She'd penned songs for Beyonce and Rihanna, and was the titanic voice of 'Titanium', but fame wasn't what Sia Furler had signed up for.
In 2014, the Adelaide born songwriter took health and happiness into her own hands by reframing the way we interact with art and the artist.
Major tv show appearances were performed with her back to the audience, or with an oversized bow and wig covering more than half her face.
And a Billboard Magazine cover was shot with a paper bag over her head with the words, “This artist is responsible for over 12 million track sales….and doesn’t want to be famous” inscribed across it.
“I did not enjoy it, it felt like [I was] being hunted. My body would go into fight or flight response, I would get crazy diarrhoea, I lost weight. I took more and more drugs and alcohol to trying to self medicate in some way,” she revealed to Sirius XM.
“And so when I got sober I realized everything had to change, that my sobriety had to be the most important thing. And in order to maintain that, I needed to develop a routine. I wanted to be still, to be in one place, be with my dogs, the things that made me feel safe. You know, nourish my friendships. And that's what I did.”
Choosing stillness and focusing on protecting her personal safety helped open her up to confronting an array of her inner demons and past trauma on massive anthems like 'Chandelier', 'Big Girls Cry', 'Fire Meet Gasoline' and 'Elastic Heart' on her international breakthrough album 1000 Forms of Fear.
