Step intoSamias fantasy world and youll find an alter ego that looks like her, but is entirely different.
She lives in a balmy, emerald-green wetland.
Shes completely unburdened by peoples opinions or expectations.
“I thought, ‘The only way I’ll ever be happy is if I learn to believe in my choices and ideas,’” Samia says.
This is Samias idealized self, and her name is Kiki Swamp.
As she shares her alter egos name, Samia, 28, cant help but laugh.
I made a Sim of her, the singer-songwriter says with a chuckle.
Its like the most confident version of myself.
Its mid-February, and a blanket of snow covers New York.
(What if it went poorly, and then it was documented forever?
Throughout the conversation, she often says she feels like a child.
Thats not to say her first two albums, 2020sThe Babyand 2023sHoney,lacked confidence.
It doesnt come naturally for me.
Im not one of those people whos like, Fuck what you think, she says.
Since this past December, Samia has lived in Minneapolis with her boyfriend and fellow musician Briston Maroney.
I think the spirit of it was born there, she says.
Thats when I sort of understood what I was trying to say.
But she found herself changing course to write about how she, herself, was perceived by the world.
When you dont talk things through, theres just a lot of fantasy being created, she says.
She felt like a mythologized monster, and it pissed her off.
Samia soon realized her frustration extended beyond that specific conflict.
I started thinking about my experience with womanhood on a larger scale, she says.
Even if you dont like boys, you just have to make men not kill you, she says.
You have to appeal to men in some way.
Picking leeches off white underwear …
It was just the most perfect fucking metaphor … the frame around nothing, she says.
It was this absence that he created.
Maybe Im just all of these things, she says.
Thats kind of exciting.
Production Credits
Makeup byABBY BERNI.
Photographic assistance byNICK THOMSEN.
