ONE WOMAN. ONE STAGE. NO CEILING. — ŽIVA.

There are artists. Then there are forces. Lucija Ivšić is the latter.

By now, if you've read our full review of ŽIIVA — and if you haven't, fix that immediately — you already know where we stand. This is one of the most vital, uncompromising, and emotionally devastating records to come out of this country in years. Darkwave, Slavic indie pop, trip-hop, industrial dance — all of it fused into something that sounds like nothing else on earth, written, composed, recorded and produced entirely by one person in Melbourne throughout 2025.

But an album this alive demands context. Demands the voice behind it. So we sat down with Lucija — ŽIVA — and went deep. The emotional architecture of ŽIIVA. The knee injury she performed through at Essence 2025 when she delivered the best live set we witnessed all year.

The DIY punk ethos she carried out of Punčke and rebuilt into something genuinely futuristic. The bilingualism, the displacement, the obsessive perfectionism the album both channels and critiques. The Transhuman Ansambl. The global stage on which this work is set is demanding. And creativity, drive and purpose.

This is not a promo chat. This is an artist at full stretch, talking honestly about what it costs to make work this uncompromising — and why she can't stop.

Watch the full interview below.

https://youtu.be/X9xqVA4W4MQ