Samia's 'Bloodless'

Summary

Podcast Summary: All Of It with Alison Stewart

Guest: Samia
Episode Title: Samia's 'Bloodless'
Date: November 27, 2025
Podcast: All Of It (WNYC)

---

Overview

In this episode, host Alison Stewart welcomes singer-songwriter Samia back to "All Of It" to discuss her third album, Bloodless. The conversation explores the evolution of Samia’s music and artistry over the last five years, her experiences in different cities, the motifs and metaphors behind the new album, and how vulnerability, collaboration, and self-acceptance have shaped her creative journey. The episode is interspersed with live performances of new tracks from Bloodless, and highlights Samia's thoughtful engagement with themes of absence, identity, femininity, and creative process.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Live Performance: "Bovine Excision"

• [01:05] The episode opens with a live, expressive rendition of "Bovine Excision", setting the emotional tone of the discussion.

2. Artistic Evolution Over Five Years

• What’s Changed:
  • Samia reflects on her musical journey since her debut, emphasizing experimentation and a return to her roots in poetry and lyricism.
  • Quote:
    "I've had a lot of time to experiment with different styles and different approaches. And honestly I've sort of circled back to the thing I started with... a real love of poetry and words."
    — Samia [04:14]
• Geographical Influence:
  • Her moves from Nashville to LA to Minneapolis have shaped her sound and provided new artistic communities.
  • Quote:
    "I'm a real sponge. I love being a part of an inspiring community... Minneapolis has been really fun for that reason."
    — Samia [05:02]

3. Thematic Motif: Blood and Absence

• Bovine Excision’s Origin:
  • Inspired by a date conversation about cow mutilations, the song (and album title) meditate on what is missing rather than what is present.
  • Quote:
    "So much of this album is about the power of what's not there and how big absence can be... With Bovine excision, there's no blood at the scene. The cows are completely drained of blood. And so it makes you really think about the blood. Where's the blood? Why isn't it there? So it felt like an apt metaphor."
    — Samia [05:38]
• The Blood Motif:
  • The recurring mention of blood emerged subconsciously and became central to the record’s identity.
  • Quote:
    "Almost every song, I say blood, and I didn't do that on purpose... By the end of the writing process, I was like, this absolutely has to... the title has to include Blood in some way."
    — Samia [06:39]

4. From Muse to Absence and Identity

• Origins of Album Concepts:
  • "Bloodless" grew out of meditations on the concept of the muse as someone filled with unknowns, shifting to how absence allows for projection and grander identity.
  • Quote:
    "A lot of the time, a muse is someone who's, like, mostly unknown, with a lot of gaps to be filled. And that sort of led to this absence thing..."
    — Samia [06:58]
• Personal Reflection:
  • Samia discusses how withholding aspects of herself in relationships was a strategy for connection that paradoxically hindered it.
  • Quote:
    "The less you give of yourself, the more you can be to someone. And you're not really tied to one identity... But I just wanted to, like, look at that in my relationships."
    — Samia [07:36]

5. Femininity, Masculinity, and Self-Construction

• Quotes on Gender and Identity:
  • Samia describes having constructed a personality for male approval, only to realize it was based on imagined expectations, leading to a journey of self-acceptance.
  • Quote:
    "I built a personality around criteria that I imagined men would want... And when I realized that, I was like, oh, I've got to do a lot of working backwards to get to some self that might exist in a vacuum... it was just about accepting that."
    — Samia [08:29]

6. Reflection on Early Work and Growth

• Past Lyrics and Gender:
  • Reflecting on her lyric “Someone tell the boys they’re not important anymore,” Samia talks about how much of her early frustration was projection.
  • Quote:
    "A lot of it was stuff that I made up that wasn't really actually coming from... any particular person or their real expectations of me..."
    — Samia [09:26]

7. Live Performance: “Hole in a Frame” and Context

• [10:24]
  • Samia performs "Hole in a Frame," inspired by a literal void: a hole Sid Vicious punched at Cain's Ballroom, engaging again with the idea of absence as presence.

8. Band Introductions and Collaboration

• Band Members:
  • Sam Rosenstone (piano), Daryl Ron (acoustic guitar), Boone "the Riverman" Wallace (guitar), Ned French (bass), Noah "Route Quirk Wormy" (drums).
  • Band camaraderie and long-standing relationships are central.
• Quote:
  "It's like, the most valuable thing, being on the road and doing this pretty vulnerable thing. Getting up and singing my feelings at strangers... I'm so lucky to do this with people I know and trust, and they're just also really funny and cool."
  — Samia [15:09]

9. Working with Trusted Producers

• Jake Lupin and Caleb Wright:
  • Samia highlights emotional safety and taste as reasons she’s continued collaborating with her producers.
  • Quote:
    "It takes a lot for me to crack myself open... in front of people that I don't really trust and know and respect. So, yeah, it just— I trust their taste. I know they know me..."
    — Samia [16:02]
• Producers as Mirrors:
  • They help her balance experimental tendencies with accessibility.
  • Memorable line:
    "Sometimes I get a little Rumpelstiltskinny in my lyric writing where I sort of sound like a bridge troll. It's like riddles. And they'll be like, maybe rein it in and use some English words that people understand. So that's nice."
    — Samia [16:36]

10. Notable Moment: Pushing for Pop

• Producer Feedback:
  • On the song "Sacred," her producers encouraged embracing a pop sensibility, which brought an important lightness to the record.
  • Quote:
    "They were like, this is a pop song, and you don't have to be scared of a pop song with a hook... And I'm glad we did, because it's fun."
    — Samia [17:27]

11. Sonic Textures and Easter Eggs

• Radio Dial Effects:
  • Radio static and dial snippets were used to invoke a "cabin on a swamp" soundscape, adding atmosphere to the album.
  • Quote:
    "We were thinking about a cabin on a swamp where you could faintly hear, like, a broken radio playing... those little radio snippets... help set the scene."
    — Samia [18:19]
• Production Detail:
  • The clarinet, added last-minute to "Pants" by producer Caleb, is highlighted as a favorite Easter egg.
  • Quote:
    "It wasn't there until, like, days before we submitted the record… and I didn't even know he could play the clarinet until I heard he did a beautiful job."
    — Samia [19:13]

12. Navigating Second Album Pressure

• On Honey:
  • Samia discusses the increased expectations and challenges of the sophomore record.
  • Quote:
    "Famously, second albums are just tough... there are no expectations [with the debut]. And then suddenly... people want something from you, and if you can't quite deliver that, they're gonna be disappointed."
    — Samia [19:49]

13. Live Performance: "Dare"

• [20:20]
  • The episode features another emotional live performance, showcasing the vulnerability and poetic clarity that define Samia’s artistry.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Absence as Creative Space:
  "So much of this album is about the power of what's not there and how big absence can be." — Samia [05:38]

• On Self-Construction:
  "I built a personality around criteria that I imagined men would want... I found for myself... it was just about accepting that." — Samia [08:29]

• On Collaboration:
  "It means everything. It's like, the most valuable thing, being on the road and doing this pretty vulnerable thing." — Samia [15:09]

• On Creative Restraint:
  "Sometimes I get a little Rumpelstiltskinny in my lyric writing... they'll be like, maybe rein it in and use some English words." — Samia [16:36]

• On Producers' Input:
  "They were like, this is a pop song, and you don't have to be scared of a pop song with a hook." — Samia [17:27]

---

Important Segment Timestamps

• Live "Bovine Excision" – [01:05]
• Artistic Evolution/Roots – [04:14]
• Bloodless Motif Explanation – [05:38]
• Identity, Muse, and Absence – [06:53]
• Gender and Self-Acceptance – [08:29]
• Live "Hole in a Frame" – [10:24]
• Band Introductions – [13:49]
• Working With Producers – [15:45]
• Easter Eggs/Clarinet on Pants – [19:02]
• Second Album Pressures – [19:49]
• Live "Dare" – [20:20]

---

Tone and Style

The conversation is candid, reflective, and often playful, with Samia’s poetic sensibilities shining both in her music and her responses. The rapport between host and guest allows for both vulnerability and humor, as when Samia jokes about her bandmates or the odd origins of some songs.

---

For listeners, this episode provides a deep dive into the making of Bloodless, Samia’s creative philosophy, and the personal growth fueling her recent work—illuminated by live performances and rich storytelling.

Transcript

[A]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. The clock is ticking. Guests are making their way to their holiday feasts. Turkeys are hopefully in the oven by now and pretty soon the feasting will commence. This is the home stretch, people. And to accompany you through these. Thanks Thanksgiving Finishing touches We have more Music Singer songwriter Samya joined us back in 2020 after the release of her debut album five years later. She's based in Minneapolis and has recently released her third album, Bloodless. Her voice is as expressive and soulful as we heard when she joined us in our studios to perform live songs from the record. My conversation with Samya began with a performance of her song One Bovine Excision. Let's hear it.

[B]

Diet Dr. Pepper Raymond Carver sitting in the bathtub while they're knocking I wanna be untouchable I wanna be untou. You took the door off its hinges Doll eyes red in the litmus I felt the pe. I felt the pean Leeches off white underw neck back inscrutable stick I wanna.

[C]

Be.

[B]

Impossible I wanna be impossible Red flirts with the bartender we met last year here she says I'm over I'm not dead she says I'm over I'm not dead Rise to wine lime flavored wind passing out to sit in driveways glad in leopard clutch the band in the stir twirling like a day God dancer I just wanted to be a friend cup of tea you called him and drink drink Bloodless and drain drain Bloodless and drain.

[C]

My guest is Samia. We haven't spoken to you in five years.

[D]

How are you first of all, doing well? How are you?

[A]

I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay.

[C]

When you think about your music and what's changed the most about your music and your practice in those five years, what's changed the most?

[D]

That's a really good question. Oh wow. That's a really good question. I think I've had a lot of time to experiment with different styles and different approaches. And honestly I've sort of circled back to the thing I started with. But it was really reassuring to try a lot of different other stuff to remember, like why I why I started doing this in the first place, which is like a real love of poetry and words.

[C]

So you've moved a lot. You've gone from New York to LA and then. No, to Nashville and then in Minneapolis.

[D]

Nashville and then LA and then Minneapolis.

[C]

What did all those places do for your music? Was it different in each place? Did each place Add something.

[D]

Yeah, I'm a real sponge. I love being a part of an inspiring community. So the places that I felt the most alive are the places where I really respect and love the art that I'm in proximity to. So Minneapolis has been really fun for that reason.

[A]

That song we just heard, Bovine Extraction, it's where the title comes from. The chorus, it's the first song on the album. It's literally about a cow mutilation.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. Okay. Good song.

[D]

Thank you.

[A]

First of all, why did you want that to be the first song that people hear on the album?

[D]

It introduces that line, bloodless, which is obviously the title of the album. And so much of this album is about the power of what's not there and how big absence can be. And so with this particular example, it's always been interesting to me that there's. With Bovine excision, there's no blood at the scene. The cows are completely drained of blood. And so it makes you really think about the blood. Where's the blood? Why isn't it there? So it felt like an apt metaphor.

[A]

How did you first hear about Bovine Extraction?

[D]

I was on a date.

[A]

I was on a date.

[D]

I was on a date. Didn't work out. But he gave me that real beautiful nugget of information, and I am so grateful.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. It really happened to you on a date?

[D]

Yeah, he told me all about it, and I. I really was fascinated. I mean, it was. I was a good audience for that story. That particular story.

[A]

Wow.

[D]

It's fascinating.

[A]

I'm gonna have to think about that for a while. The album is called Bloodless. When did you know Blood was gonna become a motif for the album? Because it appears in a couple different songs.

[D]

Yeah, I didn't know until after it just happened. I started writing about every. Almost every song. I say blood, and I didn't do that on purpose, but so then by the end of the writing process, I was like, this absolutely has to. The title has to include Blood in some way.

[A]

Well, what were the early ideas for the album?

[D]

First, I was studying historical muses, and it didn't really end up being about that at all, but it sort of just snowballed into what it means to be a muse and how a lot of the time, a muse is someone who's, like, mostly unknown, with a lot of gaps to be filled. And that sort of led to this absence thing about how if you leave a lot of gaps to be filled or space to be projected onto, you can actually be a lot bigger. Than you are as maybe a human being.

[A]

Was that something that you felt early on in your career?

[D]

Not necessarily in my career, just in my interpersonal relationships.

[A]

Could you tell me a little bit more about that?

[D]

Yeah, I just have found that the less you give of yourself, the more you can be to someone. And you're not really tied to one identity or response for one identity. And sometimes that can make you more appealing, maybe to other people. So it's something I found myself doing even though, like, the ultimate goal was connection. And that is definitely a roadblock to connection. But I was. Yeah, I just wanted to, like, look at that in my relationships. Why I would keep myself so far.

[A]

From people reading through the Rolling Stone piece.

[C]

This stuck out to me. You said I had so much shame about being worried about men and maybe having altered myself in some way because of it.

[A]

What ideas did you go into this album.

[C]

With about femininity and masculinity?

[D]

I realized I built a personality around criteria that I imagined men would want. It didn't even come from any particular man in my real life. It just was something that I, like, hypothesize. And then I built this whole personality around it. And when I realized that, I was like, oh, I've got to do a lot of working backwards to get to some self that might exist in a vacuum. And ultimately what I found for myself was that there wasn't a self that existed in a vacuum. It was just like this conglomerate of everything I've ever tried to be, everything anyone's ever told me. So then it was just about accepting that.

[C]

One of your earliest tracks says, this lyric's great. Someone tell the boys they're not important anymore. Sorry, boys. Seven years later. What do you think has changed about your experience, your relationship to men, to boys?

[D]

That song I wrote when I was 17. So it's obviously a little more a less thought out concept. Maybe I was just sort of angry. But now I realize a lot of it was stuff that I made up that wasn't really actually coming from. From any particular person or their real expectations of me that maybe nobody even really had any expectations and I was projecting a lot of it.

[C]

So why do you think you're projecting? That's interesting.

[D]

Because you want to be what people want. Yeah. Until you realize you can't.

[C]

It's true. I mean, that happens when you're young.

[D]

Totally.

[C]

I mean, you look back and sometimes you're like, really? I thought that.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. It turns out sometimes they didn't even want anything.

[C]

Good point. The next Song we're going to hear is Lizard. Tell us a little bit about when you wrote this song.

[D]

So we're going to actually do this song called Hole in a Frame.

[C]

Okay, you're going to do a song called Hole in the Frame. Tell me about that.

[D]

This song is about a hole that Sid Vicious punched into a wall at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and how the value of something that isn't there again, like the, you know, the absence of him in that literal void that he left makes you wonder about him and why he punched it. And it becomes this enormous thing, just.

[C]

All right, let's hear. Whole in a Frame of the Samya.

[B]

Nothing goes how it was gonna. You missed the boat, you gotta swim. But I don't have to tell you that. Tulsa, Oklahoma, holding a friend, Sid Vicious. And the drywall cracked like an autograph that endlessly appreciate Little death goes a long way. There I am where I should not be Obviously I bought the ticket and took the ride in the wind and trying to circumvent your line of vision from stage right Like a photograph of the last time I came. Little D goes up long way.

[D]

It's.

[B]

Raining I'm straying from the border. You know what they say about the baby and the corner Maybe I was born for this. Dying to myself. Will you hold the owners? Will you hold the owners? Will you hold the onus? Will you hold the onus? Little death goes along long. A little death goes along A little death goes along Little death goes a long way.

[A]

I'm in the studio with singer songwriter Samia. Would you mind introducing us to your band?

[D]

Yeah. This is Sam Rosenstone on piano.

[A]

Hey, Sam.

[D]

Daryl Ron on acoustic guitar. Boone the Riverman Wallace on guitar.

[A]

Okay, there's a story there. We'll go back to that.

[D]

And Ned French on the base.

[C]

And.

[D]

And no, I refused to introduce my drummer. Sorry. I couldn't see him because he was in a box. This is Noah. Route Quirk. Wormy on the drums.

[A]

We understand you've known Noah for a really long time.

[D]

So long. So long that it's crazy that I almost didn't say.

[A]

Stan, how did you first meet Noah?

[D]

I met Noah at a rock show. I met Noah through Ned at a show. And he had frosted tips.

[A]

Oh, do tell. He's got a good Jersey shirt on, by the way.

[D]

Yeah, he's from Jersey.

[A]

Really?

[D]

What part? God, I wish I knew. Do you have a microphone?

[A]

Sure. What part of New Jersey?

[D]

Central Jersey. Raspberry Park.

[A]

Nice. Cool. We have listeners touring with this band and playing with this band. Tell me a little bit about what it means to you to be with people that you trust, people that you can laugh with, you can make jokes about their hometown.

[D]

It means everything. I can only be extremely sincere about it, but it means everything. It's like, the most valuable thing, being on the road and doing this pretty vulnerable thing. Getting up and singing My feelings at Strangers is like. Can be overwhelming. And if you don't have, like, a really honest support system, it can. It is not great. So I'm so lucky to. To do this with people I know and trust, and they're just also really funny and cool.

[A]

You worked with producers on your album you've worked with before?

[D]

Yeah, yeah. I've basically done all three albums with. With mostly the same people.

[A]

It's Jake Lupin and Caleb Wright. Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

All right. What do you. Why do you return to them as collaborators? Why do you keep working with them?

[D]

I'm shy, and it takes a lot for me to crack myself open the way that I want to be able to for songwriting in front of people that I don't really trust and know and respect. So, yeah, it just. I trust their taste. I know they know me. I know them. It feels like they're so much a part of my artistic identity now that we're sort of. Feels like we're doing this together.

[C]

What. What do those producers bring in. Out in you that you maybe didn't even know that you had yourself? You didn't know you had.

[D]

That's such a good question. It's like a mirror, you know, I think I sometimes want to be a version of myself that maybe is per my interests or tastes at that. At any given moment, I want to be an amplified version of myself in that direction. And they're able to be like, well, that's not. You know, let's remember the core of you. And also, sometimes I get a little Rumpelstiltskinny in my lyric writing where I sort of sound like a bridge troll. It's like riddles. And they'll be like, maybe rein it in and use some English words that people understand. So that's nice.

[A]

Can you think of a time in making this record that they made a. They didn't make a decision. They helped you make a decision that really worked out.

[D]

Oh, yeah, totally.

[A]

Can you think of one.

[D]

Man, like, there's a song called Sacred on this record, and I was gonna have it be this really brooding, like, ballad with no hook and just infinite verses about me being so upset with someone and they were like, this is a pop song, and you don't have to be scared of a. Of a pop song with a hook. Like, just. Just take advantage of this opportunity and sing the pop song. And I'm glad we did, because it's fun.

[A]

It did help you. It did help you come out of your own voice. Have your voice come out of you better.

[D]

Yeah. And it added, like, an aspect of levity to the song that ended up being really important, I think, on the record.

[A]

In between the songs are these sort of, like, radio dial effects.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

All right. Where do those elements come from? Why did you want to put those in?

[D]

So originally, when we were talking about the sonic palette for this album, we were thinking about a cabin on a swamp where you could faintly hear, like, a broken radio playing from inside it. And we wanted the album to somehow embody that. And so that's what we. We landed on those little radio snippets that might be totally indulgent, but I think it helps set the scene.

[A]

The album comes out April 25th. What's an element of production on the album that you really love that you would want people maybe to listen for? Kind of Easter eggs, we call them.

[D]

Oh, man, there's so many. The clarinet on pants is clarinet on pants.

[A]

All right, tell me more about the clarinet on pants.

[D]

It wasn't there until, like, days before we submitted the record, and my friend Caleb, who produced it, just sort of snuck it in, and I didn't even know he could play the clarinet until I heard he did a beautiful job.

[A]

Bloodless, your third album, you wrote on Honey. Excuse me? Your second album, Honey, came out in 23. Does that sound right?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. In I D magazine, you said everyone warned me about second albums, and I obviously didn't want to believe it, but it was tough. What was tough about it?

[D]

I think famously, second albums are just tough for. Because nobody knows who you are for your first album, so there are no expectations. And then suddenly there. There's this small group of people who. With expectations who want something from you, and if you can't quite deliver that, they're gonna be disappointed. And I'm not a person who handles disappointment very well, but it was an important experience for me to. To grow.

[C]

You're going to perform one more song for us. What are we going to hear?

[D]

It's called Dare.

[B]

When I touched you I felt the current of your dare I think you wanted me to feel it because, you know, we're the same Two shades of good paint all spread thin by the vision blended so the hands resist him keeping his debt away. Here comes adorned in vacancy and staring blankly your nails tapping on dry cell lines Imagining their weapons breaking the glass letting the face capitulate from this side I will always understand the way that he protect him I will always understand the way that he protect him I will always understand the way that daddy protect him. I can't stop crossing the line you can't stop trying to keep me on the other side if only you could read my mind I can't stop crossing the line you can't stop stop trying to keep me on the other side Only you could read my mind. The way that he protected I will always understand the way that he protected I will always understand the way that he protect him I will always understand the way that he protects me. Sa.

[A]

That song was called Dare from the singer songwriter Samia's latest album, Bloodless. Coming up, a special performance from the cast of the Seat of Our Pants, a musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning play, the Skin of Our Teeth. Stick around. This is all of it.

[E]

Hey crafters. You're invited to visit the new knit and sew shop at Michael's. Find hundreds of fabrics in over 800 stores and over a hundred thousand styles on michaels.com shop your favorite yarn brands, including Big Twist, Caron cakes and Bernat in multiple styles and colors. You'll also find all the machines, tools and notions you need with top brands like Singer, Brother and Pellon, plus Essential Thread and Floss. It's all new at Michaels.

[F]

If your small business is booming and ready to expand, you might say something like it's happening.

[A]

Crushed it.

[F]

But if you need someone who can actually help protect your growing business, just say, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And just like that, your State Farm agent can help you get the coverage you need for your new space for your small business insurance needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.