Meet the budding indie-pop singer who moved to Minneapolis after gaining stardom

It's only a coincidence Samia moved to Minnesota and then issued a hit single about cows. But it's one of many ways the rising indie-pop star seems to be fitting right in here.

"It's my favorite place I've ever lived," the new Minneapolis resident cheerfully declared.

Samia's arrival in the Twin Cities music scene bucks the usual trend: The 28-year-old singer/songwriter moved to town after she had already generated a buzz, instead of leaving as soon as her music career gained traction. Ironically, she grew up in cities people head to looking for stardom, Los Angeles and New York, with a highly recognizable Hollywood actress for a mom.

Talking via a Zoom video call last week from Portland, Maine — the opening city on a tour that brings her back to Minneapolis for a First Avenue gig Friday — Samia Najimy Finnerty was happy to discuss her favorite spots and people in Minnesota. First, though, she had some explaining to do about the origins of her new and rather unexpectedly themed hit, "Bovine Excision."

"I'd been drawn to this cattle mutilation phenomenon for a long time," she said.

Say what?

"Farmers since the '70s have been finding their cows dead in the fields, drained of blood and mutilated with surgical precision, all inexplicably," Samia explained.

She went on to recount how she first heard about these unexplained mysteries about seven years ago on a date with a guy who was heavily into conspiracy theories about aliens. The guy didn't last, but she said, "The stories stuck."

"Bovine Excision" sets the alien-ated theme and metaphorical tone for Samia's new album, "Bloodless," which she said is "about the power of absence, and … how your humanness can strengthen you."

"Because when you give very little of yourself then you can become whatever someone imagines you to be," she said, tying it into "Bovine Excision."

"The thing that made me attracted to it for the thesis of the album is that the absence of blood is what draws us to the story. So it felt apt. I was really focused on absence, and that's a pretty prominent example."

"I wanna be untouchable / I wanna be impossible," Samia sings for the refrains in the lilting hit, which kicks off the new record.

Other songs further the album's absence theme. The whirring, swirly "Lizard" is about showing up at a party physically but not mentally or spiritually. The soft-hitting "Hole in a Frame" was inspired by the now-framed hole Sid Vicious punched into the wall at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Okla., when the Sex Pistols played there ("Such a perfect metaphor," Samia noted).

Sonically, "Bloodless" is a folky singer/songwriter at heart with warm layers of atmospheric guitars and synth melodies, à la Bright Eyes or Phoebe Bridgers. It's the second record she made with Twin Cities producer Caleb Wright, known for his work with flourishing St. Paul pop/rock band Hippo Campus. This time, Hippo Campus frontman Jake Luppen also pitched in as co-producer.

That first album she made with Wright, "Honey," led to the LP's infectiously hooky title track becoming Samia's breakout hit — a bubbly, repetitious and simplistic song that belies the darker and weirder tone of her other tunes. She said its success surprised her more than anyone.

"I really labor over my words and spend a lot of time surgically arranging lyrics, and it often takes me months and months to finish the words to a song," she said, "but that one, I wrote sort of as a joke in maybe 15 minutes total time.

"At first I struggled with that, because there are so many songs I spent so much time working hard on, and that one wound up being the one people really liked. But I think there's something special about that. I've really grown to appreciate it. And it is a fun song. It's one of my only truly joyful sounding songs, so I'm glad to have it."

There's a lot of joy in another standout track from her new album, "North Poles," which she wrote about her friendship with another singer/songwriter who transplanted to the Twin Cities, Raffaella — Luppen's fiancée and one of the opening acts for Friday's First Ave show. Their friendship is a big reason Samia wound up moving to Minneapolis.

"Kismet is the perfect world," Samia said of her buddy, who also co-wrote several of the "Bloodless" songs. "There's something totally incomprehensible about the way we align. It's spiritual. And it has been that way since we met. We have all these uncanny parallels, and it's turned into a soulmate relationship."

Coming to Minnesota "just felt right," she said, after growing up in Los Angeles and New York (with time later spent in Nashville). Both her parents were in the entertainment business.

Her mom Kathy Najimy starred alongside Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker in "Hocus Pocus" and Whoopi Goldberg in "Sister Act." Samia's dad, Dan Finnerty, is a singer and comedian whose comically overexuberant covers group, the Dan Band, has appeared in such movies as "The Wedding Crashers" and "The Hangover."

Samia naturally gravitated toward the business, too, but with an uneasiness at first.

"I really struggled growing up in L.A.," she said. "I was immersed in the entertainment industry from an early age, and I knew a lot of other kids who were, too, and it wasn't a particularly good experience.

"I had great parents, though, and they loved New York and wanted to get me out of L.A. I'm so grateful we did. It gave me a sense of autonomy at a young age [13]."

Coming to the Twin Cities also was good for autonomy, she said — this time in a professional sense.

"There's a real D.I.Y. punk spirit that permeates all the genres of the arts scene in Minneapolis," she said. "I've always been drawn to that. There's a real no-[expletive] mentality, and I really respect that and want to draw on that."

Here's more of what Samia had to say about her newly adopted hometown and its peeps.

Her favorite places to hang in Minneapolis: "First Avenue is amazing. It's the coolest place around, and it sounds really good in there. We go to the Entry a lot, too [7th St. Entry; that she called it "the Entry" was a sign of being a true local]. I just saw Fust in there, and it was one of my favorite shows of the year.

"I also love Matchbox Coffee, that's my regular go-to place. I really like the 331 Club. I go to Chimborazo a lot, an Ecuadorian restaurant. And the Briar has great food, too."

Her favorite musicians in Minneapolis: "Some of my favorite bands in the Twin Cities are Papa Mbye [who guested on her 2023 song "Mad at Me"], Why Not and Ava Levy. I'm also a big fan of Joey Hayes [of Early Eyes] and Jon Lindquist [Happy Children], two of my favorite drummers anywhere, who happen to live here. And Hippo Campus brought me into all this, and I'll just love that band forever."

Her least favorite thing about Minneapolis (no duh): "It's just so cold. Everyone keeps saying this past winter was mild, and I just nod my head, because it still felt cold to me. But I do like to earn my spring. I appreciate going through the seasons."

Samia

With: Raffaella, Ava Levy.

When: 6:30 p.m. Fri.

Where: First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls.

Tickets: $26, all ages, axs.com.