Samia discusses her third record ‘Bloodless,’ a grand undertaking of identity and mystery with Atwood Magazine.

Stream: ‘Bloodless’ – Samia

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You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.

– Margaret Atwood

Samia has had it with voyeurism.

The Minneapolis-based artist has always penned with precision, but this endeavor focuses not on autobiographical slices of life, but a single concept: Dissecting an identity that was constructed for men. The result is Bloodless, thirteen astonishing tracks that exhibit Samia from every possible angle. The record – her third – is a self-described return to form, a condensation of the larger than life ideals of identity into spoonfuls of thought.

“Bovine Excision,” the first single off the record, uses the inexplicable phenomenon of cattle mutilation as its metaphor. A slow burn culminates in a perfect storm of distortion in which Samia sings, “I just wanted to be your friend. Cup of tea in your cold hand.” This gnawing feeling explodes into a chant of worship-song proportions with “drained, drained bloodless.” Samia’s falsetto echoes like a ghost of herself as it floats above the gritty guitars. It’s one thing to be found with nothing left to offer, it’s another to choose to stop giving yourself away.

The thesis of the record is best found in the second track, “Hole in a Frame.” Sid Vicious’ temper tantrum has been immortalized in Cain’s Ballroom by a black frame and a golden plaque. A sweet, piano-led refrain and immortalizing a piece of nothing prove that “a little death goes a long way.”

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Though not completely different from former tracks, the hollow warmth and stuttering instrumentation of “Dare” feel like new territory for Samia. Her voice projects brazenly as she repeats, “I will always understand the way that you protect him.” “Spine Oil” echoes these rumblings, led by booming toms and a Jonny Greenwood guitar. Samia unflinchingly admits, “I’ll take the plant likе a virgin, everything hurts when it goes in.” The two songs are wrought with a sense of emptiness and realization, ambiguous yet precise in their delivery.

“Carousel” is the lone love song on the record. Samia’s falsetto aches with desperation as she whispers, “I’ve been rubbing together bramble, I wanna hitch my fire to your candle.” Building to a shout, she finds consolation in the eye of the beholder, singing, “All your celebrity crushes are asymmetrical like me.” Power chords and distortion set fire to the ending.

We close with a triptych of nonexistence. Four notes taunt the audience: “Wanna see what’s under these Levi’s? I got nothing under these Levi’s.” Samia is indeed able to take the big feelings and make them digestible, though she never waters them down. Breathlessness is cut short as the instruments come back in and Samia definitively sings, “Lipstick on my teeth in the mirror. How long has this been here? How long have I been here?”

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With this [record], I gifted myself the ability to write in this elliptical way that felt more like a private catharsis, which is why I wanted to write to begin with.

Bloodless is Samia’s clearest statement yet.

Expressive and vivid as ever, the self-imposed constraints do not hinder this artist’s ability to cut deeply. In fact, they allow unanswered questions to take root and grow tall, towering over what came before them.

Samia discusses this grand undertaking of identity and mystery with Atwood Magazine.

Bloodless is out now via Grand Jury Music.

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:: stream/purchase Bloodless here ::

:: connect with Samia here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH SAMIA

Samia Finnerty: It’s less rooted in any real man. It was a set of criteria that I used to build my personality and identity around from a young age. It was based on a combination of empirical evidence and total projection; between real experiences with people and assumptions made from the media. I created a desperate identity based on fragments of things I thought men would like. I found a lot of parallels in that and the way that people worship God.

Samia: It sprung from interpersonal stuff. It came out of real-life relationships and finding myself in these cyclical patterns. I found similar anger across the board, and the common denominator was me. Figuring out why I was facing the same conflicts over and over led me to explore this and why it kept happening.

Samia: I used to write really elliptically but I wanted to stop writing things in code and saying things plainly, that was my experience with the second album. With this one, I gifted myself the ability to write in this elliptical way that felt more like a private catharsis, which is why I wanted to write to begin with. I needed a private journal to say what I wanted to say without saying it.

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Samia: That’s a good question.

Samia: I set out to do something with those songs. And we did that. I learned a lot about what doesn’t feel comfortable. There is something about form and craftsmanship that has always been so exciting to me. My favorite writers are people who have spent a lot of time studying the craft. I wanted, as an experiment, to focus on that with this record. I had my own personal journey with the feelings. This was more of a study of form than Honey. I circled back to what made me fall in love with writing.

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There is something about form and craftsmanship that has always been so exciting to me. My favorite writers are people who have spent a lot of time studying the craft. I wanted, as an experiment, to focus on that with this record.

Samia: It’s so comforting, I need them. One of the things I am most proud to talk about is my friends and my community. I’m shy, so it takes me a long time to open up. I can’t write with a lot of people. There are only a few that have cracked me open in a special way. I am so proud to be amongst them.

Samia: Nathan Stocker, Jake Luppen, Caleb Wright, and Briston Maroney played. We also just didn’t have a piano. It was interesting to see how to translate. We ended up moving in an Americana direction. I wrote most of these songs on the piano within a year and a half. We went back and forth between Minneapolis and North Carolina. The imagery was sitting outside on a starless night on a swamp, listening to a radio playing faintly. That was our north star for the music.

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Samia: The metaphor is around this inexplicable phenomenon of cattle mutilation. Farmers find these cattles drained of blood and mutilated with surgical precision. It plays into this idea of existing as an unsolved mystery. That can be aspirational, in my experience with womanhood. There’s a song about being a mosquito, or the girls bleeding draped over the recliner. There is something about the literal monthly blood loss that many of us experience. It’s the idea of wanting to be this unexplained phenomenon.

Samia: Yeah. It’s really nothing. So much of this record is about how it’s easier to be an idea rather than a person. The lack of you only grows in value with mystery and time. It’s supposed to be sexy in that I am luring someone in by exposing that I don’t exist.

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So much of this record is about how it’s easier to be an idea rather than a person. The lack of you only grows in value with mystery and time.

Samia: Writers. I’ve always processed my experience through writing and reading other people’s writings. Maya Angelou, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, Audra Lorde, Ann Sexton, and Fiona Apple. I’m so fascinated when someone can distill these giant ideas into something completely digestible. Put something so plainly that feels so huge.

Samia: I would never dare! I set out to find the most honest way to express my feelings. It ended up taking a lot of deliberation, making sure every word was the right word to describe the experience I was having. That is definitely inspired by these writers who do so successfully. It’s my life’s goal to do what they do.

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I’m so fascinated when someone can distill these giant ideas into something completely digestible. Put something so plainly that feels so huge.

Samia: It’s nice to have that. To me, life’s greatest pleasure is to have something to strive towards, something aspirational to keep you excited to be alive. Catharsis is awesome, but catharsis through structure is even cooler. It’s a puzzle to solve, and that’s one of the most exciting things in the world to me.

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:: stream/purchase Bloodless here ::

:: connect with Samia here ::

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Watch: “Bovine Excision” – Samia

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 © Graham Tolbert

Bloodless

an album by Samia

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