INTERVIEW: Poppy on the release of her new album 'Zig': "My music is music for people that want to stand on top of the world and not be crushed by it."

Interview: Jett Tattersall

America’s Poppy is one of music’s most unique artists. Initially rising to fame as a YouTube viral sensation, she released her debut single, ‘Everyone Wants to Be Poppy’ in 2015. Quickly attracting a huge fan base, she has released four studio albums and multiple EPs and singles which cross over multiple genres, from electronic pop through to metal. Alongside her fervent fanbase, Poppy has also attracted critical acclaim, including a Grammy Award nomination in 2021 for Best Metal Performance for the single ‘Bloodmoney’, becoming the first solo female artist to be nominated in this category.

Today she releases her fifth studio album Zig. Created with producer Ali Payami, and long term collaborator Simon Wilcox, it progresses her sound from the indie-rock-grunge of her previous album Flux into a more electronic pop sound while still retaining elements of rock and indie, bringing a gritty, harder and experimental edge to the electronic foundation. Inspired by the artists Poppy has connected with since childhood such as Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Blondie, Gary Numan and David Bowie, Poppy and her team made over 40 tracks for the album, eventually bringing that number down to 11, which Poppy says are the tracks she “kept coming back to.”

The album kicks off with its first single ‘Church Outfit’, a electrothrash track with a heavy beat, distorted vocals and screeching synths. Lyrically it deals with death, with Poppy declaring in the first line “This is the dress I want to be buried in,” as well as a fierce independence that needs no-one else to survive: “Don't need your weapons, I got my own.”

‘Hard’ is sonically an intriguing mix that has gorgeously broody pop vocals and melodies, underpinned by a rock beat and metal-esque screaming vocals. Fifth track ‘Flicker’ is an album highlight, with a mesmerising electronica sound with snatches of strings. Lyrically it uses cars and driving as a metaphor for the feelings of not wanted to surrender to a relationship due to fear. “Never put your grimy hands on my steering wheel…I'll be the driver of my own life,” she sings.

The album leans more into pop territory the further it progresses. ‘Linger’ is a beautiful electronic ballad, with moments of acoustic, dreamy quiet before an off kilter beat kicks in, while ‘The Attic’ is reminiscent of scandipop, albeit one mixed with splashes of unexpected sonic excursions. Third single ‘Motorbike’ is an incredible rush of a pop track, with a rapid fire chorus and delicious, perky electronic beats, while the album ends with ‘Prove It’. With its distorted vocals, it moves from sweet, gentle piano and synth verses into frenetic, wild choruses, yet despite its disparate parts it remains a cohesive listen and perhaps more than any other track on the album is an incredibly visceral and moving experience.

With Zig, Poppy has created an album that is unpredictable, challenging, unique and utterly mesmerising. She has an incredible talent to throw all the rules out the window and make music markedly different from everything else out there, yet still have you hanging on every single note. Zig is an album that will make you look at music differently and will most likely end up on your favourite albums of 2023 list. We recently caught up with Poppy to chat more about the creation of the album.

Poppy, you’re a total gun, so lovely to meet you. I'm excited to be talking to you because I've just been dancing around to your new album Zig, what an incredible album. Talk to me about it.
I've had Zig completed for a little bit of time now and I'm excited for it to finally come out. It was produced by Ali Payami and written by Poppy and Simon and Ali. It was an adventure making it. It was enjoyable, but also emotional at times. It is unique in the discography of Poppy, I don't have any other records that sound like it.

I like that, it is unique in the discography of Poppy. Can I just say, ‘Church Outfit’, I love this as an opener. You’ve got this church sound to it that I'm not used to hearing so much from you. You’ve got those mood setting violins, and then you're in this haunted futuristic castle vocals with a space church organ. Your vocals, not just on this track, but on the whole album, I feel like they're next level on this album. There's something a different about it. Did you change the way you approached the way you sung on this album?
In the mix, they're a lot more forward and vocally I think there's a lot more texture in some of the vocal delivery, maybe in comparison to how you're used to hearing me. Specifically I can say on ‘Flicker’ there's the part where the vocal is soloed, and that is a very textured, forward, emotional vocal. I wouldn't say the approach changed, I think my voice has matured just from singing more.

I'm so glad you brought up ‘Flicker’ as well because it’s got a slick, almost R&B pop bass, and then we get these jarring little blips and some incredibly delicious lyrics like ‘I am mine and you are mine and I'm not yours’, it’s gorgeous. This tracks amazing, can you talk to me a bit about it?
Yeah, that's one of my favourites lyrically on the record. I played that song for one of my close friends, she hadn’t heard the album, so I met up with her when I was on tour on a day off. We went fishing - I caught six fish and one branch! - and I played her the album. ‘Flicker’ came up and she's like, ‘Pop this sounds like you, all the lyrics, everything, I feel like I'm having a conversation with you.’ And I was, like. ‘I like that’.

That's beautiful. Again, I feel like it's a little a bit of a different sound. Even though your music encapsulates so many elements, ‘Flicker’ feels like a bit of an outlier on the album, maybe because of that slick pop sound.
Possibly. Ali’s work is from a very pop realm, but he is a man of great taste and he loves great electronic music. So it was fun getting to know him and bonding over our love of dark techno and German music. He's a very wonderful, interesting, unique being and I'm very thankful that he's in my life.

I love hearing that because I think in the world we're in today with regards to music, and particularly as consumers with the accessibility of music and individual songs, I feel like artists are also liberated in that sense that they are much more able to explore music as a whole as opposed to staying in their select sub genres.
Yeah, I think there’s still gatekeepers in certain sub genres and it's really silly, because it's like fighting a battle that you'll never win. They're trying to decide who is more this or more that and who deserves to be in a certain space, because they think they know. And then experiencing things on the opposite side, where people might be gatekeeping online about certain bands, but then meeting the bands, or the artist, in real life and getting to hang out with them and realise how accepting they are of new music and artists doing things differently. It's funny to see one side of it, the consumer of their music versus the creator of the music being way more accepting.

I do love that. On that note, is there a particular artist or track that your fans would still be surprised to know that you love?

Ooh, that's a good question. I don't know if there are any surprises when it comes to the things that I have an affinity for. I feel like they would all make sense. I love Billy Joel, but I don’t think that's a surprise. I think that would make sense because most songwriters love Billy Joel.

That’s true, but if they don't already, they think about it and then go yes, I do!
I was shopping the other day and I heard Electric Light Orchestra, but again I don't think that's a surprise.

It's the grandiose that's in your music as well. I must say, I never thought I was ever going to hear again ‘All The Things She Said; by t.A.T.u after it was everywhere in the early 2000s, and then you covered it just goes beautifully with your style.
The reason why I covered ‘All The Things She Said’ was, I love the songlike most people, but I was doing karaoke with one of my friend’s wives, and we did ‘All The Things She Said’ then I was thinking ‘I should cover this song!’ It was really fun. There was a stage, it was a friend's birthday and he was like ‘you have to get up there and sing ‘All The Things She Said’ with my wife and I was like, ‘okay!’ And then I was like I'm gonna cover it later.

This song is my song I need to cover it! Zig closes with ‘Prove It’ and this is such a great song and the relatability on the lyricism really hits you hard there. It's such a great song. ‘Church Outfit’ opens the album and it ends with ‘Prove It’, were they always going to bookend the album?
I knew when we wrote Prove It’ that it would bookend the album, and I think I only had four songs written at that time. When we were writing ‘The Attic’ and ‘Prove It’, Ali and I were taking turns in the studio that week having hard emotional days and we wrote those on those days. Ali played the chords for ‘Prove It’ and I immediately lit up and I was like, we have to write this right now. And it was a song that came together pretty quick.

It is so perfect, it really closes the album out gorgeously. You have this ferocious solidarity with your music, and it's very feminine, which I think is exceptional because harnessing feminine rage is so important, and it's something that needs to keep being encouraged. Do you feel that with the kind of music you're most known for predominantly, that kind of new metal electronica, that there's more room to scream your frustrations and distaste, but also at the same time rally cry for other women to do the same?
I've never thought about that. But I do feel my music is music for people that want to stand on top of the world and not be crushed by it. I've noticed some patterns at any point when I've peeked my head outside of my little bubble to hear anything that was made in the last couple of years I have heard a lot of tones with women comparing themselves to other females in a way that's really negative, like, and I will quote, ‘I'll never be like her’ or ‘I'll never be the one that you want’. Or just trying to get a guy, but comparing themselves to a girl that the guy is with. I feel it's so victimy and I don't make victim music, and that's not how I want other girls to look at it, to look at music or look at relationships. It shouldn't be about being the victim in those situations, it should be about ‘who cares what he thinks or what he wants’. Stand in your own space.

I love that and you're so right, it's internalised misogyny
It's not about minimising yourself to appeal to one person, I think if you do that a string of times with a string of people, you're slowly chipping away at yourself until you become so disconnected from the self, that you're confused and you don't know who you are anymore. You should go deeper inside, and if that requires you to retract in a way, be more analytical of the landscape and pull back and hold back and don't try to appease somebody else. You should just worry about appeasing yourself first. This analogy, it plays in my head over and over, but when you're on the aeroplane, and they say to put on the oxygen mask before you can help somebody else, it's like don't fix anybody, help yourself first and then help somebody else. Maybe some would argue against that logic, but I'm willing to argue with them about it!

I think that's great. Even when we're on the plane, they're like don't even sort your kid’s oxygen out, make sure you can breathe first!
You’re not gonna be very effective if you're trying to help somebody if you're dying from lack of oxygen. Wouldn’t you rather be stronger and helping?

And if you want to change someone's mind and thoughts, you have to be a good representation of those thoughts. Poppy, Zig is banging, it's really incredible and so I'm so pleased this is going out to everyone's ears now. What else is coming up for you?
I have a tour in January and February, and releasing some more projects that I've been working on. I don't like to speak about them before I get the approval for them, but I'm excited!

Zig is out now via Sumerian Records. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Poppy you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.