Member Since: 1/20/2012
Posts: 25,077
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Sky: I was told I was Never Gonna Happen
"I was told it was never going to happen because I couldn't meet their standards—but their standards are just terrible," Ferreira sighs, talking about the many industry types she's tangled with since uploading her songs to Myspace at 14. "I didn't have anyone looking out for me, just people that wanted jobs at labels." She says she's made around 400 songs with myriad producers during her time as a Capitol Records artist, most of them left on the cutting room floor. "That was the entire fight: I wasn't going to be what they wanted me to be because I couldn't do what they wanted me to do."
The album cover drew mixed responses, especially from Capitol. "They sent photos of me from two years ago and were like, 'Can you use this as the album cover?'" she says. But the singer held her ground: "It's hard enough to be a woman making music at all, but I'm not going to start covering myself up just to seem more credible—I'm going to embrace my sexuality because I have every right to."
Pitchfork: Do you feel like you receive more scrutiny as a woman making music than you would if you were a man?
SF: In some sense. If a guy said the things I say, it would be considered a lot more credible: "He's being a rockstar." For me, they're like, "Oh, she's having a meltdown, it's a publicity stunt." Everything I do is an "image thing"—every band has an image, that's not new. It's been that way for 100 years.
Pitchfork: Some have suggested that you shedding your pop-friendly sound for darker, more consciously "indie" sounds was a calculated move.
SF: It's frustrating. I was 14 when I started to make music and I didn't know what I was doing. People change, though. I was learning, and I had to go through a lot. I'm not trying to make people feel bad for me or anything, but it was a process, and I don't regret any of it. The thing is, I could understand people thinking that about me if I tried to brush my past to the corner, but I'm the first one to be like, "Yeah, I made those songs." And they're not bad for what they were—maybe they were bad, but I made them.
I've literally had to go through all my awkward stages in public. I was doing interviews at 16 and I didn't know what I was talking about. I was just joking around. People still bring up things to me that I said five years ago. People want you to stay a certain way because they like you better that way. Then some people don't like that version, so they say, "You're a fake." You're either too ugly or too pretty. Too fat or too skinny. You're on drugs or you're too prude. If you're friendly, you're fake. If you are mean, you're a bitch. I just realized that you can't satisfy everyone.
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stop. NYT named EIE the best song of 2012. Pitchfork has endorsed her. She toured with Vampire Weekend. Has been shot by every famous photographer, she's about to release a critically acclaimed album. The indie world loves her. She's been in a Forever 21 campaign. Performed at numerous popular music festivals. Her music video views are pretty consistent for an artist of her caliber. She's gained a larger fan base. She's made a lot of progress.
Spill it tho...