6. SophieProduct
What was always a big thing for me was hearing things I’d never heard before – being confused or perplexed or surprised by what I was hearing, and I feel like it gets harder and harder to have those experiences. I was flicking through some of the online shops like Boomkat, Honest Jons, Phonica and Kristina, and they all have these samples. For a four or five year stretch, when I wasn’t in the record shop any more, I was spending an hour a day just going through every new thing that was coming into these shops, listening to the samples. I was buying a bit, but not loads, not unless something really grabbed us. And I heard a bit of the Sophie track ‘Bipp’ and it made me feel like a teenager again, it was so completely fresh.
It’s something that has very quickly and succinctly established its own landscape and language, and operates with its own rules. I was writing about it to a pal recently and I said that I feel like Sophie is at the very tip of the arrow.
I’m thirsty for that. it gets tougher, and you drop out for a year and you don’t know where to look, you get a bit lost. In the past from being basically a kid to being maybe 28 to 30, that was just constant, devouring, but when I’ve got more focused on my own music and it becomes quite seasonal, once I get into an album I tend to drop off seeking out and listening to stuff. When I’m making a record, for want of a better term, I go from suck to blow.
