Gia Margaret lost her voice but found a new vulnerability

The title of Gia Margaret’s new album “Singing” is more than a simple word or action – it’s a celebration of the Chicago singer’s nearly eight-year journey toward reclaiming her voice after her vocal cords were damaged.

“I think singing for me is so much more than just the act of it,” explained Margaret, 38. “I think singing is the ultimate vulnerability.”

It’s a quality she’s sought to showcase since her 2018 debut, “There’s Always A Glimmer,” which received rave reviews from national outlets such as Pitchfork. Primed for the next level, the artist was in talks with record label Jagjaguwar and already signed with Beggars Music for publishing. There were also plans for a headline tour and a follow-up album.

However, nerve damage to her vocal cords left her in pain whenever she tried to sing.

“I definitely was scared that my career was over and everything that I had worked for was finally coming to fruition,” she said. “It all felt like it was falling apart.”

Margaret ultimately turned to work as a producer and composer. She initially created her 2020 ambient album, “Mia Gargaret,” out of boredom.

“I think that interest was always there, but I was kind of just thrown into it because I wanted to express myself through music in any way that I could,” said Margaret, who has always called the city home and studied music composition at Columbia College before pursuing songwriting.

Her interest in exploring new forms of music blossomed, leading to the release of the instrumental “Romantic Piano” in 2023, utilizing some of the classical piano lessons she learned as a child. She said the project reaffirmed her love for music.

“It’s something that helps me process and stay grounded through whatever is going on in my life,” said Margaret, who also plays guitars, synthesizer, drums/percussion, flute, and keyboards on the new album.

The project also gave her confidence to do everything she could to bring her voice back. She took vocal therapy and voice lessons, and found that vocoders allowed her to better focus on melody and harmony without being overly self-critical. Eventually, she adjusted to an older-sounding voice that she almost didn’t recognize at first and accepted that she couldn’t push her voice as hard as she once had.

This process allowed Margaret to feel empowered to expand her musical skillset.

“I think this album felt way more vulnerable than the past two,” she said of her new collection of folk and pop-tinged songs.

Margaret will celebrate her album, released Friday via Jagjaguwar, with a release show May 12 at Thalia Hall. She will be joined by a trio of backing musicians, including longtime friend and collaborator Deb Talan, who contributed to the new album.

The album was recorded between 2024 and 2025 at studios in London, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Chicago with a plethora of collaborators including Kurt Vile, David Bazan, Sean Carey, and Guy Sigsworth.

It’s a combination that Talan feels led Margaret’s most dynamic and powerful album yet.

“There’s a depth, a maturity, and a richness that has expanded in what she does,” said Talan, former singer of the Chicago pop-folk band The Weepies. “I feel [her music] could appeal to anyone. It’s both melodic and lyrical, but then I feel like she creates these beautiful sonic environments that you just want to live in.”

They met about nine years ago when Talan asked Margaret to open for and sing with The Weepies. They’ve become close friends and collaborators – Talan says Margaret even “developed some really sweet relationships with my kids.”

While her friend typically has gentle guidance as a collaborator, Talan was amazed by her frequent use of the phrase “Be as freaky as you want.” It encouraged her to play a little more wildly than she normally would on album closer “E-Motion.”

“We ran my acoustic guitar through a sustained distortion pedal,” Talan explained. It goes from being pretty meditative, and then it has this part that gets really big and it's really fun.”

Margaret said she felt “a little more liberated to go off the deep end” with her voice, which now feels “way more experimental.” She went from writing songs that were minimal vocally to writing the longest song she had written to that point.

“It’s kind of like when you train for a marathon, you just try to go a little bit further each time. But you don't want to overdo it so that you can run the race eventually,” said Margaret. “There was a part of me that had to let go of some expectation that I had to come back and be this excellent singer. I was just really happy that I could do it at all.”