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Music

We go track by track with Phiia as she unpacks the stories behind In The Interim

Phiia’s debut album In The Interim is a deep dive into the push and pull of self-discovery—rich, raw, and brimming with late-night introspection.

Across 14 tracks, she stitches together elements of house, hip-hop, and hazy bedroom pop, with production that nods to Fred again.., 070 Shake, and the cinematic grandeur of Hans Zimmer.

From the swirling synths of opener off the hook to the jazz-laced lull of closer lullaby, Phiia crafts a sound that feels like paging through a personal journal, where fleeting moments and deep-seated emotions collide.

new music phiia 2025 - happy mag review

Whether it’s the restless energy of comedown freestyle, the escapist euphoria of awhile, or the gut-punch nostalgia of no clue, this is an album that doesn’t just sit with feelings—it lets them unfold in full color.

We break down In The Interim track by track with Phiia, as she unravels the stories behind each moment.

off the hook

This track spawned from a sample i recorded driving home from work one evening. If you listen close you can hear it in the beginning. The moment i made this song, it sounded like the opening of an album, and so I ran with it.

At the time, I was listening to 070 Shake a lot and I think this song shares a lot of similar sonic themes – layered synths, psychedelic melodies, heavy trap-like drums, and a strong vocal lead.

This song sounds like the things you tell yourself in the mirror day after day. I’m really proud of the production on this song, I think it sounds like a journey through mental clarity and spinning around in your head.

awhile

This is a feel-good house song with some good old 4 on the floor. I am inspired heavily by fred-again for my more dancey songs, using vocal chops and ambient pads.

I just wanted this song to feel like what it be like to escape to a peaceful place for “awhile”.

I think we all wish for that sometimes. It felt right to have this as the second song to build some energy for the rest of the tracks.

behind closed doors

This song has a special place in my heart. It’s the first song I ever released and it felt right to include it in this album even though it came out years before.

This is the song that really helped me figure out what my sound was, my voice, and the type of music I wanted to put out in the world. I

t was written about a long distance relationship I was in, and described the feeling of not being able to be as connected when your person was so far away.

I love the textures in this song, it sounds smooth and coarse at the same time.

comedown freestyle

Lol. I don’t consider myself a rapper and never will, and I debated whether or not to put this on the album for awhile. But, I had a lot of fun making this song and actually is pretty representative of a pretty vital period in my life.

I led a pretty unhealthy lifestyle for awhile, lots of drug use and bad sleeping habits during my first semester of college during covid, and I think the lyrics really captures the shame I felt in myself.

My good friend made this beat and told me to rap the way juicewrld would, and I think I kind of nailed it. It’s a reminder to myself that I can use my creativity to create any genre and have fun with it.

UNDONE

A bumpy, feel good song about falling in love young. It was inspired by a conversation I had with my younger sister. She asked me “whats the point of loving someone if one day you’ll just break up and be heartbroken?”. It struck me hard, because I feel like a lot of young people feel that way now. I wanted to make a song about letting yourself love, despite how or if it ends.

the psychonaut fiasco interlude

I love this song. I’ve alway wanted to make an interlude to an album, and I knew this was the one the moment I made it.

I made this song with my friend, late at night, solely inspired by the musical chemistry we had together.

In the song, you can hear us interchangeably riffing off eachother, me on piano and him on guitar.

To Noise

I made this song with my best friend and roommate, who is a talented poet. I think the idea started when I heard fred again’s “desert island duvet” song for the first time and sent it to her.

I thought the idea of slam poetry house music was so innovative and so cool.

This song was created in late nights, with low light and beer and my roommates laying on my bed while we watched my friend record. Great memories and a great song.

no clue

One of the sole songs that I wrote on the guitar, I wrote this after coming home to my childhood home after saying goodbye to my friends and a home of four years.

It’s a missing song and a song about having no clue what happens next.

Specifically, it reminds me of when someone asks you what your plan for the future is ,and your mind is just blank, and of how scary that can really be. Everybody always expects you to have a plan, and I don’t.

you always will

This song is about endings, and that feeling of when you know it’s about to happen, whether it be a relationship or a phase of your life.

It’s so sad and so terrifying. In this song, the word ‘home’ means a person and a place. I wrote it after biking around my childhood neighborhood on a broken bicycle. I think you can hear that in this song.

what would it take

I think this is my angry song. It’s kind of like a “damn, what’s it gonna take?” type of feeling in a song. Its a dark song, with deep, heavy bass, juxtaposed with these soft piano frills. I threw a reggaeton beat on it just to see how it would sound and it kind of worked.

My favorite part of this song is the end, where I build up the end with the synth layers and create a wall of sound. That’s one of my favorite things to do as a producer.

if we were birds

Despite how upbeat it sounds, this is the saddest song on the album for me. The original idea for this song came when I was in my car next to the ocean at sunrise by myself, watching the

birds soaring through the air, romanticizing how peaceful it must be to be a bird. This song uses birds flying together as loved ones floating through life, and sometimes floating apart from each other.

I think I captured that pretty well in the last part of this song.

remember a time

I wrote this song after watching Dune for the first time, which sparked an obsession for Hans Zimmer and his composition.

So I made a song with lots of string layers, and ghostly piano, with lyrics about reminiscing about simpler days.

The drums midway through the song are inspired by “In the Air Tonight”, Phil Collins, with that iconic drum fill.

lullaby

I’ve always wanted to make a jazzy love song and this is it. This is a relatively simple song, carried by swung drums, jazzy piano, and a jazzy vocal.

I wanted the whole song to sound like it was lulling you to sleep, in that sleep state that you often feel most comfortable with a loved one.

The goal was to make a song that would have a place on that playlist you put one when you’re in bed about to go to sleep.

I thought it was a good way to end my debut album.