Poesie Discusses New Release Circuit Break

At a time when AI is reshaping everything from education to art, London-based alt-pop artist Poesie is asking one simple question: what does it actually mean to stay human? Her latest single, Circuit Break, is a glitching, euphoric protest song that fuses experimental electronic production with emotionally charged songwriting, taking aim at algorithmic culture, unchecked technology and the commodification of creativity. Ahead of the release of her genre-bending EP Nature Mother, we caught up with Poesie to discuss the inspiration behind Circuit Break, why joy can be a form of resistance, and how songwriting can spark conversations that matter.

Circuit Break tackles what it means to stay human in a world increasingly shaped by machines, algorithms and AI. What first sparked the idea for the track, and how personal is that frustration for you?

I can’t remember an inciting incident which sparked the idea for the track; and to be honest, I think that says everything about how steeped in the issue I feel. The rampant and unlegislated increasing dominance of AI is genuinely always on my mind. As well as being a music artist, I also work in education, and you can see the impact AI is having on children, on their ability to think curiously and critically and, most crucially, on how motivated they feel to think at all. It’s a personal concern and grievance which is deeply intertwined with the political.

Once I’d made the track I listened to an incredible episode of The Ezra Klein Show with Naomi Klein called We're All Living in the 'Mirror World' Now. In this conversation, Ezra Klein phrases really beautifully this "search for the human"—the search for what makes us human—which he believes to be the true challenge of now. I agree that this is the central question we must engage with consciously and carefully in 2026 if we’re to face all the challenges demanded of the human race in the decades to come whilst sustaining love and patience for one another. Not allowing ourselves to give into the seductive distraction that is the tunnel-visioned rabbit holes of our screens requires resistance from all of us.

Being an artist in today’s landscape involves so much engagement with technology, so like most people I live a contradictory existence with the world in my pocket. I hope that this song resonates with people yearning for real connection, for which there is no shiny replacement.

Sonically, Circuit Break leans into glitching synths and a structure that deliberately resists traditional verse/chorus songwriting. How important was it for the production itself to reflect the song’s message about creativity, control and resisting conformity?

It was so important, both to me and to my producer and co-writer, Fionn Connolly, that form matched content. We got really experimental with the sounds in this track – what you can hear is an actual synth glitching to create the beats. In my head, I also had the sound of a shitty dance mat, which Fionn miraculously had a sample of which he’d nearly deleted that week!

I think there’s a harmony between the message of the song and how we made it: we embraced electronic music for all the production and drew heavily from SOPHIE, Radiohead, FKA twigs and Jamie xx for our ideas. At the same time, there are live instruments in there and my vocal is also very emotive, so the track is fusing something robotic with very human elements.

Structurally, Circuit Break is unconventional, and therefore it’s a middle finger to AI music, which is obsessed with the capitalistic idea of music as a product. If you know what sells, why not re-package the same thing, over and over again? It’s definitely my most defiant, bold track to date, and on the EP. We’re both proud of how it challenged us – and after all, what is creativity without challenge?

You've described the song as both a protest against "tech-overlords" and a party track, with joy itself becoming a form of resistance. How do you balance those heavier political and social themes with something that still feels euphoric and fun to listen to?

This is a good question… And I don’t really have an answer to it. For me, joy and resistance go hand in hand. When I go partying I’m not necessarily always dancing to forget my problems, or the problems of the world: there’s something more animal going on to do with integrating them somehow, through the intensely communal and sensory experience of moving in the dark with a mixture of strangers and friends.

I would say the same thing about protest. Comixing with the act of protest is the joy of finding solidarity of experience and opinion with other like-minded people. Also, I would say that my whole artist mission is about creating music which feels good but also makes you think. The friction between these two things is exciting to me. It could be that friction that creates the euphoria.

Across your music, you write about humanity, ecology and equality, and Circuit Break feels like another bold statement in that world. Do you see songwriting as a form of activism for you, or is it more about asking questions and starting conversations?

Songwriting for me is both of those things. All activism starts with conversations, with people who you disagree with, just as much as with those with whom you align. I’m hoping that my music finds the audience who need to hear it and that it lights a fire inside them. Whether that grows into a conversation with another human being or whether it becomes a domino in a long line of other dominos which then eventually leads to more direct activism, I can’t predict – and I’m a tiny artist right now, so I’m just keen for the former to happen. More conversations, more curiosity, more loving resistance.

With Nature Mother shaping up to be a genre-bending EP and Circuit Break arriving as such a fierce statement, how does this release capture where you are creatively right now — and what do you hope people take away from it?

As I’m just starting out, I wanted to release something sonically bold, and Nature Mother is definitely that. It’s also laden with hooks, naturally, because that’s how I write. I think it captures that I’m finding a sound I’m increasingly excited by, and I think fans will hear all my influences in this EP, and how diverse they are.

I hope people feel catharsis, joy, anger, a desire to move, a drive to question, to be curious, to express themselves. And I also hope they feel absolutely buzzing that they’ve found me and that they’re an OG Poesie pilgrim.