(12th June) Amsterdam-based musician Sofie Winterson shares her new album Southern Skies co-produced by Benny Sings via Excelsior Recordings featuring previous singles "Jump", "Lost You To A Boy" and new single, closing track "Perfect Goodybe".
The project is a continuation and expansion of her and Sings' 2019 collaborative EP Moral, but also offers a glimpse into what Sofie can do when left to her own devices.
Created in primarily Benny Sings' canal-hugging studio in Amsterdam, the upcoming album, Southern Skies was formed as an act of stripping-back and growing as a songwriter. Sofie’s last full-length album Sophia Electric instead acted as a way to expand her work as a producer. Her varied influences, from the soul and folk she grew up on to the dream-pop of her university years can all be heard as part of the album’s eclectic palette which leans in a more minimal direction than before.
Sofie says: "In the opening track ‘Hours’ I sing the words ‘Southern Skies’, that’s where the title of this record comes from. From a very young age I had a helicopter view on life. I, for example, was well aware of the fact that I was too young to experience certain things the way I would probably do when I would be older. Like I realised that I wasn’t yet ready to see the full value in those beautiful ‘Southern Skies’ that I saw when driving through the south of Europe.
The songs are about passing time, the wish for boredom, feeling helpless towards choices your friends make, about doing something better or different and about meeting new people and creating an image of that person from your own perspective before getting to know them. So the songs are written from this helicopter view and by seeing it this way and being able to put it into words in my songs, life makes sense to me."
Putting the lyrics and storytelling front and centre, Sofie’s love of reading has never been more evident than in the way she approached writing for this record. “What I try to do in my lyrics [is] to find the best way to describe a thought,” she says, “the thought could be anything, it’s always my challenge to try and find exactly the right words.” Noting that her favourite part of reading is not so much following the narrative, but revelling in the descriptions of situations.
Featuring original vocal takes and lyrics that were written in the room, it marked a new way of working for Sofie, with Benny encouraging her to approach writing in a different way, a more technical way. Pulling inspiration from both Adrienne Lenker and Rachel Cusk’s ‘Transit’ in tandem, what’s clear is Sofie Winterson’s never-failing ability to tell a story with grace, immense consideration and the freedom to be projected upon and moulded as her listener’s see fit. Southern Skies is out now via Excelsior Recordings | 
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