Sophie (musician)
Sophie Xeon (/ˈziːɒn/; 17 September 1986 – 30 January 2021), known mononymously as SOPHIE, was a Scottish music producer, songwriter, and DJ. Sophie's work is known for its brash take on pop music and is distinguished by experimental sound design, "sugary" synthesized textures, and incorporation of influences from underground dance styles.[5] It would help pioneer the 2010s hyperpop microgenre.
Sophie
Sophie Xeon
17 September 1986
Glasgow, Scotland
30 January 2021 (aged 34)
Athens, Greece
- Music producer
- DJ
- songwriter
2009–2021
- MSMSMSM
- Future Classic
- Transgressive
- Numbers
- Huntleys + Palmers
Sophie,[a] who initially remained anonymous and later came out as a transgender woman, came to prominence with the breakthrough singles "Bipp" (2013) and "Lemonade" (2014), which were compiled on the singles collection Product (2015). Sophie's only studio album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides followed in 2018, earning a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. Sophie worked closely with artists from the PC Music label, including A. G. Cook and GFOTY, and also produced for acts such as Charli XCX, Vince Staples, Kim Petras, Madonna, Let's Eat Grandma, and Namie Amuro.[5]
Sophie died in January 2021 after an accidental fall in Athens. The Fader eulogized Sophie as a "pioneering Scottish artist whose vibrant electronic productions expanded modern pop music's scope,"[8] while Pitchfork credited Sophie's influential work with "mold[ing] electronic music into bracingly original avant-garde pop".[7]
Early life[edit]
Sophie was born on 17 September 1986 and raised in Glasgow, Scotland.[9][10][11][12] Sophie's father would play cassettes of electronic music in the car and take Sophie to raves as a very young child, and Sophie quickly became enamoured with the music. In an interview published by Lenny Letter, Sophie stated that in childhood: "I spent all my time listening to those cassette tapes. I'd steal them from the car." After receiving a keyboard as a birthday gift, Sophie then became interested in creating new music.[13]
At the age of approximately nine or ten, Sophie expressed the desire to drop out of school to become an electronic music producer (although Sophie's parents did not allow this).[13] Sophie continued to create music throughout adolescence, regularly announcing "I'm just going to lock myself in my room until I've made an album."[13] A half-sister asked Sophie to DJ her wedding; later Sophie admitted that the half-sister "didn't know what I was doing in my room on my own" and had assumed Sophie was a DJ. Around this time, Sophie learned to DJ in addition to production.[13][14]
Career[edit]
Early years[edit]
Sophie's music career began in a band named Motherland, formed with bandmates Sabine Gottfried, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, and Marcella Dvsi. Sophie played live shows in Berlin and the UK during 2008–2009. Sophie later collaborated with bandmate Matthew Lutz-Kinoy on a series of performance works.[15] In October 2010, Sophie remixed the Light Asylum single, "A Certain Person", creating the Motherland Radio version, uploaded to Light Asylum's SoundCloud page the following month.[16] In 2011, this remix was included on Light Asylum's In Tension EP as a bonus track for the CD release.[17] In 2012, this track was given a 300-copy release for club deejays on 12-inch, 45 rpm clear vinyl by independent label Mexican Summer.[18][19] In 2011, Sophie scored the short film Dear Mr/Mrs by Dutch team Freudenthal/Verhagen.[20] Detroit deejay Jeffrey Sfire met Sophie in Berlin in 2013; the two formed the duo Sfire,[21] releasing a 12-inch vinyl disc Sfire on the CockTail D'Amore label. Sophie vocalized on one song "Sfire 3",[22] which was later remixed by John Talabot in 2016.[23] Sophie became involved with artists affiliated with the PC Music label after encountering Dux Kidz, a project between A. G. Cook and Danny L Harle.[24]
Sound and image[edit]
Sophie primarily used the Elektron Monomachine synth-sequencer and Ableton Live workstation to create music.[65] Apart from vocals, Sophie created synthesized sounds from the elementary waveforms by using the Monomachine, eschewing the use of samples.[32] Likening the construction of a track to building a sculpture out of different materials, Sophie synthesized sounds resembling "latex, balloons, bubbles, metal, plastic, [and] elastic".[32][65][66] Tiny Mix Tapes described Sophie's production as "liquid metal or maybe the noise equivalent of non-Euclidean geometry".[67] AllMusic wrote that Sophie's "sophisticated, hyperkinetic productions" feature a "surrealist, blatantly artificial quality", typically making use of high-pitched female vocals in addition to "sugary synthesizer textures, and beats drawing from underground dance music styles" as well as "experimental sound design."[5]
The New York Times described Sophie's work as "giddy fun, but [...] also an invitation to consider pop's pleasures, structures and gender expectations, and pop's commercial status as both a consumer item and an emotional catalyst."[68] The Fader likened it to "K-Pop, J-Pop, Eurodance at its most chaotic, and even turn of the millennium American/UK boybandisms."[69] Sophie told Billboard that the genre of music produced was "advertising".[12] Variety and The New York Times described the work of Sophie as pioneering the 2010s style known as "hyperpop".[70][71]
Sophie's early visuals came from a series of colourful images described as "Homemade Molecular Cooking",[20] with the singles' cover art often depicting objects made from plastic or other industrial materials, an idea that originated from discussions with John Roberts, a fellow electronic musician.[72]
Personal life[edit]
Sophie was described as a reclusive figure, and a limit of the artist's media exposure promoted a sense of mystery about Sophie. The artist's identity was concealed in interviews through voice masking, as well as by covering parts of Sophie's body.[20][28] Early in the artist's career, Sophie's real-life identity was the subject of press speculation. Prior to coming out as a trans woman, Sophie was criticized by some commentators for using femininity as an apparently ironic musical device.[73][74][75] In a 2013 Pitchfork e-mail interview, when asked about the choice of Sophie as a stage name, the artist responded: "It tastes good and it's like moisturizer."[20] At one Boiler Room show, drag performer Ben Woozy was recruited to mime a DJ set while Sophie pretended to be a bodyguard.[76]
The music video for "It's Okay to Cry", released in October 2017, was the first time Sophie's voice and image were used in a solo release, with Sophie appearing nude from the bust up against a backdrop of clouds. This was widely interpreted as a coming out announcement as a trans woman.[49] Sophie confirmed a trans identity in subsequent interviews, also speaking of feeling boxed-in by labels and describing music as "my chosen method of communication" and self-expression.[77] After Sophie's death, Pitchfork reported that one representative had said Sophie "preferred not to use gendered or non-binary pronouns" as an artist.[7]