Sia Furler's forthcoming album, This Is Acting (due January 29th), has a novel concept: It's full of songs rejected by A-list artists. Furler has been successfully writing for music's biggest names, from Adele to Beyoncé, since she crossed over to writing pop music around five years ago, after solidifying herself as a Top 40 artist with her hit single "Chandelier." "I feel like they're hits, but nobody wanted them," she says of the tracks on the new LP, which have been written during the last few years. "So I thought, 'Let's see, as an experiment, if I'm right.'"
In anticipation of the album, Furler spoke in depth with Rolling Stone about pop music, her productivity and on becoming her clients' "bitch" in the studio.
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. They rejected it and took another song of ours called "Flashlight." That become a big thing through the movie, but I could not believe they rejected "Bird Set Free" because to me it was such a big, anthemic, fun, sing-along-in-the-car song. I felt seller's remorse. I had grief. I feel connected to that song. I feel connected to a song called "Footprints." That was a Beyoncé reject that I wrote in the Hamptons a couple years ago. I feel really connected to one song that I actually decided to leave off the album because I wanted to use it in the movie I'm directing next May. And I really like "Cheap Thrills" because I think it's fun. Those are the ones I actually feel most connected to, but the truth is I can't even remember the track listing because I've taken off songs, picked up another one so many times, I actually don't even know. I like one called "Broken Glass." That's another one, but I think that might only be a bonus track.