Sky Ferriera is getting candid about becoming independent. In a new interview with Vogue about her song “Leash” for the Nicole Kidman film Babygirl, the musician shared why she can’t just re-record the songs she made under her old label, Capitol Records.
“I’m still trying to figure out the words I can use to talk about it that won’t get me in trouble. But I also don’t really care about getting in trouble, because what else can they really do to me at this point?” Ferriera told the magazine of her former label. “My relationship with them was obviously a bit fraught, and it’s never been very simple to explain.”
When asked if she can ever release the songs she recorded while signed, she claimed she “can’t right now” even though she says she paid for her studio sessions. She likened getting dropped by the label to “someone [who] gets out of prison and they don’t know what to do with themselves.”
“I’m working to try and get some of those songs back, but I’m not getting every single one. It’s such a complicated process and I have to figure out how to do all this shit by myself now,” she said. “People keep telling me I should just re-record the songs and it’s like, yeah, Taylor Swift can do that because she’s a billionaire, but I basically put all the money I’ve ever made as an artist back into making music. I think most musicians I know generally pay to work.”
Ferriera had previously revealed that she was dropped by her label shortly over email after the 10th anniversary of her album Night Time, My Time and “after months of not hearing back from them.”
“They kept me from putting out new music for 10 years as a way of making me look like I’m incapable of it, like it was my fault that I don’t technically own anything I record,” she told Vogue. “I was already dreading the 10-year anniversary of my album because it’s sad. I should be able to celebrate something like that because as long as this album has been around, people still care about it.”
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She added, “They want me to look responsible by dragging it out and blocking me from releasing music even after already being blocked from so many other opportunities because of them.
A rep from Capitol did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Regardless, Ferriera said it feels “liberating” to be independent even if she’s “still angry” about the label breakup.
“I was catatonic for a few weeks after that email. Not because I was dropped, but just the way it happened,” Ferriera said. “It felt like their way of trying to break my spirit one last time. It’s kinda like when someone gets out of prison and they don’t know what to do with themselves. And it’s similar in that way where you still don’t have rights to everything that you did before.”
In 2023, the singer said she was being restrained from releasing music and it “was not my fault” and “not a conspiracy.” (That year, her fans put up a Billboard in Times Square to support her being released from the label.)
“Being ‘difficult’ or ‘high strung’ doesn’t give people the right to damage & stall my career,” Ferriera said at the time. “I am in a DIFFICULT situation & I have to be ‘difficult’ to get through it. I have to protect my work & myself somehow? A lot of it is not being allowed to say or do anything I want/need without it being dismissed. The thing I actively tried to avoid happens & it somehow gets reversed.”
