Vulture contributor Sasha Geffen sits down with British-born electronic producer and Rewire 2018 artist SOPHIE to talk identity, her new performance and the very notion of human survival.
“Since 2013, when [SOPHIE] started issuing her first statically electric, rubberized synth-pop singles, [she] has racked up a production CV that includes work with Le1f, MØ, Charli XCX, Vince Staples, and, most notably, fellow mononymic pop auteur Madonna, whose single “Bitch I’m Madonna” she co-produced alongside Diplo. Her work, under her own name and for other artists, bears a singular stamp derived from the labor-intensive process of raw digital synthesis. Instead of drawing on samples or gently tweaked presets, Sophie sculpts her own sounds — from the bubbles that pop across “Lemonade” and Liz’s “When I Rule the World” to the go-kart revs on Charli XCX’s “Vroom Vroom” to the metallic scrapes on Vince Staples’s “Samo” and “Yeah Right.” Her sound world is visceral, tactile — you feel it like you feel your knees vibrating after you’ve launched a video-game avatar into a massive jump. It’s made from software, but it ripples through your body all the same.”
SOPHIE presents her new live a/v show at Rewire 2018. Watch the video for ‘Ponyboy’ below and learn more about her Rewire 2018 performance at SOPHIE.
Rewire 2018 Festival and Day passes are now available at Tickets.