Exploring uncharted sonic territories, infusing dance beats with a fearless exploration of identity and empowerment, new album ‘Zig!’ is POPPY at her very best.

Words: Ali Shutler.
Photos: Angelo Kritikos.

It’s a few weeks before Poppy’s fifth album ‘Zig’ is released, and the singer is in Los Angeles, already working on the follow-up.

“I’m just excited to be working on new things,” she explains. For the past six weeks, she’s been touring North America alongside PVRIS on their Godless/Goddess tour, and the whole time she was out there, she was looking forward to being able to record. Now she’s back in the studio, she’s excited to return to the road. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. “Playing live is one of my favourite things in the world. The audience is the show for me; I love watching them, and their response is always inspiring,” she continues, constantly wanting to create something high energy to feed that excitement.

Enter ‘Zig’. “People have been asking me if it’s a pop album,” says Poppy. And it is, kinda. “I like catchy songs, I like choruses, and I like pop music, but I’ve had that across all my records,” she says. However, ‘Zig’ sees her breaking new ground rather than returning to the bubblegum sheen of her 2018 breakout album ‘Am I A Girl?’.

As to be expected, a small portion of fans are already asking for something more like the heavier, gnarled attack of 2020’s ‘I Disagree’, the grunge swagger of 2021’s ‘Flux’ and the vicious, punk revenge of 2022’s ‘Stagger’ EP. “They don’t need to worry,” grins Poppy, and leaves it at that.

Fans have also been asking questions about the series of alternating Instagram photos where Poppy has either blonde or dark hair (“I think duality is always present in my work”), if her cover of Kittie’s ‘Spit’ was ever meant for an album (nope) and there’s also speculation ‘Zig’ will be followed up by a record called ‘Zag’. “That sounds like something I would do,” Poppy says. But doesn’t that make it less likely? “Well, we’ll have to find out.”

Politely drawing a line under the speculation, Poppy smirks and says, “I know what I’m doing; you’ll know when it’s done,” which is fast becoming something of a necessary catchphrase for an artist who’s released four very different albums in as many years. It brings us neatly to fifth album ‘Zig’.

“It’s an attractive word. It looks really pleasing written down,” she says of the album’s title. “It’s a rapid, quick movement as well. I feel like that’s fitting for the record and for my discography.”

Described by Poppy as another venture into uncharted territory, she went into ‘Zig’ wanting to make a record that could utilise her love of dance. As a child, Poppy spent 11 years training to be a dancer, learning tap, jazz, ballet and lyrical acro with the determined focus of a professional athlete. “I took it very seriously,” Poppy says. She only gave it up when she wanted to pursue singing, but couldn’t afford lessons in both. Music videos have already seen her incorporate dance, she’s been undertaking movement classes whenever she can (alongside lessons in science), and in December, she starts training for the ‘Zig’ headline tour.

A “high-fidelity” album, ‘Zig’ is different to what’s come before. “It sounds very clean, and the recordings are very shiny in comparison to the last album,” says Poppy. Written over the course of a year with producer Ali Payami, the pair bonded over their love of electronic artists like Burial, Venetian Snares and Massive Attack. Rather than chasing the euphoria of the club, though, Poppy was drawn to music that had an undertone of sadness, with shoegaze artists like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine also soundtracking studio sessions.

“’Zig’ does not sound anything like any of those artists, though,” says Poppy, who’s not one for simple reinterpretations. While her previous albums can fit neatly under titles like “the metal one” or “the grunge one”, it’s never been the whole story. Likewise, ‘Zig’ is far more complex and ambitious than a singular genre.

Before teaming up with Poppy, Ali helped write The Weeknd’s global megahit ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘Style’. He’s also worked with Ellie Goulding, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato. “His tastes are much more diverse than the records he’s known for,” says Poppy. “He has such an interesting palette and take on things. He’s also a really wonderful person.”

She goes on to describe making music with Ali as an intimate experience, and that can be heard throughout the lyrics of ‘Zig’. “I didn’t set out with a specific list of things to talk about, but in retrospect, it is an empowering album,” she says. “It’s also about love, relationships and attempting to understand what that means to me and the world.”

The album also leans on self-assuredness, with Poppy “really content with my own presence at this point in life. I was always hoping to get there, but you must be okay with stillness and not running from yourself.”

It means parts of ‘Zig’ feel very revealing. “There are definitely topics that I hadn’t discussed until I made this album, and it features certain moments where I really pushed myself to be the most honest that I could be at that time. It’s nothing that I feel shy about, though,” she adds. “Looking back on it, it doesn’t feel that vulnerable to me. It just feels like I took a page out of my journal, and I’m not really afraid of that,” with an entire back catalogue written around her own experiences.  

Pulsating album opener ‘Church Outfit’ was written about funeral looks and what you’d wear in the afterlife, while the twisted ‘What It Becomes’ sees Poppy “sensually angry. In my everyday life, I don’t identify as an angry person, but I have very strong emotions,” she continues. Elsewhere, the twitching ‘Flicker’ rounds out the trilogy of related songs, with pointed lyrics like “I flicker between fear and a vision of forever” and “never put your grimy hands on my steering wheel” creating an anthem of defiance and hard-fought freedom.

The theatrical, ambitious ‘The Attic’ is a song of “acceptance and release”, touching on panic, fear and unease over urgent garage rock, while ‘Motorbike’ is by far the shiniest song on the album. “It doesn’t have any friends on the album; it’s more of its own freestanding thing, but it’s an empowering track.”

“I went back and forth about including it, but I am glad that it made the cut because it makes me happy when I listen to it. It’s definitely femme and colourful,” she adds. With lyrics like “Girl on a motorbike, no one can confine her / Epitome of freedom, I’m followin’ behind her,” it’s the most direct Poppy’s been in a long while about gender, but as she explains, “I’ve always embraced my femininity. I’ve never tried to be like the boys. It’s important to have a song that’s a bit of a wink,” she says of its smirking attitude.

Aside from music, Poppy is also currently working on a couple of film projects. Writing, directing or acting? “A mixture of all three,” and it’ll be tied into the music as well. “It’s just another element of Poppy’s universe,” she explains, referring to herself in the third person for the first and last time during this 45-minute interview. “I would love to be a screamer in a horror film. That’s a dream of mine,” she continues, with her own amusement park also on the wishlist. “I also want to get better at my craft and learn from the greats. I just feel fortunate to be able to wake up every day and do something that I actually want to be doing.”

As a child, Poppy was involved with the haunted house her parents ran, and in recent years, her music and accompanying videos have pulled heavily from the world of horror. “I really like the vulnerability of being scared and what drives somebody to have fear. It’s fascinating,” she explains. “I’ve always liked horror. It gives you something to focus on and allows you to forget about your reality for a little while, as you’re invested in these storylines that are more intense,” Poppy continues, before admitting she often goes on solo cinema trips. Her music is similarly intense, allowing for much-needed escapism.

“I think entertainment is really important for humans to be able to forget their problems, even for a short amount of time, because sometimes reality is too much to handle,” Poppy starts. “It’s easy to fall into that endless scroll of social media and getting notifications about everything that’s happening in the world even though there’s so much you can’t change. In any moment of silence, it’s such a habit to just pick up your phone,” she continues. “The problem is, everyone is just looking at the same exact thing, and it doesn’t allow for free thinking or exploring. It’s a hamster wheel of fear, and I think we can tell by the general level of anxiety in the world right now it’s not healthy,” she adds.

“I don’t have the answers,” Poppy continues, still uneasy with the idea of being a role model. “Everybody is imperfect, but I just try to go deeper within myself and lead by interest. I run towards anything that piques my fancy and away from crowds, because they can be overwhelming.”

“I think the trick might be to find the things that are really important to you and fight to keep them pure,” she offers. “That, and try not to get too wrapped up in the opinions of others.”

Poppy wanted to make music after going to her first concert. “As soon as I understood that you could travel the world with your friends and never have to be home again, I knew that was the job for me,” she explains, with the self-expression and freedom that music offered also appealing to the teenager. She still just follows her gut when it comes to making music. “There are so many different things that I want to explore. I want to remain curious forever,” she explains.

Despite the various musical pivots Poppy has undertaken over her career, her fanbase has always stuck with her. “I think it’s the whole experience,” she says of why her music resonates with people. She was recently shown a comment that said just seeing where Poppy would go next was inspiring them to create their own art. “That’s very flattering to hear.”

Still, Poppy isn’t one for nostalgia. “I try not to look back because that’s not where I’m going,” she explains. Throughout her career, Poppy has constantly been ahead of the curve. Her early foray into YouTube and debut album ‘Poppy.Computer’ asked questions about social media, metaverses and AI, with a focus on virality. Nowadays, she’s far more interested in full-length records and meaningful expression. “I think going viral is a very short-lived goal. It’s like aiming for the ground. You’ll always hit it,” she says. “People should dream bigger.”

Elsewhere, ‘I Disagree’ came just before a renaissance in heavy music that’s still blossoming today. Is she never tempted to slow down and wait for the world to catch up to what Poppy is doing?

“I think that’s boring. I just spend time thinking about what I want to see myself do next. I don’t think about what the people around me are doing or could be doing because it’s not about them. I’m living on my own plane.”

It’s a confident yet expected stance from an artist who’s constantly had to face questions of authenticity throughout her career, from genre choices to how much control she had over her art. “I never came up in a scene of bands or amongst other artists. I always felt like I was on my own island,” she explains. “But I’m okay with that now. I’ve found my group of people, and we have our own thing.”

“There were also a lot of misconceptions in the past about my contributions in certain formats to things based on certain males that were around me at the time, but I very much feel like that’s not a play anymore,” Poppy continues. “It’s a very misogynistic hot take that I rewrote.”

As for her confidence, Poppy believes that came to her a lot later than most. “Growing up, I was somebody who was too scared to speak in front of people.” It was so bad that many of her classmates thought she was mute, leading to bullying and eventual home-schooling, where Poppy turned to the Internet. “That’s why I loved to dance so much; I didn’t have to talk. Then I started writing songs that I had to sing because nobody else could, and I slowly inched out,” she continues.

Those early, surreal YouTube videos were perfect for Poppy “because I didn’t have to interface with people. I could make something, put it out there, and just step away from it, because I was uncomfortable interacting directly with people.” Over the years, that’s slowly changed, and now, “I don’t know how to stop talking,” Poppy laughs, spurred on by her fanbase, her musical peers and her friends. “It’s great. I can have conversations, and I’m okay with it, but it does require me to take a nap afterwards.”

‘Zig’ may start with a song about death and the afterlife, but it ends with ‘Prove It’, a giddy anthem that celebrates flaws, authenticity and being present. It started life on the piano, “and it was really beautiful, but it was too pretty,” says Poppy, so the pair put it through a hectic, urgent electro-clash filter. The music may have been another buoyant experiment, but lyrically, Poppy knew exactly what she wanted to say with the line “I’ve got nobody to prove myself to but me”, taken straight from her journal. “That feels very much where I’m at right now,” she grins. ■

Taken from the November 2023 edition of Dork. Poppy’s album ‘Zig’ is out 27th October.