Sky Ferreira Is Unleashed On ‘Babygirl’ End Credits Track

Contractual issues have prevented Sky Ferreira from releasing a new album since 2013, but the newly independent artist returns in a big way today (Dec. 5) with the single “Leash,” which plays over the end credits of the upcoming A24 film Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman.

With lyrics such as “I’ve torn apart this veil of shame / fought so hard just to be erased,” the simmering, synth-fueled “Leash” nods both to Ferreira’s longstanding issues with former label Capitol Records and the evolution of Kidman’s character in Babygirl, who risks her CEO job with a boundary-pushing inter-office affair.

“That character is very self-destructive and destructive with other people’s lives, but she kinda has to do it for the sake of growing as a person,” Ferreira told Vogue in a recent interview. “It’s that feeling when you know from the beginning that a situation isn’t going to end well, but you go right into it anyway. There were things I saw the characters do in the film that bothered me because I’ve also done that type of thing before, and I didn’t like that. I asked myself why I was having this reaction, and from there the song kinda just spilled out of me.”

“The crux of the film is that feeling of being a prisoner to yourself, and that’s what I wanted to embody,” she added. “There’s something a bit emotionally nihilistic about it all.

The artist was approached to write the song by Babygirl director Halina Reijn, who said she and Ferreira “share a lot of similar fascinations when it comes to control, freedom, surrender, power, submission. Both of us love to be creative in a space that is open to a wide audience — fun and sexy — but at the same time, we never shy away from the darkness that one can feel inside.”

In the Vogue piece, Ferreira detailed the dissolution of her Capitol relationship and revealed she unsuccessfully auditioned for the lead role in the Madonna biopic, will perform “Leash” on a TV show she wasn’t ready to announce, will self-release another song early next year and is working on reclaiming the rights to music from Capitol that was intended for the as-yet-unfinished/unreleased album Masochism.

Asked if the sound of “Leash” points the way towards what fans can expect to hear on that project, she replied, “I would say so, but it’s sorta hard to tell. I definitely don’t think anyone’s gonna be hearing anything super minimal from me anytime soon. I’ve never been much of a minimalist and I feel like we’re at a time when everything in pop is. I tend to lean upbeat without trying to be too obviously poppy. I’ve been writing some songs that are definitely way poppier than anything I’ve been putting out.”

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