Popstar Gia Woods exudes glam & grit with new Cut Season EP

Arts

Oct 12

Featured

Gia Woods exudes a glam and grit many won’t dare to reckon with amongst the typical fluff of pop. Juxtaposing a sultry onslaught of emotional violence, Cut Season intentionally emphasizes the microaggressions that simmer silently in our everyday social psyches. One by one, the artist seizes her closest relationships, leading each to the chopping block, a dead-serious approach to dance music in a tome of personal confessionalism. Each of the eight pop primers of Cut Season brims with love and hate.

This dichotomy is perhaps best expressed in the visual tone of her music videos. Her latest, “Naive”, unfurls a red carpet of seduction turned to suffocation. “Ego”, set in a miniaturized dollhouse, is a modern Alice in Wonderland of intoxicating self-idolization and materialism. In both tales, Gia lavishes in diamonds, an entourage flirting with and overtly jostling her, commenting on the push and pull of attention and how it hooks into our social motivation. “I feel like we often think so highly of ourselves that we get in the way of basic human connection and even test our own mental sanity”, Gia says of the intent behind the glitz.

Detailing a long-term romance after its demise, the process of pain and, thereafter, the hindsight and clear perspective, propelled Gia towards creating Cut. “We both had big egos, which ties into my whole EP. Every song came together after ‘Ego’,” Gia explains. “I was writing every single day and honestly going through such a crazy period. Around the same time, my dad passed away, and he was my best friend. It sort of hit me how precious life is. Every moment counts and the people you surround yourself with matter. I’d rather be alone than be surrounded by a bunch of fake, toxic people.”

Tiptoeing the line of stripper culture, royalty and rage, Gia’s indulgence for girly grandeur is not entirely an act. “I’m Persian. I like nice things!,” she laughs, though commenting in seriousness notes: “Actually, that’s one thing that really separates me. You’ll begin to hear that cultural influence in my music more and more. I hope my music is an indicator of how underground pop is changing. I explore deep topics when I’m writing and I think that’s been missing for a while.” Gia’s lyrics and imagery, doused with a dark femme fire in fancifal fantasties, is further an indicator beyond the esoteric change of pop that we are seeing more and more in the mainstream: identity is a solid factor that also sets Gia on a different level than the Hollywood hetero-norm.

Support from the LGBTQ community has been crucial for Gia, whom she regards as “the biggest welcoming energy I’ve ever felt. Not only has it made me confident and comfortable with who I am, but it has also helped me learn how to express myself through my music and to say how I feel.” Featured in Calvin Klein’s Pride campaign, the only musician chosen amongst the queer celebs, past sass anthems like “New Girlfriend”, “Only a Girl” and “Jump the Fence” are loaded with lesbian lust and a taste for danger. Even in the most subtle representation, Gia’s identity bolsters pride into both her pop persona and style. Beyond this, it is her metaphorical analysis and anima, saddled to bodious beats, that will see Gia Woods continuously worshipped as the amazing pop artist she is.

Original article published in WUSSY Vol. 8, updated for digital. Official release of Cut Season EP was released on all major platforms October 9, 2020. Follow Gia Woods on Instagram, Spotify and YouTube.