Words: Jett Tattersall
Interview: Shalane Connors
Image: Nas Nixx
Published: 7 November, 2025

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” But hell is a colonisers nightmare – and Theia’s goddesses predate all that fire and brimstone.

Theia, the award-winning Ōtautahi-born, LA-based singer, songwriter, and storyteller, today releases her long-anticipated debut album Girl, In A Savage World – her most powerful and fearless work yet. It fuses her signature otherworldly vocals and razor-spiked harmonies with a metal heart, deep Māori instrumentation, and contemporary production to create something that feels both ancient and immediate.

The wild pulse of the album drives through political anthems that confront colonisation head-on. The blistering ‘Hoki Whenua Mai (Return The Land)’ cuts deep with the line, “You made us rot in all you’ve done.” There’s the feverish ‘Patupaiarehe’ and the acclaimed single ‘BALDH3AD!’, which Theia describes as “my musical assault on the plague of colonisation” – a fight that continues to threaten te reo Māori and culture today.

The album’s ferocity is tempered by moments of solidarity and softness. ‘My Sister’s Hands In Mine’, featuring avant-folk lioness Jolie Holland, is a balm, a hymn for those who carry others. ‘Pray 4 Me’ and the spectral closer ‘I Picked A Flower From The Grave’ move like curled smoke, proof that Theia knows how to both build storms and ease them.

These quieter moments deepen the brutal impact of Girl, In A Savage World - a body of work co-produced with Abraham Kunin that twists ancient mythology through a modern snarl. Every song feels connected by an undercurrent of reclamation: not just of land or language, but of voice.

That current reaches its fiercest point in ‘HINE-NUI-TE-PŌ’. “You fear the teeth between my thighs,” Theia sings in its opening line. Told from the perspective of the goddess of death and the underworld, ‘HINE-NUI-TE-PŌ’ reclaims a figure long demonised by colonial patriarchy. “Hine-Nui-Te-Pō is our eternal mother and kaitiaki of death and Rarohenga,” Theia explains. “She’s the embodiment of our worldview. Women as both givers and takers of life.”

Theia continues to balance two creative worlds: her avant-pop namesake and her reo rangatira project, TE KAAHU. Her 2020 mixtape 99% Angel throbbed with electro-pop and defiance, while internationally acclaimed Te Kaahu O Rangi (2022), sung entirely in Te Reo Māori and dedicated to her female ancestors, solidified her global standing.

Through it all, Theia wields music as a weapon and spirit -- resistance in stereo, renewal in every harmonious note. “A woman’s a witch, yes / it’s her that you hate.” On ‘BALDH3AD!’, she spits the line like a spell, turning curse into crown. Even as the modern world folds in on itself - tamed by fear, conformity, and control - Theia keeps the flame of Hine-Nui-Te-Pō alive, reminding us that the goddess still burns.

Women In Pop recently sat down with Theia to chat more about the creation of the album

Hi Theia, it is so lovely to chat with you. You have an incredibly powerful and unique sound. Your vocals are like something I've never heard before. So I just wanted to start with, what were your early influences for vocalisations, and was this a sound that you always had, or is it developed that way over time?
Oh my gosh. Firstly, thank you. That's so lovely, I really appreciate that. When I was younger, we've got kapa haka, which is like Māori performing arts, and between that and my church upbringing, I learned to be a whiz at harmonies, and became obsessed with them. I love how they clash, I love how you can arrange them, I love everything like that. In terms of music that I listened to as I was growing up, it varied from Māori classics like Prince Tui Teka, who's this gorgeous songbird, iconic, incredible vocalist, to Destiny's Child, I was obsessed with their complex and intricate harmonies. As I got older and was introduced to more music I've been obsessed with Sinead O’Connor, Kate Bush, artists like that.

As far as my actual vocal I credit [alt-folk side project] TE KAAHU in giving me the confidence to explore. I didn't even know that I was a soprano, but when I started doing that, I'm like, it’s so much easier to sing up here than where I was singing before. I had never explored the tenderness and the higher places, so now it's an obsession. I just adore it. TE KAAHU was a kind of breakout moment for me, where I created a space and a project solely to be able to dedicate it to the sounds that informed my grandmother's upbringing. Doo wop, soulful sounds, with no other reason, other than to have a place to put the knowledge that she had given me and what I had learnt about my tribe and my sub tribe. I didn't really care if anyone listened to it or not, because it was solely for her, really. But it like it was such a really cool, empowering moment where I just did exactly what I wanted and I loved the style, I loved the aspect of my voice that I never really touched on before, and it just felt so truly me, and I've carried it on from there. It's definitely been fused into this new record and into my style going forward. It was kind of that moment where you go oh my gosh Is this it? This is what I've been searching for.

Amazing. You took the reins on this album as a co-producer. Your storytelling is so powerful, and the production on this is so powerful. The sound is so unique, the arrangement is incredible. Have you always been at the forefront of your own arrangement and production?
I would say no. I love that you're very interested and as passionate about the record as I am. It just makes me so happy to have that acknowledgement. No, I have not always been as involved as what I am now, because my start in music came from being signed to a major label before I even released my first song. It's just a completely different ways of operating. We had this phrase that we'd use as Māori students at university, we would be left to our own devices to study our degrees except when someone of importance would come to the university, and all of a sudden we'd be pulled out of our classes, and we called it Dial-a-Māori. It shows you how tokenistic [things were], no-one really cares until your culture was called for. So when I was thrust into the major label situation. It almost felt like Dial-a-Song, where you'd be put in a room with a producer, you'd just sit on the couch and they'd pull up a beat, maybe ask you for some song references or whatever. And because time and money was short, you'd just be asked to come up with a song within one day. And then all of those songs would just be stuck together on a record. I came from a fairly small town in the South Island of New Zealand, and you just don't know the boundaries, especially as a young woman. I definitely felt powerless and rather like Alice in Wonderland in the early days. I was trying my best, but didn't really have much input on the sounds, other than giving a couple of song references.

After two EPs, I left the major label because it just wasn't for me at all. I'm trying to appease a mainstream palette and being censored by men who didn't understand me or my perspectives and didn't even really get the brain space to be able to grow either. My first moment where I was really starting to co- produce, and taking the time to fully produce a considered body of work was TE KAAHU. Really working with folks who were music geeks and were down to take on my perspective and my vision and craft something rather than the general pop music producers who really have their own sound, and you pretty much just go to them to get that sound. I felt like this was such a triumphant moment where every single waiata [song] on my debut record is myself at the helm and working with Abe, my co producer, to create these sounds and worlds that I had totally imagined but didn't have any actual references for. It’s intertwining and imbuing all the things I geek out about - my language, our traditional songwriting structures and harmonies. I just love playing with the historical impacts of my people and other indigenous folks around the world being labelled as the savages when it's actually the white folks who colonised us who are very savage and trying to fuse our beautiful traditional Māori instrumentation with almost the palette of our colonisation - marching drums and violins and piano and accordions, and forming this almost post apocalyptic sound that's mediaeval, ethereal and indigenous.

I'm so happy that you've gotten to create your debut album from a completely authentic place. As a loud and proud queer Māori woman, you have such a unique viewpoint to speak from, and if someone else was to touch that too much, that would take so much of you away from it. I think you've ended up with the best possible scenario in having all your power You've described yourself as a Māori fairy, so I'm curious if you have any pre-recording, pre-songwriting or pre-gig rituals?
I love that you spotted the Māori fairy thing! For the last two days I've been rehearsing with my band, and I'd never met two out of the three girls that I roped in to form my new band before, and so that was even more reason to be grounded by ritual and my culture The main way that I personally ground myself, just in every day, is through karakia or incantations. I received a beautiful message from one of my band mates and she said how safe and calm she feels because of how I begin and end everything with karakia. It's just such a perfect way to ground and to whakata or calm the spirit. Karakia or incantations are extremely ancestral, it's the way that we exercise our spirituality in our culture, and it's also a manifestation of resistance and reclamation. The Tonga Suppression Act was this really harmful legislation that enabled our colonisation and oppression, my grandmother at school receiving whippings until she bled for speaking her language. It meant we weren't allowed to receive our traditional moko or tattoos, we weren't allowed to have our carvings, we weren't allowed to exercise our culture. Therefore, the ability to be able to calm ourselves through karakia was important, This is the main way that I personally ground myself before and after I do anything, whether it's band practices, whether I'm writing, whether I'm recording in studio, whether I'm teaching my Māori language lessons over Zoom, for everything karakia is healing, grounding, freeing, and most of all, it's a source of real pride and connection, because this is the exact same karakia, or incantation that my my tribe and my grandmothers have been chanting for centuries. And despite it all, I'm still here, and our people are still here. So that's my main way of grounding and ritual.

You've done some amazing collaborations in your time, you worked with local legend Jen Cloher, with TE KAAHU and on this album with you've done a beautiful duet with one of my favourite vocalists, Jolie Holland. How did that come about?
Isn't she just next level? We've been friends for a couple of years now, and I adore her, and I love her voice, and if I was going to have a collaboration on my debut record, then it would make so much sense that it would be with her. I was in America at the time and I was looking after her house when she was on tour, and she's just got so many beautiful collections of records and books and I saw this book called My Sister's Hand In Mine and it was the perfect reference point. If I was going to write a song with the idea of Jolie singing on it with me, something about sisterhood and solidarity, especially at this time, was the perfect, perfect idea.

I wrote it, and then tentatively asked her if she'd be interested, and of course, immediately she was super keen. I recorded myself at home and then sent it to her, and because she was on the road she did it in two sittings. It was just so special to have her on this body of work and a huge honour. It was just a beautiful way to honour our friendship and bond. I wanted to write a song where it would feel appropriate to have her on as a non-Māori, because it just wouldn't have been right to have pākehā or non-Māori on some of the other songs that deal with oppression or colonisation.

It gives a beautiful arc to the album as well, there is so much defiance and rage in the album which is just so powerful. And then you come down to these quiet moments, and it's just this beautiful arc. It's an amazing album, and I can't wait to see what it does. And thank you for carving the way for women and queer women and women of colour and indigenous women. Now is it out into the world, what are your tour plans?
Well, today I am announcing an Auckland show, and then I'll be planning a couple of other shows around Aotearoa,. And then next year, there are some shows I'm so excited about. There’s the Great Northern Arts Festival, which is going to be so cool - literally. It's up in Inuvik, which is practically on the edge of the Arctic Circle in northern Turtle Island, Canada. I'm performing there and running some workshops about the importance and the beauty of bilingual songwriting for the purposes of resistance and resilience as an indigenous woman. There’s also a panel about appropriation versus appreciation with some fellow indigenous folks. Then there is Sled Island in Calgary, which is this really awesome, bad ass winter, underground festival with all different folks of all different genres. Purple City fest, in Edmonton, Alberta, as well, and the indigenous music Summit, which is in Toronto. I’m excited to be able to present and share this record with my fellow indigenous folks on the other side of the world.

One of my highlights of this year, except for releasing this record, of course, was headlining the West Side Culture Fest in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a proud, Māori lesbian who grew up in conservative Christianity, and had to push back against those aspects that are so the opposite of who I am, and to share that with other folks with a similar story was just really special.

When are you coming to Sydney?
I would very much like to come to Australia, it'd be so cool. I just, I just need an opportunity. I need a show or a reason! I need to do a lesbian festival over there, or something. There probably is one!

Girl, In A Savage World is out now. You can buy and stream here
Follow Theia on Instagram , Facebook and TikTok

Theia’s album launch show will be held at Whammy Bar Auckland on 27 February. Tickets on sale now.