The first thing you notice about ILUKA is an energy, a kind of quiet spellwork shimmering beneath her voice. A few days before the release of her newest album the wild, the innocent, & the raging, she speaks with the certainty of someone who’s walked through fire and learned to name every ember. “I can already feel the chapter closing,” she told us, not with fear, but with the calm of someone who understands that endings are portals to new beginnings.

Her music has always carried hints of magic, but this era feels like a full initiation. Raised around her father’s home studio and her grandmother’s witchy lineage, ILUKA grew up believing in signs, symbols, and the power of ritual. And after leaving Australia, a long-term relationship, her old team, and the life she once knew, she arrived in Los Angeles stripped down to nothing but intuition – the perfect state, she says, for transformation.

Across the album, she leans into rage, desire, grief, and self-reconstruction with the intensity of someone rebuilding her altar from scratch. What unfolds in our conversation is part confession, part spell: a story of shedding, shapeshifting, reclaiming power, and refusing to apologize for the flames that warm you and the ones that burn the old structures down.

TCC: This a huge week for you. Album release on the 21, how are you feeling?

ILUKA: Yeah, it’s weird. It’s so funny. It’s such a long process and I’ve been releasing singles leading up to this for, what feels like so long. Like the very first song “Haunted One” was a while ago. So yes, it’s so weird. everyone’s asking, are you so excited? And honestly, I don’t know. It’s a weird feeling. I can already feel the chapter kind of closing, and it’s feeling quite emotional, but also kind of cool. It weird to see that the last three years went into this thing and I’m feeling the ending of it. Obviously, I’m going to tour it, so it’s not really the end. But you know what I mean.

TCC: Yeah absolutely. Do you feel like this [the album release] is the most fulfilling part or do you think touring will be more fulfilling since you’ll be able to embody the album live?

ILUKA: I do really, really love all of the, the bits of my job. I love, love, love, love, love the studio, and I think that comes from being exposed to that environment early on. I know a lot of people don’t love it or they feel pressure in the studio, but my dad always had a little studio that we would work from at home, and it was always a safe space for me. It was somewhere where I could really put everything I was feeling. And so, I’ve always loved that part of it. So yes, I love, love the studio.

And then I’m also a very visual person, so I kind of curate and make all of these visuals, not entirely by myself, but I’m the creative director. So, I do love all the aspects of it [album creation]. There’s been so much response to the singles online, but I haven’t been able to fully understand the way it’s connected with people. I think because I haven’t done any of these songs to people in person. I haven’t heard people sing any of the lyrics back to me yet. I haven’t heard people in person tell me how much it has connected with them. It’s almost made me feel a little bit restless and so I’m aware how much I do need to play these songs live to get that full experience of the creation process.

TCC: Definitely makes sense. You need the body language response. You need the stuff that people can’t hide.

ILUKA: Totally. I want to be singing with the energy of people around me.

TCC: What are you hoping is the primary feeling people get from this album, whether it’s listening to it live or hitting play for the first time after the album’s release?

ILUKA: I think the whole album, this era of me, and my life has been such a stripping and rebuilding of everything. I moved away from Australia, left a huge relationship, left my old team, left everything I once knew and I came here. It sounds a little depressing, but I kind of had nothing. Like I really came here with absolutely nothing for the first time in my life. There was no one to answer to. And honestly, it has been really, really freeing. And the album dives into that feeling of having nothing to lose and just going for it.

And yes, it taps into frustrations of why I left and, yes, there is a lot of rage. Some heartbreak in there as well. So, it’s feeling all those things. What I mainly want people to take out of it is the feeling of going for it and expressing yourself. And being free to be angry, to be full of rage. That’s the foundation of this record – having nothing and just fucking going for it. Expressing yourself in the most kind of unapologetic way. I think that’s the kind of crux of the of the record.

TCC: What you’ve described definitely comes through, especially in the singles that have come out so far. I think women, especially, have a habit of intellectualizing their feelings. Your music is giving them the opportunity and sort of the agency to just feel the things that they’re feeling, which isn’t something that women get the opportunity to do often because there are expectations on “performance”.

ILUKA: Totally. Absolutely.

TCC: There’s a lot of complexity around unpacking the brutality of being a woman in your album and it made me think about scrutiny that women face day to day. I’ve been to a lot of shows this year and something I’ve realized is in the context of music specifically, women are held to a much higher standard when they perform. They have to embody a specific persona on stage. They’ve got to have all the costume changes. They have to dance or have backup dancers or take up more space. And then on the flip side, I’ve seen men and bands of men just kind of stand there and do the bare minimum and garner significantly less criticism. So, I want to know, how has the expectation in the music industry shaped your relationship with how you perform?

ILUKA: Oh, I love that question. That’s so true. It’s so funny. This is this is quite complex for me. You know, songs like “Crucify Me,” fans have all these ideas of what that song is about, but there is definitely some relation to being on stage. I grew up on the Australian music scene and was very much cutting my teeth on the indie circuit there. I was always this theatrical artist. I love big outfits. I love big shoulders, big hair, I love theatricality with performance. The culture of Australia pushes you to stay quite small. It’s very, you know, “be the chill, cool girl.” I had a drummer once who told me “just wear your jeans and T-shirt on stage.” I had male reviewers pull my outfits apart in Australia. It was bizarre. When I was just starting out, people hated that I showed up in this particular way. It’s almost like if you care too much about fashion, invalidates your performance or your experience, and I’m such a fashion girly and I’m a rock girly too. I noticed when I was young and was trying to be validated by the industry, I would acting like “one of the guys” a little bit more. But now I’m apparently challenging people by showing up in a way that feels authentic to me that wasn’t like what any of the guys were doing.

TCC: It is interesting because even when women put in the most effort that they can, there is criticism. For example, I think about Sabrina Carpenter. We can see how much effort has gone into the styling on stage and the branding and then the visuals that play into the album, and yet no matter what she does, it’s not enough. But then, if she had, you know, flipped it around and just shown up in a t-shirt and shorts, people would have something to say about that too. And for the most part, I really don’t see that with some of the male acts that I’ve seen this year.

ILUKA: Totally. And women have to go absolutely above and beyond. This is a bit of a side note, but I had this experience the other night. I was at this gig and there are a lot of bigger names in music, and most of them were male. And in that moment, it was funny – me coming into the space as a woman. It was this completely different energy. At times I had this  really weird feeling of, “I don’t have any value in that space.” And maybe if they, if they had known my music and if they had known I was a musician, maybe I could have fought my way to like get their respect. But since they had no idea who I was, I felt like I didn’t belong in that space.

But it’s so clear that especially the rock indie world is very much a dude space. And while there’s a lot more girls coming up now, you still have to have to go above and beyond to prove yourself in those spaces.

TCC: It’s that feeling of having to work twice as hard to get half as much.

ILUKA: Yeah, totally. It’s fascinating for sure. It’s fascinating and it wasn’t even that any of these guys were being assholes. That was the weirdest part of it. None of them were being rude to me. It was just this… system. It’s been in place for a long time.

TCC: Yeah, and people who benefit from an infrastructure generally don’t question it.

ILUKA: Exactly.

TCC: You’ve described this era of the album as a “rebellious act of taking up space.” Was there a specific moment in your life that triggered that sort of shift in you?

ILUKA: There’s definitely been significant moments, but I look back and as a little girl, I’ve always been defiant. It’s definitely been in my blood since I was tiny. I was always doing things different, you know. My mom always laughs because the first fairy party that I was invited to – I went as Batman.

TCC: laughs

ILUKA: And there were, like, a hundred little fairies running around, and I was Batman. And my mum brought a fairy costume for me, thinking I would want to change, but I was having the time of my life. So yeah, I’ve always done my own thing and have been a little defiant in that way. I’ve always had this awareness that “I can do it. I have the ability to do it.” It being whatever I want. So ,why not question things? I was also always a very sensitive kid, you know, I really always felt a lot. I had big feelings which, if I wasn’t writing, they could have turned into some not good things. But I was lucky that my dad was always playing music and was always like, “right, put it all into the music.”

There has always been a defiance. Even before, as I was speaking about the Australian music industry and really realizing how different my experience was. I was so aware that some people did want me to stay small and sometimes it was easier for me not to show up in there. There were other moments in the music industry, but I was always fighting, fighting against it. So yes, there were specific moments, but I always knew that there was going to be some point where I would say “fuck this, I’m gonna do my own thing.”

TCC: Are there any rituals you have? Are there things that you do to help yourself stay anchored? Some of these things you talk about are heavy experiences. Having to constantly fight for your spot and validate your existence, whether it’s to a room of people that are listening or not, it’s exhausting. So, how do you stay true to who you are and not get swayed by the expectations that are out there?

ILUKA: That’s a beautiful question. I have a lot of Virgo in my chart, so very earthbound. I think it’s enabled me to do what I have to do to stay very vigilant in my rituals. I think a lot of people who identify as being female feel somewhat disembodied…so every morning I try to get into my body, whether it’s yoga or even a run. I do a lot of meditation.

I’ve always been very fascinated by particularly Eastern philosophy, because it is about like a centering and coming back to the self. And I think when you’re starting from scratch, like I have done recently, it can be a terrifying, terrifying thing. I’ve had this seven, eight months stretch that I call my “Dark Night of the Soul” and I had to come to terms with a lot of stuff. So yes, definitely, I have to be so vigilant in my rituals.

TCC: Do you feel like the witchy aesthetic that has developed with your brand evolved naturally with the music or was it something that was inherent in who you are?

ILUKA: Definitely inherent, yes. I come from a lineage of witchy-ness. I had a very, very witchy grandma. I’ve leant more into the witchy-ness now with the music. But from when I was very young and growing up around my grandma, this was something I’ve always been exposed to.

TCC: If your album had a tarot card, what tarot card would that be?

ILUKA: You know what? The first thing that pops into my head is the tower, which is quite violent. I’d say the tower because that was like the very beginning of it all. There’s rebuilding, rebirth, that’s where this whole album was birthed from.

TCC: If you could write the score to any movie, what genre of movie would it be?

ILUKA: Oh, I love that. I love horror and I love a lot of experimental cinema. I love a dark visual world. So, it would have to be something a little weird and quirky. I mean, something like “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders” would be really interesting. Or, actually, I just saw “Frankenstein.” Something like that maybe.

TCC: Oh, “Frankenstein” was so good, right? I was thinking “Crimson Peak” is also very similar to your vibe.

ILUKA: Totally. Love a gothic romance

TCC: Okay, final question – if someone could compliment your album, what is the best compliment they could give?

ILUKA: When they listen to it, they just feel free to be who they are and express however they want to express.

Talking to ILUKA feels a little like pulling a tarot spread – each answer revealing a new layer, a new truth, a new archetype she’s stepped into. She speaks of rage and softness the way a witch speaks of elements: distinct but inseparable, forces that shape and reshape her as she moves through the world. The Tower card appears instantly when she’s asked to choose a symbol for the album – destruction and rebirth, lightning striking the old scaffolding to make way for something raw, wild, and real.

There’s no posture in her vulnerability, no performance in her defiance. Just a woman who has walked into her own ending, faced the ruins, and built something spellbinding from it. Her rituals are less habits than acts of reclamation. Her aesthetic isn’t branding; it’s inheritance.

And as she steps fully into this era – unapologetic, sensual, furious, intuitive — she leaves one parting wish for listeners: that the album frees them. That it grants permission not to hold back, not to shrink, not to intellectualize or sanitize or dim their own fire. the wild, the raging, & the innocent is out on streaming now!

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