The third installment in the Honey Reimagined Single Series arrives today in the form of a bedroom pop reinvention of Samia’s “To Me It Was” by Hovvdy.

Samia shares: “‘To Me It Was’ is one of a few songs on Honey that existed in a bunch of different iterations before its final form. I wrote it with Christian Lee Hutson a year before we started making the record. We both played separate versions live in our sets a few times. When I first started playing it out it was this big rave up of a rock song. In the studio and in the context of the record the song just made more sense stripped down, with this really warm back porch feeling. Hovvdy turning it into a bedroom pop song feels exactly right – the perfect middle ground.”

Today Samia continues her Honey Reimagined Single Series with a beautifully spare Maya Hawke cover of the anthemic title-track.

“When we were recording Honey for the album we added this ironic depth by turning what was originally a painful song into a kind of campfire signalong — big bouncy guitars, a happy melody, that endless refrain,” says Samia. “So I was eager to hear what Maya would do with it. Surprisingly, she stripped all of the campfire away. In her version you can hear every bit of the desperation in how spare the production is. Exploring these new vantage points in my own work is exactly what draws me to the Reimagined concept.”

Maya Hawke shares: “It’s an amazing thing when a favorite person writes a favorite song. I was honored to be asked to cover ‘Honey’ and I wanted to bring out the sadness I felt behind the celebration. I loved working with Will Graefe as a producer. I’ve never recorded a song without him and experiencing him as a producer was even better.”

Maya’s cover of “Honey” follows Blondshell’s cover of “Charm You” which gained notice upon its June release from the likes of Billboard who named the “buoyant album standout” one of their favorite Cool New Pop Songs, and Paste who deemed the “imploring and poutily enamored” cover to be one of their Best New Songs. Blondshell and Maya Hawke spoke about their mutual appreciation for Samia during a recent appearance on the Talkhouse Podcast, which you can listen to here.

In other news, Samia recently added additional tour dates with Noah Kahan this fall, and a notable appearance supporting Boygenius on September 30th at Philadelphia’s Mann Center. She’ll also perform at festivals including Outside Lands, Thing & All Thigns Go in the US, and End of the Road & Electric Picnic around her upcoming UK show at The Forum. Check the tour section for all dates.

Earlier this week Samia shared a new cover of “Charm You” recorded by Blondshell, the first in a series of single releases dubbed “Honey Reimagined” featuring a variety of artists (including Maya Hawke, Hovvdy, Ruston Kelly + more TBA) reinterpreting songs from Honey.

This collection of singles is inspired by 2021’s The Baby Reimagined, which featured versions of songs from Samia’s breakthrough debut LP, The Baby, recorded by Bartees Strange, Briston Maroney, MICHELLE, Anjimile, Christian Lee Hutson and more.

Samia shares: “I’ve always been vocal about community being important to me. I couldn’t do this without my friends. We reimagined The Baby in 2020 because we were all stuck at home during the pandemic but the idea felt so true to the ethos of this project that I wanted to try it again with Honey. It’s always exciting to give songs a new life, especially with such great musicians involved.”

Blondshell shares: “I’ve been inspired by Samia for such a long time. She puts so much of herself into her songs, so much love for people and places. That was one of the things that stood out to me most about Honey – all of the friendship and joy that cut through darkness. I really felt that on ‘Charm You’ and I’m so happy to be part of her project.”

In other news, Samia just announced more dates – a few supporting Noah Kahan, and a headline run with Venus & The Flytraps. Tickets available at samiaband.com.

Anyone who bought a deluxe edition version of Honey earlier this year received a limited edition flexi disc featuring Samia covering Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Country by Porches. With those copies long gone, today Samia has released both covers digitally and unveiled a limited edition 7″ for purchase on Bandcamp now.

Today Samia shares the new music video for “Amelia,” shot on the road during the first leg of Honey touring by Muriel Margaret. It encapsulates everything that makes a Samia show so special, with a few behind the scenes treats thrown in for good measure.

“This whole crew are like family to me and making this video was the such an honor to do,” says director Margaret. “I just wanted it to feel like what it feels like to be friends with Samia. It’s joyful, and special, and something you want to capture and share with other people.”

In case you missed it, that run of dates also saw Samia stopping by KEXP for a session. She did some Baby classics along with “Dream Song” from Honey. Watch the whole thing, including an interview with Kevin Cole, below.

More dates are on the way, as Samia kicks off the second leg of Honey touring later this month with support from Christian Lee Hutson. Tickets available in the tour section now.

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.