This interview is part of our Future of Music 2026 series. Follow all the coverage here.
Theia performed three tracks from her stunning debut album for a special Future of Music In My Room session.
After carefully working on her debut album over a number of years, the Aotearoa artist finally dropped Girl, in a Savage World at the end of last year.
Theia sat down with Rolling Stone AU/NZ for an exclusive, in-depth interview about Girl, in a Savage World and much more before its release, and she expressed relief and pride at finally reaching her debut album.
“[I]’m very proud of it,” she told us. “I feel like I’ve taken a long ass time but you can only do your debut album once and I’ve got it [to] where I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m proud of it.'”
She also opened up about missing her home country while living in Los Angeles.
“[M]y gosh, it’s so hard… every day I’m checking out the latest updates on my marae. I’ve got four marae and each of them except for one has its own Facebook page. It’s so I’m following all of the comings and goings and all of the meetings. It’s really hard being away.”
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We named Girl, in a Savage World as the third-best Aotearoa album of 2025.
“To say that Theia’s debut album was highly anticipated would be an understatement,” we wrote in our year-end list.
“An alt-pop star of note for almost a decade, Theia waited so long to release her first full-length for an important reason: if she’d rushed into her debut while still being on a major label, it would be have been a much poorer record.
“Theia went independent around the turn of the 2020s, surrounding herself with a “beautiful female team” who had her best interests at heart. A venture into te reo Māori as TE KAAHU then strengthened her belief in her own art.
“The result is Girl, in a Savage World, one of the most overtly political albums in recent New Zealand music… It feels like fate that Theia’s album arrived at this particular moment, with New Zealand’s current conservative government attempting to push back on Māori rights.”
After being one of the 25 local acts included in our Future of Music 2026 series, Theia recorded a beautiful In My Room session for Rolling Stone AU/NZ, which you can watch and listen to above.
The session features performances of three of the finest tracks from her debut album: “HINE-NUI-TE-PŌ”, “BALDH3AD!”, and “Hoki Whenua Mai (Return the Land)”.
Theia’s Live for Rolling Stone EP is out now.
