SOPHIE FAITH
London based Singer/Songwriter Sophie Faith, who’s combining neo-soul, jazz and flavours of hiphop into her music, revealing raw honesty in her lyrics, its no wonder that she is fast becoming a power-house on the UK RnB scene. We sat down with Sophie to discuss how fruitful her 2022 was, the collaboration with Stormzy on ‘Heart is on my Sleeve’ and what she has coming up !
Hi Sophie, how are you?
I’m great thank you! Just got off the back of a gig last night at Cafe Koko, with my band, which was really fun. But yeah back to it after a really busy end to last year.
2022, Was a really big year for you! Which was your favourite highlight?
Aww there are so many, so it would be a throw-up between putting the project out and the tour! As I really got to see the people, which my music was reaching, in person which was really fun!
“My dream collaboration would be with Jazmine Sullivan! Mate, I fucking love her so much and have since I was about 16 and used to listen to her on youtube, then when she came out with Heaux Tales… OMG, she’s just the wildest singer. I would actually love some more American collab’s, I love going out to LA and scoping out the scene there, as essentially that’s where my sound devices from and as much as the RNB scene is poppin’ here in London, I just love the scene out there, it’s like the mecca.”
— Sophie Faith
You dropped the most recent track Pinky Blues back in October, this song is about the decision to start a family or not, was this formed from personal experience?
Of Course, they all are! I’d been in a relationship with a really nice guy and after about the 3-year mark, you start to have those questions in your head of like what do I want? However, it became apparent that it was very black in white, of him not wanting to have a family, due to his own issues, family traumas and not wanting the responsibility. Which I understood and completely respected, however, it made me confirm that I do want to be a mother one day and that it will be a big part of who I am. I wasn’t willing to give it up for him, so that song was really deep to write. I actually ended up writing it for an advert, they wanted a one-minute song after I posted it - people really loved it! Actually a lot of women the same age as me, so I ended up just releasing it. It’s funny it’s really out of your hands, whether or not an audience will like it or not!
Would you say that it’s comforting to work through your decisions by creating lyrics from them - actually on that note- what is your writing process?
Yes, its definitely lethargic and healing. I know for a lot of singers, I was actually speaking to my friend Pip Millett the other day about how we write about our traumas, I like to go into the studio, in the eye of the storm, - (Inserts, ‘I like that the eye of the storm’) well yeh, that’s how it feels when it’s the most tremulous times of my life, all I want to do is go to the studio and express myself, to get it out and cry. Even if you listen to Pinky Blues my voice is really hoarse, because I really went for it, in writing that. Overall I hope that people see the genuine, realness in my songwriting because it is just conversational sometimes, almost like pages of a diary. So how I normally write is that I‘ll improv and just make melodies in my head, then go to record it via voice note, to catch it on the mike, then I will listen back and reflect on what I’ve said .. filling in gaps and changing lyrics to create a concept. Normally that is what works best for me, very occasionally, I will write a poem on the tube in my notes or something and then stick that into a song. Mostly it’s very freeform.
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I heard an interesting story about how you got into this business, something about a past flatmate who heard you singing and asked if you’d ever considered becoming a singer. is this true?
hahaha, lots of laughter. Ah actually a friend, that I no longer talk to suggested it to me. So a long time ago, I was very secretive about my singing abilities which made it a really personal experience. I’d left home when I was about 14 and this one time when I was making this friend a cup of tea, they heard me singing & were just like ‘yo what the... you can really sing’ it turned out he know a few people in the business and he ended up introducing me to my old manager! So the rest is history, but yeah I guess I was discovered in Brighton by my friends who were local DJs looking for voices to sample on tracks. Interestingly it was originally through dance music that my voice would be heard.
You had your first headline show at Village Underground last November, how was that?
It actually wasn’t my first headline show, because I did The Grace back in 2020, which was my first headliner. Then I did Jazz Cafe in the summer, which was WILD because it sold out!! The Village Underground has been my biggest one to date, which was just crazy, as it was just a mass of people looking back up at me, I literally couldn’t see the back of the room. I wasn’t supporting and those people had literally bought tickets to see me.. still blows my lil brain because sometimes I am still stuck in these feelings of being a no-body and then for that brief moment that I am on stage and I see hundreds of people singing my songs or looking at me to entertain them it is just mind-blowing.
You went from doing a cover of Stormzy’s ‘Crown’ to then co-writing the track ‘Heart is on Sleeve’ how did this collaboration come about?
Such a crazy event, ok so I was in Brighton in lockdown, in the midst of covid and I had left my label and generally felt like my music career was ending. I’d done a cover of one of his songs, that he had actually re-posted 2 years prior to that and everyone had always said that I should be hitting him up to do a song together, but I felt like if it were to happen it would be organically. Then it literally did, so his manager and his cousin, Jermaine' ‘Merky’ (Shoutout to Jermaine) sent me a half-written song that Stormzy had started and said that they had me in mind as someone, who could perhaps finish the lyrics for the track. So they sent it over, it was more so a melody, I heard it, fell in love with it and ran with it, writing the rest of the song that very day. Then I called some of my friends like Linden, who I actually now live with, Joe Bailey and Zoe Capri, got them over to be my choir basically to record the record and then I sent it back over to him. To which he replied and said ‘That’s your song’ and I actually sat on it for a year and a half, two years! Not knowing if or when it would come out, and not telling anyone, as I didn’t want to jinx it. However, when it did finally come out, it was just before my Village Underground show and it was beyond magical hearing everyone sing it back to me. A real full circle moment!
BRITS OR THE GRAMMYS?
Fuck the Brits, look they need to be putting more into the RNB / POP categories, as it’s currently wack.. This country needs to give Soul and RNB a bigger rep, as there are crazy talented people who aren’t getting the attention they deserve and although people are speaking up about it, we need to see some real change! So yeh fuck that, Grammys all the way & I want to be up on that stage getting one!!
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Plans for 2023?
ooh, I have a lot of things up my sleeve, you are going to be getting a lot more music! 100!! I am deep in the studio right now and actually, there are going to be some things that you might not have expected, getting a bit more involved in my dance roots! I’ve got some really exciting gigs and supports coming up that have yet to be announced! Living my best life & revel in the fact that I and my friends are all in our bag right now and that is beautiful! So keep an eye out!
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