Sofie Winterson - Sophia Electric
'Those who travel far, like to be in a safe harbor.' An age-old saying that fits Sofie Winterson today and her new album Sophia Electric . A personal record about love, letting go, change and memory. The album was written and recorded in various locations such as: Los Angeles, Lisbon, Haarlem and Amsterdam, but her own guitar always came along. With her Green Card she regularly stays in the United States, but her new label is simply located in Amsterdam Noord.
It started with old folk. Two years ago, after a session with Red Light Radio, DJ Turquoise Wisdom played Sofie Winterson all kinds of rare folk singles. She was enormously inspired, went back to her old love, the guitar, and started writing songs. “I heard these super cool folk songs over an amazing sound system and I looked at the amplifier and saw the brand name 'Sophia Electric'. After the listening session, I immediately picked up the guitar, started writing the album and knew that Sophia Electric had to be the title.” While making the album, Winterson kept listening to a lot of different music. That stimulated her. You can hear that. The agile experimental urge of Arthus Russel, the open and honest approach of songwriters like Big Thief and Elliot Smith, the atmospheric and sublime of bands like Beach House and Mazzy Star, but also the accomplished pop music of Beyonce. All these influences came together in the sound of Sophia Electric .
Now, two years later, the album is finished. She wanted to take her time. Writing herself, recording herself, playing everything herself. Only at the end of the recording process did Sofie Winterson start looking for producers to finish the album. For each track, she looked at who she wanted to work with. “For the song Remember , I worked with Ben Westbeech (Breach). I worked on the tracks Military Man , Happened To Us , Make You Miss Her and Sweat Heart with Arne van Petegem (Styrofoam) and the rest with Rimer Londen (Le Le / Comtron). He also mixed the album.”
Sofie Winterson wanted to make a very personal album. She succeeded. An honest and open album. Stripped of all the frills. Or as she says herself: “ Sophia Electric has become a very diverse album. Tracks with only guitar and some keys and tracks carefully produced with layers of drums/synths/guitars. It is lighter, emptier, more dynamic than my previous releases and even though the themes are sometimes a bit big or serious, there is a playful and naive drive underneath.”