good friend of mine, but I feel so, like, starstruck that I got to make something with him. It’s just, like, so amazing for me to hear sounds that are so obviously him on my record. It’s like a dream come true.
EUM: It’s been a little over a year since you released “Ode to Artifice," do you feel like a lot has changed or matured in your sound since that single was released?
S: Uh, yes, absolutely. I mean, I hope so. I put out a lot of singles before we even started working on this record and I think it’s because I was just trying to figure out what my sound was and what I wanted to say. I know, for better or for worse, I was doing that in a public context to just put things out and see how it made me feel, and I’m glad I did that because it got me to a point where I am totally certain now what I want to say and how I want to sound, and I definitely never have felt that way till now. It’s really fun to look back on old diaries, going back to listening to the music I put out three years ago, ‘cause I can see that timeline and it’s totally tangible.
EUM: Do you release the newest stuff as singles or do you pull from what you have written in the past as well?
S: I wrote intentionally for this record for two years so every song that’s on it, I knew what I was writing it for. I think they are all a part of a bigger story with similar motifs, but that’s the first time I’ve ever done that. When we first started putting things out, I was just digging into the archives of songs I have been playing since I was 17 that I knew I wanted to spew into the world now. It was cool to do that and have that representation of who I used to be, but with this one, it was totally real time with the intention of being a part of a bigger project.
EUM: Do you have a favorite memory of your production?
S: I think when we finished tracking in Minnesota, Brit [O’Brien] got it on camera so we are putting out a little video where you can see it soon. There’s a couple moments. There’s one where Jake [Luppen] made me scream for this one song, I was so nervous about doing it and he was just screaming at me to scream harder and finally, I did it and I was sobbing and I couldn’t breathe and it felt like my voice was gone. We just sat on the floor and I breathed through it, it was the most vulnerable moment I’ve had in a creative context but when the record was done, we all laid on the floor with our eyes closed and listened to the whole thing from start to finish in the dark. We were all sobbing by the end of it, and it was just a really powerful experience for everyone involved.
EUM: Would you say that recording with your friends brings a more vulnerable and honest environment?
S: Yes, absolutely. I think that’s why I wanted to do it and that’s why it meant so much to me and I definitely only want to do it that way from here on out.
EUM: Do you have a favorite song or a favorite story on the album?
S: I think either “Pool” or “Is There Something in the Movies” are the moments where I had the opportunity to say the most and the most honestly.
EUM: Which of your singles that you’ve released is your favorite? Obviously one being “Is There Something in the Movies."
S: I can’t really listen to any of them because I’ve already listened to them so many times, but I think “Big Wheel” is the most fun to listen to. I like when that one comes on.
EUM: Do you have anything that you’re looking forward to doing in the future, either during the pandemic after the album comes out or after the pandemic? What are your hopes for the future?
S: I haven’t been thinking so much about the future because it’s all so up in the air. I just hope that we can go on tour again soon, that’s pretty selfish. I really hope that everyone’s okay. I hope that we can continue to focus on the things that have been uncovered during this time that have been there all along and are so vital to have conversations about, I hope that doesn’t end anytime soon. But, yeah, touring.
Go listen to Samia's debut album The Baby, out on all streaming platforms today!