We’re Getting Candid in our interview with Gia Woods.
We chat with Gia about finding her fierce confidence no matter what haters say, how she created and then embodied Gia Woods, and how writing with other women has impacted her in a positive way.
Gia is a Persian-American artist, a native Angeleno, and an out-and-proud lesbian making dark and electric pop music. She burst onto the scene in 2016 with her smash song “Only A Girl,” and recently released her EP Your Energy full of dance songs from the decades.
You can find a transcribed excerpt of our interview with Gia Woods below.
Name 3 Songs: On our podcast we talk a lot about the idea of the pop star image and how this plays back and forth with the media and people’s perceptions, and with the culture and society in general. And historically in America there’s been a perception of what a pop star is – it’s a very perfect, a very polished image. But a lot of times in America, that also meant like white and blonde. And so for you coming from a Persian household, growing up in America where there’s not as much representation in media, what was your impression of what a pop star is? And did you ever feel pressures as an artist to conform to something?
Gia Woods: Honestly, growing up, Madonna was my idol. So that’s what I saw when I thought of the pop star. But I didn’t really know how I was gonna present myself as an artist because I definitely grew up really shy. I didn’t really have any friends, and so for me to think of myself out there was really crazy and hard to imagine. And the first like year of my career, you can see that I didn’t have the confidence that I have now. So I didn’t really have a perception, but I definitely think being in the music industry has shaped up my perception just through misogyny for sure.
I’ve definitely worked with some people who have given me some advice and I’m like, “I don’t know if I agree with that.” I don’t think I need to be this perfect person all the time. I’ve had people be like, “oh, work on your body image or like work on your makeup skills.” And like, I understand there’s ways you can give someone like advice, but I don’t think you need to be so critical about it.
That’s the point of being an artist – I don’t think nowadays it’s about being perfect, even though that’s what we were sold and saw in the early 2000s. I don’t even think people want that anymore. If anything, people want real people and real stories and real conversations. We still have these artists that are able to do the full choreo, which I love, but I think nowadays it’s nice that we have a balance. Because I feel like for a moment there, music was just so robotic and like soulless.
It’s very clear how passionate you are about your music and especially this project and the way it came together. But as a visual artist, you clearly have such an image for yourself, on Instagram with all the photography and videography, and it’s connected to your art as well. Do you feel like you are stepping into a persona as Gia Wood the artist?
In the beginning I felt like I kind of was, just because I felt like Gia, and my real name is Natalie, were two separate people. I felt like I needed to create Gia as a persona in order to unlock a side of me that I’ve always hid. It was always me but I was afraid to really embody it, and so creating Gia was honestly my way of really being me.
Since the pandemic I feel like I’ve really locked in who that is and how I wanna be perceived. Because everything that I put out, I want it to be genuine and I love art in so many different ways. Visuals are so important to me. That’s how I express the theme of the project and how I want people to feel like they’re a part of a world with me when I’m releasing a song and not just listening to the music. That’s why I’m really big on visual aspects and it really is all from within everything that I’m feeling and picturing as I’m writing it. I definitely feel like i’ve become that artist that I’ve always wanted to be as a little girl and so it’s crazy to find myself here.
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