Sophia James is about to take over your playlists with her EP The Wrong Shoe Theory! Ever since ‘So Unfair’, we have been fascinated by Sophia’s understanding of pop music and her execution of marketing, and we got to rack her brain surrounding all of those things! Let’s jump in!
Listen to ‘I Always Do’ here!
Hi Sophia! Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today! Before we jump in, can you introduce a bit about who you are as an artist for anyone who may be tuning in for the first time?
If I were to chart it out astrologically, as an artist, I’d probably be an Alt-rock sun, a power-pop rising, and a singer-songwriter moon. The music I make is a byproduct of everything I’ve ever listened to a thousand times, and that umbrella spans anywhere from Stevie Wonder to Alanis Morissette to Talking Heads to Lianne La Havas to Billy Joel to Sting to Miles Davis to James Taylor to Radiohead to Jeff Buckley to….
‘I Always Do’ is your newest track! You described this track as your way of connecting with your brother, a way to express feelings and to understand shared grief that made sense to you. With such a heavy and personal topic matter, how did those writing sessions open up this line of communication for you?
The week I wrote ‘I Always Do,’ I had already abandoned about five unfinished songs revolving around what I wanted to say to my brother through his grief. None of them were quite right. ‘I Always Do’ started as a series of chords that my collaborator Alex and I had plunked out on the piano and then added a melody over. We were messing around, but the sound felt tender and timeless. I knew immediately that this was gonna be the home for what I had been trying to say all week. I took the song home, wrote the lyrics, and brought it back to Alex. Luckily he was like, “sounds great, let’s record it!”. I never actually told anyone where the inspiration came from until recently because I wanted people to create their own personal connections to it. I played it for my brother in the car soon after I first wrote it; because of his communication challenges, it was hard to tell what he made of it. But I did get a thumbs up before he requested we listen to ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ by Wham.
The music video for ‘I Always Do’ felt like a love letter in its own. Where did the inspiration for the video come from?
For a long time, I paid my rent by working as a pianist/singer at different restaurants and bars (very Ryan Gosling in La La Land). They were long shifts and pretty thankless, but I was happy to be making money through music at all. The music video for ‘I Always Do’ is mainly a love letter to all of the musicians who do or have done this job. It is not glamorous, and more often than not, people aren’t really listening. You’ve gotta have thick skin and a real love of the game to do it.
The Wrong Shoe Theory is about a month away, is there a song that you are most looking forward to sharing with fans?
I’m proud of every song on the EP, but I’m most excited to share ‘You Make Me So Happy I Wanna Die.’ It’s the most absurd and high energy song I’ve ever made, and I don’t think my listeners will really expect it. Stay on your toes.
You are playing a few shows leading up to the release of The Wrong Shoe Theory. What goes into planning a show around unreleased music? How do you lay out what life you think those songs will take on, on stage?
I loooooooooooove arranging songs for live shows. I love playing live shows. I love going to live shows. So much of this EP was written with the live shows in mind. Planning-wise, I typically chart out new arrangements and demos of each song to send to my band so they can learn it, then we rehearse the hell out of it. I think it helps that I have mega-talented band members I trust. They really bring it to life. There’s so much you can do to a song in a live setting when you know your guitarist is capable of doing a face-melting solo in the middle of it, or the bassist can improvise a groovy transition between songs, or whatever. The possibilities are limitless.
We want to briefly touch on the “Group 7” of it all. Where did you come up with the idea to market ‘so unfair’ in that way? And did you have any idea it would catch on like the wildfire that it did?
The “Group 7” video idea was born of wanting to get my song out there, but having no idea how. I impulsively decided to post a bunch of videos with the song ‘So Unfair’ playing in the background, but I had no idea what to put in the foreground, so I just started numbering the videos. I had NO idea that it would start an internet wildfire. I didn’t even know I was holding a lighter.
Once again, thank you so much for chatting with us! Before we let you go, can fans expect another drop for The Wrong Shoe Theory before we hear the whole project?
‘I Always Do’ was the last of the drops leading up to the full EP, but come May 1st, all will be revealed.
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