Were all the songs from This Is Acting intentionally written for other artists?
Yes, actually, I guess all of them were written with the intention of being for somebody else. But there is one I didn't send to anybody called "One Million Bullets." That one I liked — and I already had so much of the album completed — but I loved it and didn't want to give it to anyone else. So that one I don't think I sent to anyone else, but my memory's terrible. There's one that I went into a session with Kanye, to write for Rihanna, so that one was intended for her, but then I'm keeping that one.
Was that "Reaper"?
Yeah!
I was surprised when I found out that the song was co-written by Kanye. What were your writing sessions with him like?
Well, he wasn't there!
He wasn't?
[Laughs] No! They'll entice me into a session by saying, "Rihanna will definitely be there" or "Kanye will definitely be there," but it's hilarious because I turn up and, almost always, they never come. So I went into the studio to write for Rihanna with Kanye and neither of them showed up and stayed for less than an hour. They had two tracks. They told me what they had wanted. There were notes from Kanye, and I can't even remember what they were. I remember I just raced in and raced out, and I thought there was something about the chorus that seemed fun about this song, but I never thought it would see the light of day. My manager pushed for this song to be on the record, but I don't care about it.
I heard the song "Cheap Thrills" and that one also sounds like it could be for Rihanna ...
Yeah, it totally was.
I felt like I could hear her singing it.
Her manager said "We want 'Diamonds.' [Ed. Note: Furler wrote "Diamonds" for Rihanna] We need soul. We want some music that has feeling. I went to Greg [Kurstin], and that's what we came up with. I realized just as soon as I was cutting it that it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for her. It's more Icona Pop. We did actually send it to her, but they passed on it, and then I just couldn't stop listening to it in the car. For some reason, I really liked listening to it which makes me feel masturbatory, but I wouldn't normally be just jamming out to my own tunes. There's something really uplifting about it that put me in a good mood, and I would just pretend it wasn't me singing [laughs]. It felt very summer and fun, and I was like, "I'll put that on there."
What song or songs feel the most Sia to you? Which ones are you most connected with?
"One Million Bullets" is my baby. I had seller's remorse with "Bird Set Free" every time it went away and then came back. First it went to Rihanna and then it was returned. Then it went to Adele, and Adele cut it and sounded amazing on it. Then it was returned. The truth is that we wrote "Bird Set Free" for Pitch Perfect 2.
Besides Adele and Beyoncé, who else were some of the songs intentionally written for?
Mostly we've been pitching on Rihanna for the last couple years because she's been looking for a couple years. Well, it feels like a couple years. It might be one year. They're always looking for that first single. I didn't send as much to Beyoncé, though I do know she's working on something. One of them is a Shakira reject, which there's no doubt when you hear it. You'll know that it was a Shakira reject because I sound like Shakira.
Rolling Stone
