Gia Margaret/Photo: Rachel Winslow

Last winter, a friend invited me to dinner at a West Loop restaurant that had a tableside magician. Our small group consisted of artists, writers and musicians, including Gia Margaret, whose records I have been listening to since her 2018 debut “Always a Glimmer.” As we finished our meal, the magician performed a trick with a Rubik’s Cube and a small velour bag. While the sleight of hand pacified me, Gia watched closely during the reveal and asked the magician, “What else is in the bag?” Ever the professional, the magician smirked and pulled out a sheet of paper that read, “Nothing.” For the sake of the illusion we let it go, but it struck me that Gia was figuring out how it worked, finding possible solutions, carrying the same inquisitive playfulness that she brings to her music.

I spoke with the Chicago native about her new album, “Singing,” out April 24 on Jagjaguar. “Singing” is an exploratory album, displaying her spectrum of trust: Trusting the self that she needs to be in order to create the piece she wants, trusting others to collaborate on her vision, and trusting the music itself. “I think you just have to let go of any expectation you have of yourself, and of what it should be,” she says of her process.

After her debut album, Margaret sustained a vocal injury leaving her unable to sing. The follow–up albums are primarily instrumental. “Mia Gargaret” is a collection of ambient meditations, the only voices excerpts from an Alan Watts lecture, recordings from a vocal therapist at Northwestern, and the quiet reflection album-closer “lesson.” Her follow-up, “Romantic Piano,” was conceived as a classical piano album, but when she brought in field recordings and nature elements, it evolved from the buttoned-up concept to something more free-flowing. “The only thing that didn’t change,” Gia says, “was that it was a piano record.”

With her voice restored when she recorded “Singing,” her concept evolved from an upbeat pop album. “I thought it would be more straightforward,” Gia says. “I really wanted to make an early aughts, sunny, light album, and I think there’s elements of it in there,” but on the overall bent toward the experimental, she concedes, “I always have to just let it be what it is.”

Gia found comfort in music from an early age. “My mom said I was singing before I could talk.” She spent her childhood listening to her mother’s record collection. She begged her parents for a harp and settled for a piano. “It’s the best friend I have.”

Scene-setting is crucial in her lyrics, and Chicago plays a pivotal role in “Singing.” The narration returns to the Lake and the Loop throughout the album. On growing up off the Blue Line, and attending high school downtown, Gia says, “I definitely feel like a city kid and I’m rooted here.”

She worked a variety of jobs before landing at the Old Town School of Folk Music, where she worked the front desk and set up the concert halls. “Being around music was helpful. I wasn’t actively pursuing a career. I just wanted to be around it.

“The most I’ve learned from music is just by doing it in the real world, and through self-exploration.” She taught herself how to record her music. “I feel like that’s the only way through with art.” Gia’s initial goal was to make a single record, but she then realized, “It opened up this world. Like, ‘I really love making records. I want to keep making records.’”

Gia Margaret’s “Singing”

“Singing” feels like a natural progression from Margaret’s prior albums, pushing production aspects and effects. There is more play with tape delay on the tracks and phasers on vocals, pushing the inherent limits of the songwriter genre. She leaves lines to linger, like the chorus of “Alive Inside” which swells into “With all the optimism you could fit into Lake Michigan, I try,” leaving a couple measures of breath before the response. Her lyrics are stripped back, essential and honest, a quality replicated in production.

She sang harmonies for Deb Talan’s former band The Weepies in 2017, and has always appreciated Talan’s approach to songwriting. The penultimate track “Guitar Duo” previews the chorus of the final track “E-Motion” featuring Talan, which starts with the studio banter, “Let’s do it again,” expanding on the motif of the previous song. She says, “I love those moments. It’s saying that to one of my heroes, ‘Let’s start that again. I’m directing you. This is weird, you know?’”

Collaboration has been a large part of Margaret’s career. She’s been featured on songs from Jamilia Woods, WHY?, and Indiana poet Ross Gay. I wanted to know how she approaches collaboration in her own work. “I’m a person who needs a lot of solitude, but then I hit my limit. I think collaboration is such a nice way to get yourself out of your comfort zone, and it’s always resulted in something good.” Even when the art doesn’t turn out as expected, Margaret says, “I feel like you always learn something. But I’ve been pretty lucky. I just respect all the people that I’ve worked with so much.”

Gia Margaret/Photo: Graham Tolbert

Margaret worked with photographer Graham Tolbert on the album cover. Of how she approaches direction in a different medium, she says, “I think when I’m working with someone, I want to implement my vision enough so they understand where I’m coming from, but I always want to offer room so that their voice can also shine through.”

As she gears up for her national and European tours that stretch through the year, Gia has reflected on what she appreciates in live performance. “I think any performer should perform in the way that feels right to them, in that moment. Because that’s all it is: Sharing some kind of experience with people.” During her vocal injury she was rigid with her expectations of where she was with where she wanted to be. “I would beat myself up if I couldn’t reach a certain note. Your voice is different every day. Sometimes you have to change the key or not sing that song, but instead I would push myself to do it, and then if I couldn’t do it, I’d feel like garbage. So now, having learned what I’ve learned and gone through what I’ve gone through, I know when I go see an artist, I just want to see them in their element. I want to be moved by the music.”

Gia Margaret appears at Thalia Hall on May 12.

Published in the print edition of the May 2026 issue.