Sia has a new album coming out in January, This Is Acting, which entirely features songs she originally wrote for other A-listers, but were ultimately rejected. She spoke to Rolling Stone about the process of recycling could-be hit songs for other people into an entire album for herself, and what working with people like Rihanna, Kanye, Katy Perry, Adele and Beyonce is like from her own refreshingly humble perspective.
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Her accounts paint the songwriter as an endearingly hard worker who has devoted a large portion of her career to trying to make other people sound good -- even though she's established herself as a formidable performer in her own right. She explains that she usually receives "20 or 30 tracks a week" from producers who want her to write lyrics and melody over them for a particular performer. Two of the songs on This is Acting, "Reaper" and "Cheap Thrills," are ones she worked on for Rihanna. Kanye shares a writing credit on "Reaper," though Sia admits they never actually worked side-by-side on it.