She’s quite easily one of the most exciting Australian artists at the moment; having made her debut at Lollapalooza, launched into the Listen Out tour, and now blessed the world with a brand new single, Wafia is soaring.
After sharing her breakthrough tracks “Bodies” and “I’m Good” — which landed her the 14th spot in this year’s triple j Hottest 100 countdown — the Brisbane artist has been absolutely unstoppable. Her last single, “Hurts”, a collaboration Chicago-based producers Louis The Child and Whethan, has clocked up just under two million streams on Spotify. Earlier this year, she celebrated her birthday by performing the track at Lollapalooza to a mind-blowingly enormous crowd. But sitting with us and discussing her whirlwind year so far, which includes singing to cornerstone label Atlantic Records, she is extremely humble and modest.
Her new single, “Flowers & Superpowers”, which she describes as her proudest work to date, leaves no hint of doubt that this is just the start for Wafia. With a writing trip booked for the end of this year and a national tour locked in for early 2020, it’s pretty safe to say that Wafia’s talents are going to be gracing us for a very long time to come.
Best Before: How’s everything been going? It looks like you’ve been pretty busy!
Wafia: Yeah, there’s lots of good things happening! I’ve been touring, I’ve been on the Listen Out tour, and I’ve been spending a lot of time at home, which has been so nice. And now I’m getting ready to head overseas for a bit.
Where are you headed?
I’m going to New York for a few days, then lots of writing in LA, and then I’m doing another tour around the US, as well.
Oh amazing, how long are you going to be writing for?
Probably another two months. I always try to beat what I currently have, so that’s the kind of mentality I’ll go in there with.
That’s so exciting! Do you have people lined up to work with over there?
Yeah, so I recently signed to Atlantic Records in the US — I signed with the producer John Hill, through Atlantic. He has worked with Rihanna and Shakira, and has also done a lot of the Portugal. The Man stuff, so I’ll be doing a lot of stuff with him, which will be amazing.
“It feels like a journey in its own little world. It feels very me”
That will be incredible. You were just there in August for Lollapalooza — how was that?
It was amazing! It was on my birthday. I got to see some really great bands after I played. It was such a great day.
Oh, that’s extra exciting! I’ve seen videos of you on stage there, and the size of the crowd was unbelievable. Was it nerve-wracking playing in front of that many people?
Not really; I went out there knowing that a lot of people would know the song, so it felt like a very warm welcome walking onto the stage. I didn’t really feel nervous at all. I felt pretty good. I distance myself from the size of the crowd a lot, so in the moment, I feel really in it. But then when I look at videos of it, I detach a little. I’m like, “That’s not me.”
Who did you get to see play while you were there?
I got to see Kacey Musgraves and Rosalía, and they were the only two that I was really excited to see, so it worked out perfectly.
It sounds like it was the perfect way to spend your birthday! And how’s the Listen Out tour been going?
It’s going so good! We got cancelled in Melbourne because of the weather, but I’ve brought my US band over and it’s the first time they’ve been in Australia, so it’s been so much fun having them around and seeing the country with them. These have been the most fun shows I’ve ever done.
Was that disappointing when you found out you couldn’t play?
I mean it was, but you also want everyone to be safe, and the stage didn’t look safe at the time. Had we got the all-clear from the crew, I would have been up there in a second, but we didn’t want to put anyone in an unsafe situation. I wouldn’t have felt good about doing that.
Yeah that definitely makes sense! Well you’ve got a new single coming out as well, run me through that one!
Yeah I do! It’s called “Flowers & Superpowers”. It’s probably my favourite, favourite, favourite thing I’ve ever written. It’s just so musical and it feels like a journey in its own little world. It feels very me; I’m really proud of it. Basically, it’s about the time I got way too high on edibles, and the person I loved was in front of me, and it was just one of those moments where I couldn’t stop talking and I kept wondering if he still loved me. It turns out he did, ha!
How long were you working on that one for?
That song came together really quickly. It’s produced with Rogét Chahayed (Travis Scott, Khalid, Calvin Harris, Halsey), and we wrote it with my friend Wrabel (Ellie Goulding, P!nk, Kesha); who I also wrote “I’m Good” with — we actually wrote it the day before we wrote that song. It was a pretty good 48 hours for us! We wrote it really quickly on the spot, and it needed drums because Rogét really specialises in keys, piano and beautiful chords, so we got in touch with Hit-Boy. Him and Rogét had worked together on ‘SICKO MODE’, so it was pretty awesome to be able to work with them.
That’s incredible! And you’ve got an EP coming out as well don’t you?
Yes! I’m still in the midst of wrapping it all up, but it feels a lot lighter than anything I’ve ever made before.
How far along are you with finishing it?
If I wanted it to be done now, it would be done now; it’s just a matter of when I want to stop tinkering with it.
Is that hard to tell yourself to stop doing that?
I’m actually pretty good at knowing when to stop. I always just want to go that 100%, and then give another 20% because you just don’t know what’s going happen when you just let it breathe for a little bit longer.
Yeah that makes sense. I think that’s something I’d struggle with; I think I’d constantly be wanting to go back and make changes and just not let it be.
Yeah, that’s very common for people to do. Thankfully, it’s not an issue for me. I do know a lot of artists that do it; Kanye is notorious for that, but I think I’m pretty good at knowing when I should stop.
So you’re heading over to the States soon. What else do you have planned over the next few months?
Well, the EP will be released, then hopefully by the time this comes out, I will have announced some headline shows in Australia, so that will be really nice to come back from overseas and get straight into some shows. I love bringing my family to the shows, so I just love being back home.
Do they come to a lot of your shows?
Yeah, they always come to my Brisbane shows. Sometimes, if I’m doing a special one-off show, they’ll come. I played at the Opera House with Ta-ku a couple years ago, and they flew down for that. And there was another show I did for Sydney Festival that was in a church with heaps of pianos that they also came to. They come to the really special shows out of Brisbane, but otherwise they come to all of them up there.
That’s so nice to hear, and so nice that they’re so happy for you!
My parents are so stoked for me. I love to just show them the reason I’m not at home. And I think that they feel a little bit removed from it all too, because they don’t associate the Wafia they know with the one that everyone else knows, which is great, but it’s so cool to be able to have them supporting me through everything.
Fall into the “Flowers & Superpowers” reverie here:
Photos by Sophie Hill.