The Wonderful World of “Freak”: An In-Depth Interview with Theia

Hailing from New Zealand, Theia is making waves in the alt-pop community with her powerful, compelling songs that discuss topics such as fame, slut-shaming, and female empowerment. Her new single “Freak” perfectly captures the spirit of Halloween with noteworthy production techniques and creative sampling, as well as the allure of a mysterious woman described in the poetic lyrics of the song. I sat down to have a chat with her to find out the meaning of “Freak”, how it was created, and more information about Theia’s musical endeavors.

[UNPUBLISHED:] “Freak” is a song that’s themed around Halloween. What made you want to write and release a song centered around this holiday in particular?

[THEIA:] It’s interesting because I’ve made all of the graphics to coincide with Halloween, but the content itself is not really about Halloween. I just always wanted to do something for Halloween, I suppose, but when I wrote “Freak” it was actually the first track I wrote that was potentially going to go on “99% Angel”, the mixtape. It was just such a quick succession so once I had all the other tracks I realized that “Freak” was so cool but unlike all the other tracks, which were really autobiographical, “Freak” was more you know-- it was about Evangeline, this character that I made up who is not, obviously, me. With the sounds, we did I just wanted to pull out everything, so there are witch cackles, there’s everything in there so I felt like it would be a perfect Halloween track. I always wanted to do one, so it just made sense. I’d actually been listening to loads of Stevie Nicks and with “Rhiannon” she conjured up her character who happens to be a witch and I was like wow, I really wanna play around with that because I always write about my own experiences so it would be so cool to do something about a girl that I always wanted to write about. When I was in Los Angeles last year I went to Jumbo’s Clown Room with a couple of friends and that's like this really incredible, very notorious strip club. It’s very intimate, it’s legit like a one-in-one-out kind of thing. It was amazing just to see the girls there and they’re so sexy and confident in who they are, and they don't really give a crap about men or anything like that. It was just really inspiring, so for “Freak” I kind of just made this whole imaginary, incredible universe that was like a strip club but in Las Vegas specifically because I was thinking about how that's kind of ‘sin city’ and how perfect it would be.

[UNPUBLISHED:] It really does sound like a modern version of Rhiannon, which is very cool. Do you think it’s important for female artists to write songs with the intention of empowering women?

[THEIA:] Oh my gosh, for sure! I feel like no one else is gonna do it for us, so of course, I absolutely think that. It’s also important to not only be writing songs that empower other women but also songs that kind of, I suppose, turn the whole male gaze thing on its head. For “Freak”, the accompanying video is super hentai based, because I really do love hentai, and I kind of just felt like that's the perfect opportunity to do something like that. When you're taking something --hentai, which is Japanese anime porn-- that's normally used to objectify women for male pleasure essentially and so to turn something like that, which I personally find super sexy and I know a lot of other women do, but making it something that shows women as the powerful, incredible, independent, sensual beings that we are just for the purpose of that instead of just as objects that don't have a mind or strength, that's essentially what I really wanted to do with the visual as well.

[UNPUBLISHED:] It sounds like you’re really open with the meaning behind your music, do you ever find it difficult to be so straightforward when asked about the lyrics of your songs?

[THEIA:] Yeah, when I was just starting in the industry and learning how to do stuff I still wrote about very personal things such as self-harm, struggles with mental health, and eating disorders so when I wrote about it that’s what the motivation was, but when it came to actually releasing the songs and talking about what they were about that’s when I struggled to figure out how much to give away because obviously, I knew why I’d written the song, but how much to explain and accompany it for everyone else I wasn't so sure of, so that was a balancing act to see how much I felt comfortable with and how much I felt was appropriate to explain. I feel like that just comes with experience and growing up and figuring out yourself as well because now- I mean obviously I'm not an entire open book because there are some bits of myself I would like to keep private, but on the whole, I've now found power in being honest and transparent instead of being fearful about that.

[UNPUBLISHED:] I thought the cover art for “Freak” was really interesting, does it have any meaning that relates to the track itself?

[THEIA:] It does! It’s really interesting because the cover art is obviously hentai and I worked with Fid Jey who I found from a Grimes fan page ‘cause she did the video for Darkseid by Grimes, but before I found the video I wanted to create the characters so I pretty much was like “hey I really want to create Evangeline who would have crazy beautiful purple hair and be dressed super grunge” so that's like all the chokers and everything and then I wanted to give her the black wings so she's like a woman but also kind of part spirit, like a dark angel kind of thing. Then we added in a second girl who you see on the ground as well ‘cause with Evangeline- it’s a strip joint but she's kind of like the headmistress if you will, and so she’s the in charge boss bitch who has a whole bunch of other girls underneath her who she looks after and so that's like the girl on the floor. Just to add a little bit to make it very very obvious that it's me, I put a black heart on both of their cheeks because I always wear a black heart on this cheek.

[UNPUBLISHED:] The production does an excellent job of following the Halloween theme and story behind the track with all of the sound effects and everything, what was it like working with Liam Quinn [co-writer and producer of “Freak”]?

[THEIA:] I feel like working with him- all our creations together being the mixtape and then “Freak” and the last single that I released before the mixtape which is “Not Your Princess”... It’s honestly some of the most fun I've ever had in the studio because we just really let loose and experimented and tried all of these things sonically that I’ve always wanted to do like all of these samples, [we were] legit searching for witch cackles, searching for guns and breaking glass and layering them on top of each other and then searching for knives and all of this crazy badass stuff to form this whole other world which is really really special. So yeah, it was amazing. I feel like it just came together so so beautiful and so easily. I was really inspired by ‘If You Seek Amy’ by Britney Spears and so I went in being like “I wanna make a Britney song!” but I wanted it to be like the Los Vegas kind of vibe, that’s essentially where it started. Then the melodies came along and it was just very easy and very fun. I just really enjoyed writing the lyrics because I feel like when you read them on their own, they almost are like a poem, it’s really beautiful.

[UNPUBLISHED:] You mentioned Britney Spears as being a big influence on the song when I listen to your other songs, I hear a lot of early 2000s influences, are there any other artists from that era or aspects of that era that also inspire you?

[THEIA:] Yes! You’re right on the money. I’m very inspired by early Y2K both visually and sonically. I mean I definitely vibe with- it may not seem like the right kind of reference for stuff- but I definitely vibe with a lot of Radiohead and the early Thom Yorke stuff because the synths are so dirty and grungy and cool. Then also Bjork. Majorly Bjork because again, it's a similar vibe. She’s absolutely nuts and I feel like her music’s totally stood the test of time. I definitely have referenced specific sounds like Bjork sounds and riffs and then the same with Britney as well and I wanted to bring it into the now by just making everything super HD and very bright on the master so it’s very very crisp and clear while still having that grungy vibe.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Lockdown has had such a big impact on everyone's mental health, have any of the hardships of the pandemic (such as isolation, feeling overwhelmed, etc.) seeped through into your lyrics for the new songs you’ve been working on?

[THEIA:] Not really from lockdown because I’ve surprisingly felt, I don't know... I feel like I've kind of had this moment in lockdown where I was doing so many zoom gigs and cyber shows that it was actually almost the most connected I've felt in a while, it was like really random so that was really special and I’ve made all these incredible friends. Saying that, of course, it's definitely hard on one's mental health, I mean I struggle at the best of times to navigate each day, but I feel like the new music- I guess I pretty much keep notes whenever anything happens in my life or I find myself thinking back about things that happened that I wasn't ready to write about yet and then when it feels right then I'll write about them. So it’s not about the lockdown, but it’s all of these things growing up that I never really wanted to talk about whereas now I feel really empowered to talk about just a whole bunch of stuff like religion and also- I’m Māori so that’s like- we’re the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and there's been a lot of, obviously with any indigenous peoples, a lot of trauma around colonization and then urbanization, which is when we were forced to move into the cities and away from that traditional, communal way of life, so there's a lot of things, I suppose, that I really want to write about to do with our colonization and the things that my grandmother’s gone through and things like that. Just as an example, we had this act called the Tohunga Suppression Act which banned Māori from being spoken in school. My grandmother would get hit if she spoke her native language. The act also stopped us from getting tā moko, which is our traditional tattoos, and also from wearing traditional greenstone and stuff like that. I reap the benefits of [my grandmother’s] fight where we didn’t have to grow up being hit for speaking that language, but obviously, we’re trying to now revitalize and bring back that which was lost to our new generation, so in short- there are many heavy topics that don’t have to do with corona, but just have to do with growing up, human trials which I’ve been writing about and I'm really looking forward to sharing because I feel like when you can write about colonization and put it to alt-pop it's quite a cool thing to be able to do.

[UNPUBLISHED:] The music industry is an insanely difficult industry to break into, but you seem to be doing really well for yourself. What advice would you give to any aspiring musicians who want to get to where you are now?

[THEIA:] Well first of all- thank you! It’s like a constant battle of the will, isn’t it? Like half the time I’m like “I suck, I'm the worst, ever I’m not going anywhere, no one likes me, no one cares, what am I doing this for?” and then the next minute I’m like “oh my gosh I love my music! I have so much to offer to this world!” which I think is just the battle of being a creative. I would say that the number one thing is honestly just, it’s so cliche, but just know who you are and don’t give up. I was with a major label and did that kind of thing and it was just last year when I left the major label and went independent and I never felt better. It’s phenomenal. I think what I would’ve traditionally thought of as success i.e being signed was not, maybe, right for me at that time. Then I went independent and that was terrifying in itself because it’s like wow, it's just me and my small team, but it’s ended up being really incredible and so if I gave up I wouldn’t have got to grow and experience this phenomenal freedom and everything like that so I would say yeah, don't give up. The world is a big place. There'll be some people out there who feel the same way and I feel like eventually if you persist, you’ll find them, and they’ll find you.

[UNPUBLISHED:] You mentioned that you were signed to a major label before deciding to go independent. So many artists have a goal of being signed to a major but then realize that it’s not what they thought it would be once they get there. What made you, personally, decide to take that leap of faith and leave to be independent?

 [THEIA:] Oh my gosh, well the reality is this right- If you’re with a major label, think about all the artists that are with major labels. They do mainstream pop music that’s loved by the masses, so if you want to be with a major then I suppose you kinda have to do that, in a sense. I just wasn't really down for that and I wasn't really heading in that direction. I didn't feel like myself and so I felt like I would rather leave a major label and that security of a huge machine that pushes you- I would rather leave that for just being independent and literally just on my own with my team and making music that I honestly feel so free making, which just happens to be super grungy and experimental alternative music, but I guess that’s the kind of risk I wanted to take. And so I did it. And honestly, It's been the coolest thing I've ever done. I don't hate on big labels, though. Like I said before, if you're making that kind of music or if you're wanting to be that kind of artist then that's incredible, but if you’re not then you either have to go with a smaller, more niche label that just really cares about the artistry instead of money. I suppose that’s the thing, right? If you're gonna be with a big label, people wanna make money, and so if you’re not necessarily making a genre that's accessible and loved by most people then you're not really gonna make the money and so that’s kind of the sacrifice. Bearing in mind, people have done the tough grind for ages just trying to stick to their authentic music and then all of a sudden it gets recognized and you wind up with Bjork and Fiona Apple and stuff like that so I kind of feel like as long as I'm staying true to myself, you just never know what’s gonna happen. Your next song could be a huge one. Anything could happen, so I'd rather just be myself and be so happy with what I'm making and be in that underground world with that hope that maybe one day it will get picked up by the mainstream, who knows! 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Would any of your earlier music sound different had you released it independently instead of with a major label?

[THEIA:] Oh yeah, for sure, I think so. It’s really interesting because I look back on it and even the first record is still kind of indie and electro-pop in a sense, so it's still not as commercial as I could go but- what I’m trying to say is it's still soft enough and it still has a little bit of a dreaminess that’s still not what I would class as hard core, straight-up pop so I feel like perhaps… Some of it is down to experience and when you're super young and you're just thrust into it and you're guided/advised on what you should be doing its kind of hard to push back against that, so I don't know. It's hard to imagine. I just know I did the best that I could at the time. I still take comfort in the fact that [the music] still feels kind of cool to me. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Your song ‘Roam’ completely blew up on Spotify with over 14 million streams. When you were writing the song did you ever anticipate such a huge response from it?

 [THEIA:] No, I totally didn't! But again, the label and everyone around was kind of hoping. But no, I didn't really. I didn't really have any feelings on it in particular ‘cause I never really even released anything before, so the whole thing was just brand new. It definitely caught on and kind of blew up and that was when Spotify was in its infancy, so it was in the purest form when it wasn't governed by algorithms and now, obviously, there are some huge players who have big stakes in Spotify and so they can definitely use that to their advantage. I think it was just a freak kind of thing where it just took off and it just happened. I don’t think that it means that the song is any different, or that the quality is any better than my other music. I just think [Spotify] was a different beast back then. It was so in its infancy. I have no answers as to why it blew up as it did. It’s just crazy. But I'm very grateful for it, though, ‘cause I feel like that's what helped me kind of ease on in there.

[UNPUBLISHED:] What do you think you’ll be working on next? Will there be an album anytime soon?

 [THEIA:] I don't actually even know! I feel like I need to do a full album at some point. I've just been messing around with the EPs which are so cool and I do love them but like I said before, I've already got 4 demos I’m trying to really finesse and get on top of and who knows! I don't fully know whether it will be a record or if it'll just be singles or what it will be, but there's definitely a theme that’s kind of similar to ‘99% Angel’ where there was a clear thread, so I definitely feel like it will be some kind of body of work. On top of that, there’s my ‘Theia’ music and then I recently released the new project which is a side project called ‘TE KAAHU’ and it's all in my indigenous language in te reo. I released the first single for that and it's called ‘E Taku Huia Kaimanawa’ which means “my treasured one” and it's about my queen, my nana, and her passing away. I’ve got another track that's gonna be coming out for that side project as well so I feel like it’s fun to be doing the two different projects and two different worlds. The TE KAAHU is more traditional, it’s in māori and it’s legit just guitar and piano. It’s so stripped back. Then I've got the ‘Theia’ project where I can just go so hardcore.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Finally, what would you like to say to your fans who are streaming “Freak” and loving it and sharing it?

 [THEIA:] Oh my gosh, I would like to say I’m mind blown and I feel so lucky and so blessed to have all of these incredible, incredible people who like what I do and like me. That just means everything, you know, because I wouldn't even be able to do it without them. I’m so grateful and thank you for loving what I do and I hope you’ll love everything that’s coming as well.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Well, that’s everything, thank you! I’ve had fun chatting about the songs.

 [THEIA:] Me too, it's been dope talking about all this stuff. I don’t know anywhere else where I could be like “blah blah blah, hentai” and all of this stuff… Oh wait, I almost forgot! Do you know the artist called Boy Sim? He’s really cool, he’s got tracks with Slayyyter and he’s really incredible, he’s done a remix of “Freak” which is gonna drop on the 31st on Halloween!

You can listen to “Freak” by Theia on all streaming platforms.