10 Things We Love about Sophie Faith

With a dedication to her craft that has seen her achieve a unique longevity in music, independent singer songwriter Sophie Faith releases her new EP, Hold My Drink, Watch This, on Friday November 8th. New Wave Magazine caught up with Faith during the lead up to the EP’s release, to discuss joy, her determination, the musical family with whom she’s cultivated real community , and her lifestyle changes that have shifted her sonical perspectives.  

Three years in the making, Hold My Drink,Watch This is a six- track EP executively produced by renowned multi-instrumentalist Fred Cox, released under Faith’s own label, Honey & Lemon Music, licensed by TLD Records. An ode to the end of her twenties, the EP serves as a point of introspection from the Sophie Faith today - who no longer chases exhilarating temporary highs for fulfilment, but is fully content in the stable life she enjoys after making a significant lifestyle shift from London to the countryside. 

Sophie Faith’s enigmatic voice is one that will halt you in your tracks - across multiple genres, she fuses sounds of R&B and soul together to create a recognisable and distinctive voice that pulls on heartstrings with every note. Since her breakout in 2017 with the hit single ‘Say So’, Faith has only ascended higher in her journey of artistry,  grabbing the attention of more and more listeners and artists alike. And now, at a place of self assurance and finding fulfilment in the stable system that exists around her, she is ready to share with eager listeners the preliminary project to her triumph.

The Hold My Drink, Watch This EP is dropping 8th November. How are you feeling about this body of work ahead of its release ? 

I didn't even know it was a month from today. I’m really happy to be able to give the final segment. I released the first part of the EP a lot earlier in the year, and then I went through some personal transitions. I moved out of London that semi-delayed things and production issues delayed things further, but I’m so excited for people to get the next two singles, and for it to finally be out for the world to hear. 

We Love your determination. 

You’ve mentioned that your voice developed through rejoicing despite the difficulties concerning loss you were faced with at such a young age. I find that to be such a raw statement of the true resilience you possess as an individual. All these years later, what does joy mean to you now? 

I guess it has been coming at me thick and fast -  only recently have I really learnt what it is to just chill, smell the roses and take a look at what I’ve achieved over the last few years. Joy, for me, comes in different forms. Eating really great fruit and vegetables that I’ve grown is a joy for me, or being up on stage and getting to share the songs that I’ve written in places where I maybe wasn't as content or stable as I am now - getting to share those songs and letting them live their own life outside of myself brings me joy. 

I feel full of joy right now, it's been a great period of my life. I was worried about turning 30, but the transition has been a good one, and looking back I’ve achieved more in the last 2 or 3 years than I have in perhaps the last 10. After being determined for so long, you have to start seeing the effects of your work, because you put your heart and soul into it. It's great to see how far the music’s travelled over the years - meeting listeners and people who have followed my journey brings me joy. 

The people I get to work with are a major source of joy in my life - I’ve been touring incessantly for about three years, back to back, lots of summers have been full of shows - my backing singers Kojo (from MRCY) and Nectar Woode are some friends who have been there along the way and are people who I’ve really been able to grow with. My musical director, Louis van der Westhuizen, is my bassist as well, and someone who has made my day to day really easy - that's what brings me joy. I've been working with these people for years and years and just seeing everyone blossom individually and collectively  - it's cute.

We Love how you sonically combine soul, r&b, folk, and jazz -  your voice transcends genres. 

Your unique tone really is a force of its own. What was the process of you developing your niche as an artist?

Soul is at my core, and I love the outpouring of emotions that come from that kind of music - genres like motown, and  old school sounding stuff. I’ve also always loved quite obscure and eclectic artists like Ray LaMontain - I’m quite an obsessive person, and when I like something I just deep dive into it. I haven’t ever felt defined by genres. I think that stemmed from when I couldn't really go to producers, and I’d just sing on anything I could. I'd be at a house party and someone would be playing guitar, and I'd have to be able to find a melody on that just to be able to sing. I just love singing and writing - soul lends itself to a lot of other genres quite nicely and I think my niche is quite versatile in a way, as during my journey I have gotten used to turning my hand to pretty much anything.

We Love how you create art from your trials. 

‘Pinky Blues’ was created after a big disagreement with someone close to you and we can hear the beautiful fragility in your voice on that track. Would you say that Hold my Drink, Watch This centres around a tone of triumph compared to The Right Side of Wrong? 

I definitely feel like Right Side of Wrong was written in a place of pain, despair, and feeling lost,  while this project is more like the preliminary to triumph. The music making process takes so long, that the story of this latest project, Hold My Drink Watch This, is more a sense of  “look at what I'm just about to do, like a preliminary to me being great. I was still doing toxic things, I was still in toxic relationships, drinking a lot, and involved with substance abuse while creating this music. Now, I'm sober, and in a relationship with a really stable, loving man. The content of this project is not my truth right now, but I definitely feel like, sonically, like it's getting to the part where I'm happy. 

We Love how blunt the title of this EP is. 

You’ve been open about your struggles with mental health, and on this project you normalise the stigma that still exists around What do you want anyone who listens to take away from this? 

I think it's always good to address what's going on inside. I've always been quite self aware even while being in spaces of mania, I can’t ignore when I get the feeling of something not being right. The name of the project derived from something I said in real life -  A day where I did two festivals in one day. My friend Katie picked me up from one festival and drove me to the next, which was Lost Village Festival. We were caught in bad traffic, and by the time we got to the festival, it was about 5-10 minutes before I needed to be on stage.

We got  a buggy right to the stage, and right before I went on, I turned to her and said, ‘Hold my drink, watch this’.  Let me do it again -’ I kind of wanted to show her the ins and outs of my world - she hadn't really seen it, and right there I got onto stage with basically no preparation. I was in a period where I was really proud of what I was doing, and I had been underestimated a lot. Maybe it's showy, to say , ‘Hey watch me - you might not have thought that I'm capable, but I'm about to do something really great,’.  

The ‘Hold my drink’ - that came from a literal sentence, and now I’m sober. A  lot of my music is about how much fun I used to have - and now I'm literally teetotal, so in a way I kind of manifested seeing what would happen when I became sober without even knowing that that's what I wanted. It's kind of a double entendre of feeling like that validated me, and now knowing drinking and partying and all those things aren’t what fulfil me, it's the achievements and the calm nervous system that I maintain -  those things feel like real achievements to me.

We Love ’Call You’, a beautiful duet between yourself and Kwaku Asante. 

It explores the complexities of forbidden love, lust, and the thrill of a toxic relationship that leaves one unfulfilled. It feels like we’re brought inside a conversation between a couple working through the thick of conflict. How do you go about choosing the right voice to help you tell the story at hand? 

It's not ever that contrived to be honest. That track is really just an outpouring of what I was going through at the time - I'd been dating this guy on and off for over ten years throughout my life. It felt powerful and it felt like love. I couldn't call him in the morning for the day to day things that you would want from a partner, yet we still had so much fun.

One day, he broke it to me that he had a kid and a girlfriend and he'd been wanting to tell me for a while, but didn't want to ruin the façade. I was obviously fuming, but felt still fully attached to this man. It was going against my morals to see him, but I wasn’t able to stop for a long time.

At the end of the song, you can hear that it turns very conversational - at the tail end I'm like, ‘This is the resolve, I'm done, this is a full stop to this situation, and ‘I don't want this for myself,’  It's about going through the process of loving someone that you didn't know had a whole another life - but it was a good story to tell. 

When Kwaku came, he asked me what I was going through at the time, and I told him about this situation - ‘ Call you’ was made, and it felt really organic. We didn't really contemplate what we were writing about, but the beat felt sexy and sultry, and the lyrics just followed. I’ve always loved his vocals, and I've rated him since ‘Dusk’, his single that had me in a chokehold. I told him that, and he said it was the same for him with ‘Heart on My Sleeve’. He was also having a session with one of my favourite producers, and we also got in touch  - that collaboration wasn’t an A&R’d or manufactured situation. It was just a really great meeting of two artists who love each other’s music and wanted to make music together.

‘Freudian Slips’ explores co-dependency forming as a result of the closeness of a relationship. Was it intentional that you explored this topic on this EP? 

When I'm making a project, it never really feels like I'm trying to create a body of work at the time. I’ll be in the studio and I’ll know what sonics I’m aiming for, but a lot of the time I just ramble over the music that’s being made, and some of it might make sense, and then I’ll start to piece things together in accordance with whatever's going on in my life. 

With ‘Freudian Slips’ - I wrote it alone in my bedroom after being given a beat by Fred Cox, who executive-produced this project. It kind of spear-headed us creating the project together after I sent him something back over the beat. It was during the pandemic - everyone was isolated to their own spaces, and no one could go out. I was having these really intimate phone conversations with the people I was making music with, and I knew the four boys I lived with at the time were most likely eavesdropping, but I spoke about the things I didn't want to say - ‘I’d rather be sleeping on your shoulder tonight, but I’ll stand firm’. 

We Love how your music translates in a live setting. 

Your live shows feel like a warm hug. You recently performed at Glastonbury, had a sold out show at Lafayette and also demonstrated this on the recent 'Hold My Drink' tour. Drawing from those experiences, what's the process of developing this live atmosphere, both sonically and visually?  

I didn't train as a musician, and I never went to any type of  conservatoire  - my ‘in’ was through singing at house parties, or singing hooks for rappers. It was a slow growth to end up doing what I am now. I've been doing it for ten years now, but I have a fantastic band made of musicians who are incredible, trained, and carry me through our sets.

When I first heard my music live, it was an incredible feeling. Some people who come to these shows tell me they prefer my songs live, because I have so much adrenaline in me that I end up doing all these extra riffs and runs that I can't control -  I just get taken away by it all really. It's magic, performing. 

I’ve spent a lot of my life not feeling very confident in certain regards, and I’ve found that the moment when you're on stage, you have everyone in the palm of your hand - you don't really get that feeling a lot in life. It’s quite hard to then come back to real life after experiencing that, because it's such a surreal feeling. Lafayette was crazy, Glastonbury was too ( with Girls of The Internet). I’ve obviously wanted to play Glastonbury my whole life - it’s a big milestone for every British artist. I’ve also done a lot of European touring this year, and been able to get out to places like Poland and Germany, Amsterdam and Ibiza - places I've never played before. It’s a joy of life, and I never knew the music could take me to these places. 

We Love how you’ve created your own musical family despite experiencing absences in your own family life growing up. 

Fred Cox executive produced this project, and what part did your musical family play in creating this project ? 

I’ve always treated my friends as my family because of me not having the strongest family support system behind me. Kojo and Nectar are on ‘Missing Me’,  I have Jay Warner who helped me with backing vocals, and his vocal production on ‘Dopamine’, which I wrote in LA with Roméo Testa, who's been nominated for a Grammy. Lydia Kitto, the lead singer from Jungle, was heavily involved in my last project. There's always someone that can lean into your creativity, and it’s always great to have people lend their voices and ears, or to just come and have fun. I love getting people involved, and collaboration is key. I’ve been really blessed with some really talented friends - and the circle just keeps growing. I love putting on events and introducing people to people. The community side of musicianship is so important to me - it’s at the core of what I do, and what I intend to continue doing. 

We love how other artists enrich your work.

You’ve worked with Stormzy, Reuben James, Erick The Architect, Kwaku Asante, and five-time Grammy nominee Linden Jay among others. How has collaboration enriched  your perspective on artistry?  

It's crucial for musicianship - artists enriching other artists. I came into this game just loving music - not having any education on how to make a song, how to harmonise, and all the nuances that turn a thought into a developed piece of music - I've learnt so much along the way from my gorgeous friends. We share knowledge and connections and it seems like a very different world to when I first came, because people wouldn’t share their producers out of fear that their sound would be replicated. For the sole reason of community and how important it is for creatives, if I wasn’t a singer I would definitely want to be an A&R.

We Love your passion for emerging talent in the industry.

You host regular showcases at SoHo house for emerging artists, and volunteer with Audio Active, a non-profit developing emerging talent. Do you think the music industry needs to invest into emerging talent more? 

There's so many underrated artists out there. The scene at the moment is so concentrated, because there's so much great talent and I feel like there's a ceiling sometimes to how far you can take this without going stateside. 

Hosting the showcases stemmed from a place of not really feeling accepted myself concerning the ideals that the music industry prioritised - beauty standards, and all the ways that you can present yourself as an artist. I never really felt aligned with that, so I wanted to create my own little house. Some of the greatest backing vocalists are also great artists and never get the shine they deserve. Things stemmed from me hosting parties and get-togethers at my house. I lived with four boys, there were lots of instruments and musical equipment lying around. We were able to make music whenever we liked. I would host these get-togethers, and Linden Jay would bring his friends, Jordan Rakei, Laura Roy, Erik the Architect, all of these crazy big names just in our little house in North London - and nothing was ever really documented because it was so raw.

Before I left London, I wanted to maintain the ability to be able to introduce friends to friends. I met Orla Ray at a workshop at audio active and I had her join me for a couple legs of my tour - having these familiar  faces around and being able to invite people to create without pressure has been such a good way of keeping momentum for myself and other artists. We spoke about joy earlier  - it was all for the joy of hearing harmony and beautiful music from the people that I love - being able to orchestrate that myself, is a blessing.

Even though I’m now living out of London,  I’m able to come out at least once a week, and I have a monthly night, as well as an event which is open to singers and artists, just for people to get involved - I love beautiful spaces where people can enjoy each other's company and music. Almost like church, I think harmony resonates with people, like being in the football stadium or omming at yoga - it's an integral and very human part of us that wants to be part of that and share it with people. 

We love that you've had a lifestyle shift and have moved from London to the countryside.

Transitioning from living in such a bustling environment to experiencing the space and peace that the countryside brings, has there been a shift in your creative process? 

I feel more focused - last year I was managing myself, and I was reaching the stage of getting overwhelmed. I can switch off - and get to be the real me. I’m from the countryside originally, so there's a feeling of real serenity that I’ve felt living out here and getting back to being with nature after being in quite a cut throat industry in such a busy city. 

I  feel like I can really tap out now and enjoy the great management that looks after me, without completely switching off and that being a detriment to my work. 

I leave every winter to avoid burnout. I'm a bit of a nomad when it comes to writing, so being inspired by new places is key. It's a bit boring compared to the noise of the city, but I'm not sure that was serving me anymore - the anxiety, sirens, and microaggressions of London. I still get to enjoy it for the things I love it for -  the people, the jams, the nice restaurants, I can't get any nice takeaways around here  - but all in all the transition to the countryside has been relatively smooth. 

We Love the raw resilience and passion for music that you’ve shown in your journey of artistry so far.

You truly are an artist who just wants to sing. Nine months sober and rooted in a healthy lifestyle, what's your vision for the future of your music ? 

I’m ready to make a happy album now - my fans are due one. I’ve put out a few projects and I’m in a really good space now - I'm looking forward to this next stage of my life, and it certainly feels different. I'm not so self critical anymore because I’ve been doing work on myself. I hope the things that I continue to say in my music have a more positive context. I feel more grown up, and that I’ve earned my stripes by exploring musicality in all its forms.

The idea of putting together an incredible body of work that is written with intention, rather than something that comes from just a few pages in my diary is something that I’d love to do. Hopefully I’ll be able to go away to a foreign country,  switch off, and have the ability to live and breathe that project for a short while. I just want to keep making music that makes people feel something.  

I feel like this project takes a magnifying glass into all the troubles of the tail ends of my twenties - a lot of people go through that, keeping up with appearances, the constant going and going and going. That's what London life is, and that grind culture is sometimes quite damaging. I hope that people who are potentially going through similar things, who are or have struggled with alcoholism, or substance abuse, or their mental health, can see themselves as humans and also recognise that there’s a way out to find joy again.

Hold My Drink, Watch This, is out now on all platforms - Take a listen below.