
I don’t think that I’m necessarily, like, a super-talented songwriter. I think I’m just really productive. One out of 10 songs is a hit. So where a lot of people will spend three weeks on one song, I will write 10 in three weeks.
— Sia
Sia (@sia) is an Australian singer, songwriter, director, screenwriter, and pop icon. Her current single, “Together,” is from her forthcoming album and motion picture, Music, due out later this year. In 2019, Sia partnered with Diplo and Labrinth to form the group LSD. Their debut album, Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present… LSD has one billion+ streams to date. She released the Grammy-nominated This Is Acting (Monkey Puzzle/RCA Records) in 2016 to much critical acclaim and cemented her role as one of today’s biggest stars and sought-after live performers with her sold-out Nostalgic for the Present headline tour.
Sia has more videos in YouTube’s Billion Views Club than any other female on the planet. Her massive single “Cheap Thrills” was a multi-format global radio hit and one of the longest-running singles in the Top 40 in 2016. Along with her own successes, Sia has written global smashes for today’s biggest acts, including Beyoncé, Kanye West, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and many more.
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The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
Want to hear an episode with another artist who makes her own rules? Listen to my conversation with Amanda Palmer in which we discuss books, trauma and grief, crowdfunding, understanding the role of pain, and much more.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
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- Connect with Sia:
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Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
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- Sia’s Discography | Discogs
- Australian Sia Revealed Her Battle with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome | Blasting News
- When Nothing Seems to Help Your CRPS, Ketamine Pain Treatments May Bring Relief | Cleveland Clinic
- Ketamine Offers Lifeline for People with Severe Depression, Suicidal Thoughts | CNN
- Versed Uses, Side Effects, and Warnings | Drugs.com
- Prozac Uses, Side Effects, and Warnings | Drugs.com
- Everything We Know About Kanye West’s Sunday Service | GQ
- Anatomical Position: Definitions and Illustrations | ThoughtCo.
- What Is Attachment Theory? Definition and Stages | ThoughtCo.
- The Unicorn of Attachment Theory: Earned-Secure Attachment | Karolina Walsh Psychotherapy
- Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help YouFind — and Keep — Love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller
- Attachment Style Quiz | Dr. Diane Poole Heller
- Attachment Injuries: The Ghosts That Haunt Us | Karen Grierson
- Analogy vs. Metaphor vs. Simile | Writer’s Digest
- Sleep Train a Baby? Don’t! | Psychology Today
- The Father’s Heart: Found in Separate Places | Eddie Brandt, Medium
- Dissociative Identity Disorder Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment | Cleveland Clinic
- Split | Prime Video
- Postnatal Depression | Royal College of Psychiatrists
- The Goldilocks Approach to Decision-Making | Citrin Consulting
- The Center for Nonviolent Communication
- The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Pulled | The Usual Suspects
- How Sia Saved Herself | Rolling Stone
- Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
- Sia’s “Don’t Think” Tattoo | Twitter
- Transcendental Meditation
- Mettagroup
- Meditation x Attachment with George Haas | Podcast
- Profile: Sanshin Zen Community | Lion’s Roar
- Diamonds by Rihanna
- Breathe Me by Sia
- Valium Uses, Side Effects, and Warnings | Drugs.com
- Sia’s 2014 Interview | The Howard Stern Show
- How Much Energy Is One Joule? (Easy Analogy) | Badzilla
- 2-Minute Neuroscience: Prefrontal Cortex | Neuroscientifically Challenged
- About Holotropic Breathwork | Grof Transpersonal Training
- Titanium (Feat. Sia) by David Guetta
- Coldplay
- U2
- Publishing Rights: How Do They Get Split? | DIY Musician Blog
- Chandelier by Sia
- Sia: ‘Everyone in Entertainment Is Insecure. We’ve Been Dancing Our Entire Lives for Your Approval’ | The Guardian
- Apple Music
- The Doors
- Don’t Get Me Wrong by The Pretenders
- Soul II Soul | Wikipedia
- 1000 Forms of Fear by Sia
- Sia’s Enormous Wig Deserves Its Own Grammy | Cosmopolitan
- Music (Film) | Wikipedia
- Alcoholics Anonymous
- La La Land | Prime Video
- Adaptation | Prime Video
- Being John Malkovich | Prime Video
- Echolalia: Causes, Symptoms, Types, Diagnosis, and Treatment | Healthline
- Child Mind Institute
- Million Dollar Decorators | Bravo TV
- Sia Confirms She Adopted Two Teenage Sons Aging Out of Foster Care | USA Today
- Foster | Prime Video
- Al-Anon
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SHOW NOTES
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- Let’s start the interview on (the topic of) ketamine. [05:21]
- Sia shares her experience with attachment theory, the work she’s doing to repair her own attachment injuries, and the outcomes she’s noticed. [11:34]
- Sia explains what it was like growing up around her father’s dissociative identity disorder. [21:45]
- Is Sia Keyser Söze? [28:03]
- What is Sia’s most ironic tattoo? [30:00]
- Why Sia believes there’s no such thing as being bad at meditation, and what her own practice looks like. [30:57]
- In the process of writing over a hundred pop songs, Sia has tried everything from channeling to methods that are more self-destructive. [37:49]
- High concepts, milking metaphors, cheesetastic anthems, and what the songwriting process looks like for Sia today. [46:38]
- How do publishing percentages work in the music industry for people involved in the creation of a song? In other words, how does the money get split? [50:52]
- Early in 2016, Sia told The Guardian that she considered herself more prolific than super-talented as a songwriter. What’s changed since then? [57:38]
- Curiously enough, Sia doesn’t really listen to music when she’s not making it. Why? [59:53]
- Why Sia is eager to show the world (especially aspiring young singers) a video of how bad of a singer she was at age 12. [1:03:26]
- What compelled Sia to begin hiding her face and having other people — like dancer Maddie Ziegler — appear in her stead at center stage for videos, photos, and live performances? [1:06:26]
- Sia gives us some background about Music, the musical drama film project she’s currently working on with Dallas Clayton, Maddie Ziegler, Kate Hudson, and Leslie Odom Jr. [1:12:51]
- What made Sia commit to adopting two teenagers? [1:22:27]
- Parting thoughts. [1:28:24]
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PEOPLE MENTIONED
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- Kanye West
- The Kardashians
- John Legend
- John Bowlby
- George Haas
- Phil B. Colson
- Loene Furler
- Marshall Rosenberg
- Kobayashi
- Keyser Söze
- Hillel Aron
- Beyoncé
- Britney Spears
- Rihanna
- Howard Stern
- Labrinth
- Eddie Benjamin
- Justin Bieber
- Stanislav Grof
- Benny Blanco
- Katy Perry
- Jesse Shatkin
- Chrissie Hynde
- Malcolm McLaren
- Caron Wheeler
- Terence Trent D’Arby
- Stevie Wonder
- Aretha Franklin
- Annie Lennox
- Mariah Carey
- Christina Aguilera
- North West
- Maddie Ziegler
- Robert Pattinson
- Dallas Clayton
- Bill W.
- Erik Anders Lang
- Daniel Eskils
- Lena Dunham
- Vincent Landay
- Spike Jonze
- Kate Hudson
- Kathy Griffin
- Bethany Frankel
- Rose Byrne
- Mark Wahlberg
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Tim, I just listened to your podcast and I’d like to get in touch with the center Sia went to in LA. I believe I have an attachment injury and this podcast has resonated with me. I have been trying to find the right people to talk to for help and I think they might be the right ones.
-TM
Hey Travis! The group Sia went to in LA was Mettagroup with George Haas. A simple Google search will help you easily find some information on the group. Their website is http://www.mettagroup.org Hope it helps 🙂
Zak,
I was wondering which ketamine clinic she was speaking of in LA as well.
Tim, I just finished the podcast and it has helped me figure out what’s wrong with me finally after years and years of searching. I believe I have an attachment injury and I would like to know how I could get in touch with the people Sia saw in LA to help treat her.
Imagine, if you’re old enough and lucky enough to have seen Sia when she did regular weekend gigs with a band called Crisp, only to then find out … she’s everywhere.
Dear Tim,
I would like to recommend the German neuroscientist and former Harvard professor Prof. Dr. Manfred Spitzer to your show. He has done incredible work to gather and uncover the effects of digitalisation on children and adult brain development, as well as the impacts on the psychological, social and physical health. Next to the already important and discussed aspects of a healthy lifestyle such as nutrition, exercise, sleep and spirituality, he completes this field with many insights into brain development, education and the current threats of digitalisation.
He is well known in Germany and it is time that his insights are spreading more internationally.
It would be great to have him on the show!
Kind regards,
Hey Tim, sorry for off topic, but I’m sure you’re aware of what’s going on in Belarus right now. If you could somehow help bring world’s attention to the awful events, that would be really appreciated by every single one of us here! Even a short Twitter post will do! Thanks!
i listened to this and it was so helpful for me. thank you to you and sia for sharing so much about breathing, concentration, attachment theory. sometimes life gets rough and it does take a lot of courage to talk about things. i don’t have as much courage as you two. but it made me feel better and gave me the little bit of strength to see that maybe i could. lots of love. meli.
this is one of my favourite episodes ever. Sia is magical, so honest and beautiful. Can’t stop listening to her songs since then. It gave a total new meaning to her lyrics.
I really valued the insights into how the music industry works. Thanks Tim and Sia!
I personally loves Sia’s ironic tattoo.