Indie pop singer Samia on headlining shows, collaboration, 'Honey' and famous parents

It’s been a hectic year for indie pop singer Samia, who’s been out on the road in support of her sophomore album, “Honey.”

In a year of personal highlights, the 26-year-old has opened for Noah Kahan and boygenius — “one of my favorite bands,” she adds — and played several huge festivals. But going back to the top spot at smaller shows is no problem.

“It’s a lot less nerve-wracking to be a headliner because I know that everyone knows what they’re getting themselves into …and (we’re) not being forced upon them. Like when you’re an opener, it kind of feels like you’re at a school talent show or like on ‘The Voice,’ you know, trying to get the chairs to turn around,” she said while driving from Colorado to Nebraska between shows. “But it’s a really fun challenge and also just an amazing opportunity. We’re so grateful to get to play with people that we would have never otherwise crossed paths with.”

Samia will be the headliner at a show Thursday at the Club at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, with Venus & the Flytraps opening.

Her critically acclaimed album “Honey” came out on Jan. 27, 2023, following her debut album, “The Baby,” from 2020. Playing live over the past few months has helped give new life and context to the songs — which some have dubbed as “sad girl music.” But she’s also relieved that one song in particular hasn’t been been misunderstood.

“There’s a song called ‘Kill Her Freak Out’ on the record that I was worried it might be misinterpreted as unironically violent,” she said with a laughs. “But it’s really just lamenting about not being able to tell someone how you feel, so doing it in the most maybe psychotic and extreme way. But getting to see people in the crowd sort of understand hopefully the nuance of that and the humor in it has been a lot of fun.”

A significant part of Samia’s creative process has been working with other artists like her close friend, Raffaella. Samia guests on her latest single, “Man of Your Dreams,” which came out earlier this month.

“It’s been so much fun to do. We do so much together creatively and have since we met, we’ve been friends for seven or eight years,” she said. “I love when something we’ve been working on comes to fruition and we get to share it because we’re so involved in each other’s projects under the radar. So it’s nice to be able to do stuff together publicly. I just love working with other artists. I’m so inspired by my friends.”

About a year after her debut album, she released a collection called “The Baby Reimagined,” which featured artists like Bartees Strange, Palehound and Briston Maroney offering their takes on songs from the record.

“I wanted to do a remix album and so we went into it thinking it’d be something like that,” she said. “And it ended up being a lot more fun just having my friends fully reinterpret the songs and cover them. It sort of allowed me to see the songs through a new lens, which made them feel a lot more fresh…”

One reinterpretation in particular had her wishing she’d done it that way.

“My friend Charlie Hickey covered my song ‘Winnabago,” and he ended up sort of covering it in the way that I wrote it originally before we produced it out,” she said, “so it was cool to be able to see him do it how I had initially sort of envisioned.”

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Samia is doing the same thing with her new album, with versions by Ruston Kelly, Hovvdy, Maya Hawke and Blondshell already released. Her band also recently did an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, too.

”I’ve been obsessed with that series, as I’m sure everybody else has forever, so it was such a huge honor and we did it on Bob Boilen’s final day working at ‘Tiny Desk,’ producing it,” she said. “So it was a dream come true.”

With her tour ending Oct. 27, Samia is looking forward to a break from the road. “Yeah, I miss my dog and my boyfriend,” she adds with a laugh. But she plans to stay busy chipping away at her next record, with 10 songs already in the works with a pair of frequent collaborators.

In her song “Is There Something in the Movies?”, she sings “I only write songs about things that I’m scared of.” Is that the case for the new album?

“Totally,” she said with a laugh. “Yeah, forever, unfortunately.”

Growing up around the entertainment business because of her parents, Samia witnessed the downsides of the industry but also learned where to push herself. Her mother is actress Kathy Najimy, who starred in the “Hocus Pocus” and “Sister Act” movies, as well as serving as the voice of Peggy Hill on “King of the Hill.” Her father is actor Dan Finnerty, perhaps best known as the charismatic wedding singer in “Old School” and “The Hangover.”

Samia couldn’t estimate how many times she’s heard “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in her life thanks to her father’s foul-mouthed performance.

“More times than maybe any other,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s one of my favorite songs for that reason now. Definitely a lot of nostalgic value.”