Sophomore albums are never easy, but they’re especially difficult when your debut makes the kind of lasting mark Samia’s 2020 outing The Baby made. So Honey arrives today with more than a bit of expectation.

In many ways it’s a totally different animal than The Baby – less rough around the edges, more lyrically direct, content to dwell in quieter passages. But it’s also a record about perspective, and as such interrogates some of the same ideas (even some of the same stories) that Samia tackled on The Baby, only from a new, more assured vantage. The Baby and its songs’ protagonists wanted approval. Honey doesn’t need it because it exclusively traffics in the sort of unvarnished truths that render approval irrelevant.

It’s Samia at her most bare, brave & beautiful. Filled with the courage of hindsight.

Listen deep wherever you stream music. Or own a copy below. The record deserves it.

Honey is out on Friday (pre-save or pre-order here), but there’s one more double single before we get to the finish line. A linked pair like “Pink Balloon” & “Sea Lions” before it, “Honey” & “Breathing Song” are both deeply sad. Only one of them does its best to convince itself that’s not true. The video for “Honey,” which also arrived this morning, was directed by Jacq Justice and features several versions of Samia all doing their best to keep it together, to varying degrees of success.

“To me Honey is the saddest song I’ve ever written, because it’s mocking my attempt to convince people I was good,” says Samia. “Caleb [Wright] turned it into a campfire song, though, and I love that it can be interpreted as fun too.”

Pre-orders are still available, with the final sweetart swirl variant arriving on Bandcamp earlier this month. Limited to 500 copies, and nearly sold out already. All pre-order options below.

Next month, Samia kicks off her US tour in support of Honey. She’ll be joined on the road by Tommy Lefroy. Brooklyn Steel is already sold out. Tickets to the rest of the dates available over in the tour section. All dates below.

You’ve already heard “Kill Her Freak Out” & “Mad At Me” from Honey, Samia’s long-awaited follow up to 2020’s The Baby and 2021’s Scout EP. Today, the Nashville-via-NYC songwriter returns with two more emphatic reasons to pay attention, a pair of linked ruminations on the end of a relationship.

“Pink Balloon is trying to make amends by looking at it from a bird’s eye after everything got too complicated,” says Samia. “Sea Lions is not zoomed out – stewing in it, too angry to work it out or let it go, finding old voicemails and trying to decide where it went wrong on a loop until you have to run it off, running until you were never angry in the first place.”

A pair of twins in music video form arrived last night alongside the single, each directed by Samia with friend & collaborator Jacqueline Justice. While the palate of “Pink Balloon” matches that song’s spare intensity, both the video and track “Sea Lions” play coy with their intentions until exploding into a surprise climax.

The double single’s Max Taeuschel artwork, which mixes photos shot by Justice on the video set with handwritten lyrics from Samia, is below.

Honey is set for release January 27th of 2023, and is available for pre-order in multiple formats. Tickets for the extensive Honey tour are available now over in the tour section.

Back in September we announced Samia‘s sophomore album Honey on the back of the spare & beautiful lead single “Kill Her Freak Out.” Today Samia returns with something different: “Mad At Me” is a firework display of gas pedal indie pop (produced by Rostam, guest verse from papa mbye) that celebrates the time honored tradition of faking it till you make it.

“The lyrics for Mad At Me came from a poem I’d written about imagining what it’d be like to stop caring about what anyone was thinking. I was cosplaying a position that I haven’t experienced which is of literally any confidence in my point of view,” says Samia. That’s right, even the fun songs are a little in their own head.

The video, available above, was directed by Samia herself alongside regular visual collaborator Muriel Knudson. “In the video we tried to embody that character,” Samia continues, “a bunch of girls having a good time in spite of it all. It is a big lie.”

The album is currently available for pre-order in multiple formats, each linked below.

In other news, yesterday was Samia’s first stop on Maggie Roger’s Feral Joy tour in Leeds, UK. It’s the first opportunity anyone outside of North America has had to see Samia perform her songs live. The tour has several more stops, while Samia will be playing her own sold out(!) XOYO gig and a stop at Pitchfork London while she’s in the UK.

Back stateside, US tour in early 2023 with Tommy Lefroy is on sale now. Get tickets for all dates over in our tour section.

Honey, the new album from Samia, is coming January 27th, 2023.

Recorded in the woods of North Carolina with her dearest friends, it’s a celebration of community, the dreams that tether us together & the lenses through which we view the world. It’s a more self-assured and bold step beyond the coming of age stories of The Baby & Scout. Downright intimidating in its confidence. And we can’t wait for you to hear it.

The first single was released today. “Kill Her Freak Out” is an instant-add to a canon including tearjerkers like “Milk,” “Pool,” & “Django.” It’s a song from the end of a rope, Samia at her most musically spare and lyrically exasperated. The music video, embedded above, was directed alongside Muriel Margaret and features Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner, Lucas Hedges.

Pre-orders for the album are available now. Honey features two distinct sequences – one for continuous play on digital & CD and one for a side break listening experience on vinyl and cassette. The vinyl features its own unique mix and master tailored to the LP experience, while the album will also be available on Apple Music & other retailers in Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio.

The first pressing of the standard edition 12″ comes on honey yellow vinyl. Deluxe edition 180g gatefold copies of the record are available on pink & black swirl at Samia’s webstore and Bandcamp — each comes with a limited edition flexi disc of Samia covering “Country” by Porches. Meanwhile, indie record shops are carrying a translucent blue version of the album, and Rough Trade US & UK has a limited edition magenta LP — both including a limited edition flexi disc of Samia covering Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps.” The album is also available on cassette and CD with a 16 page lyric booklet.  

Digital & CD Tracklist:
01 Kill Her Freak Out
02 Charm You
03 Pink Balloon
04 Mad At Me
05 Sea Lions
06 To Me It Was
07 Breathing Song
08 Honey
09 Nanana
10 Amelia
11 Dream Song

Vinyl & Cassette Tracklist:
A1 Kill Her Freak Out
A2 Charm You
A3 Pink Balloon
A4 Mad At Me
A5 Sea Lions
A6 Amelia
B1 Breathing Song
B2 Honey
B3 Nanana
B4 To Me It Was
B5 Dream Song

Last but certainly not least, Samia has announced a massive US tour set to kick off in February of next year. Support across the run comes from Tommy Lefroy. The dates arrive only a few short months after Samia supports Maggie Rogers across Europe & the UK in November, also stopping for a sold-out headline show in London at XOYO and an appearance alongside Courtney Barnett at Roundhouse for Pitchfork London.

Today Samia shares a set of covers arriving just in time for Valentine’s Day: “Desperado” by the Eagles, which remains true to the piano ballad structure of the original, reclaimed and anchored by Samia’s formidable, expressive voice, along with two versions of “Born on a Train” by Magnetic Fields, one crescendoing mid-tempo rendition with acoustic guitars and backing vocals, and a jittery, fast-paced, aptly titled “Anxiety Version.”

Samia shares: “These two songs feel like a conversation; they’re almost two totally opposite perspectives. I definitely relate more to the sentiment of ‘Desperado’ but wanted to give a voice to both sides. ‘Born on a Train’ is one of my favorite songs ever and my friend Ned soundchecks with it every night on our tour so we always end up singing it together. Two other members of my band, Sam and Boone, played on the tracks and Caleb’s production is so honest and intimate; these songs feel special because I worked on them with my friends!!”

The release of these covers falls amidst a lengthy headline tour (dubbed the “Loving U Thanking U Tour”) which kicked off in late January, including SOLD-OUT dates in Boston, Burlington, DC, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, LA, Cleveland, Madison, and more. In addition to the current run of shows, you may have heard: Samia is scheduled to appear at this year’s Governor’s Ball! Tickets for the remaining dates available in our tour section.

Samia’s new EP Scout is landing in record stores this Friday – grab a copy here. To celebrate, she’s unveiled a new self-directed music video for her Jelani Aryeh collaborative cover “The Promise.” The clip is literally all sunshine and good vibes, a day in the life of the pair on their first meeting in Los Angeles. The video fits the energy of the cover perfectly.

“I’ve always loved ‘The Promise’ – I love how dramatic it is. Was gonna do a theatrical piano cover but took it to my friend Boone and we thought it would be fun to try and replicate the original as accurately as possible.” She goes on to say, “It shares a common sentiment with the rest of the EP, and it was a perfect opportunity to beg my new favorite artist, Jelani Aryeh, to sing with me. We met up in Malibu for the first time and spent the day filming each other jumping around and driving PCH listening to Wolf Alice! It was perfect.”

In other Samia news, while her tour dates are selling out left and right, there’s a free streaming performance for one and all on August 19th from New York’s Brooklyn Steel. Watch it here. Tickets for the tour available here.

Samia returns today with Scout, the 4-song follow-up to last year’s breakthrough debut The Baby. Earlier this week she previewed “As You Are,” the most nakedly sentimental song in her quickly growing repertoire, and the moment from the EP that best represents the earnestness that runs through its four songs.

“I’m used to being around lots of people all the time so a year of quarantine forced me to consider which moments were truly meaningful and with whom,” Samia said of ‘As You Are.’ “The chorus is a mantra and a response to the struggle to believe I’m worthy of love in a vacuum, that love can be pre-reflexive and worth our blind faith in it.” The video, fittingly, features Samia in a vacuum – alone in front of screens projecting imagery from the lyrics. Like the video for the EP’s lead single “Show Up,” it was directed by Joey Brodnax.

Described as a sibling to her debut, Scout rises anew a little older, stronger, and wiser than before. If Samia was searching for answers on The Baby, here Samia is learning to trust in decisions she’s already made. In a glowing review this morning on NPR All Songs Considered’s New Music Friday podcast, Robin Hilton & Cyrena Touros note that The Baby’s album closer “Is There Something In The Movies” featured the line “I only write songs about things that I’m scared of” – a sentiment that sits in stark contrast to the celebration of love in all of its forms that animates Scout. “Show Up,” released earlier this summer, is a shimmering ode to friendship and loyalty. Elsewhere, Samia contemplates the weight of being responsible for the happiness of others atop hazy looping percussion on “Elephant.”  And she closes the EP with a pledge: “If you wait around a while I’ll make you fall for me / I promise,” on the Jelani Aryeh-assisted cover of When In Rome’s “The Promise.”  

And those who haven’t fallen in love yet will get plenty of chances later this year, when Samia finally embarks on her first tour since releasing her debut. She’ll support Sylvan Esso on the west coast, before making a trek back across the midwest and east coast on her own headline run, which is almost entirely sold out. Tickets that are left are available here.You’l be able to get physical copies of Scout at any of those dates, or if you’d rather get your hands on a copy sooner, they’ll hit stores August 13th. Pre-order now.

New Samia incoming!

This morning we’ve announced a brand new EP, Scout, scheduled for digital release on July 23rd & available for your record or CD players on August 13th. Alongside the announcement comes the glimmering lead single and video “Show Up,” directed by Joey Brodnax. The Samia faithful will recognize it as a song she’s been teasing every Tuesday for the past few weeks.

Described as a sibling to her debut, the Scout EP comes just ahead of a gargantuan run of fall tour dates, with Sylvan Esso out West in September and her own headlining dates already selling out for October (no, really, New York sold out in 24 hours). Full list, including sell-outs below – tickets available over in the tour section.

So it’s kind of fitting that the lead single is a sentimental, shoegaze-tinged torch song with lyrics that declare an undying loyalty to the people she cares about most. It’s a song, quite literally, about showing up. Her rounded, warm voice fills the space created by the production, her presence a friend in the midst of hardship. The video depicts her alone on a stage, pouring her heart out as visuals of her friends and adventures project behind her. It’s an ode to those closest to us, a reminder of the intimacy that was prevented in the previous year, and just really fucking beautiful to look at.

Speaking of beautiful to look at, the physical version of Scout features photos from Sophia Matinazad and layout by David Kramer. It’s available in a handful of limited edition variants, pictured and explained below.

Scout rises anew a little older, stronger, and wiser than before. There’s the low-lit balladry of “As You Are,” a song about acceptance, the woozy atmosphere of “Elephant,” a song about expectations. Comforting and confident, the EP even closes with a pledge from Samia and featured guest Jelani Aryeh: “If you wait around a while I’ll make you fall for me / I promise.” Jelani joins Samia in a heartfelt cover of “The Promise” originally by When In Rome, and re-popularized a few years back by Sturgill Simpson. This version is a faithful adaptation, replete with bouncing 80s synths

“It feels like a part two — it’s The Baby’s slightly older sister letting her know that everything is gonna be alright,” says Samia.

9/6 – Troutdale, OR – Edgefield *
9/7 – Redmond, WA – Marymoor Amphitheater *
9/9 – Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley *
9/10 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre *
9/11 – San Diego, CA – SOMA *
9/13 – Salt Lake City, UT – Union Event Center *
9/14 – Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom *
9/16 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom *
9/17 – Austin, TX – The Moody Amphitheater *
9/18 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom *
9/19 – Houston, TX – Bayou Music Center *
9/21 – Atlanta, GA – Roxy Theatre *
9/22 – Asheville, NC – Rabbit Rabbit *
9/24 – Chicago, IL – Schubas # SOLD OUT
9/25 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line #
9/26 – Kansas City, MO – Recordbar #
9/28 – Indianapolis, IN – Hifi #
9/30 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s #
10/1 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall # SOLD OUT
10/2 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom # SOLD OUT
10/4 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe #
10/5 – Washington DC – Songbyrd # SOLD OUT
10/7 – Columbus, OH – The Basement #
10/8 – Nashville, TN – The Basement # SOLD OUT
* w/Sylvan Esso
# w/Savannah Conley

We’re having a hard time processing this too. We announced The Baby a little over a year ago. Since then there have probably been a few thousand tweets about how excited someone is to eventually be able to see Samia live. Well, the day has come. This morning, Samia announced a full Fall 2021 tour, with a west coast run supporting indie dance mainstays Sylvan Esso, and a run across the midwest and east coast with Savannah Conley supporting. All dates on the flyer below, and over in the tour section. On sale this Friday at 10AM.