More about: Sophie May

When it comes to TikTok-found fame, those that burn twice as bright, often burn half as long. The same cannot be said, however, of Sophie May. 

Although the singer-songwriter did find her big break through the platform during lockdown, Sophie has chosen not to grab the golden treasure with both hands, preferring to hone her craft and find her true artistic voice instead. 

Her first EP, You Do Not Have To Be Good, established Sophie as a rising star for her sharp, refreshingly honest lyricism and down-to-earth storytelling. A year later and she’s back with a new offering, this time pivoting from indie with twangs of country, to a pared-back folk offering. 

Worst Thoughts In The World has an ethereal, echoing quality, as if you’re eavesdropping on Sophie singing alone in a still, cavernous room. It feels like a private moment waiting to be interrupted; a confessional shared under the soft sheets of night. Needless to say, it’s her best work yet.

On the EP’s title track, the lyrics are deliberately unsettling, humour holding out its hand as an invitation to glimpse at the battles in Sophie’s mind. Intrusive thoughts and self-reckoning are continuous themes throughout the new record, yet originally unintentional, as Sophie tells us… 

GW: Your new EP, Worst Thoughts In The World, is all about “personal experiences while also looking inward and trying to make light of my state of mind”. Did you find yourself songwriting as a form of processing?

More than anything, the song is a reflection of where I'm at. Songwriting, for me, gives me some peace, because your more embarrassing, more upsetting thoughts or experiences that you don't want to speak about, sound just a lot nicer when you put some guitar to it [laughs]. And people are like, 'Oh, this is nice', and I'm like, 'Yeah. Do you think I'm a freak?' [laughs].

"When you see people share or be honest, it never doesn't reward you..."

The confessional lyrics exude a sense of comfort in vulnerability. Outside of the songs, do you feel this is true for you?

I think mostly, yes. I feel like I'm a pretty open person. I attract people that are also quite open. I think that's the way I am; I have just been brought up that way. I usually think the most powerful people are often the most vulnerable. When you see people share or be honest, it never doesn't reward you when you're being vulnerable.

With this new record being so personal, how do you feel about it being out in the world?

It's funny, because I kind of forget that it is really personal. I'll never put something in a song that I don't feel comfortable with. I naturally don't write about things if I really didn't want to say it out loud. I have been joking that I would actually never say my worst thoughts in the world. It doesn't feel like I've got my heart open for the public because I've worded it in a way where I feel comfortable, if that makes sense. And so I feel kind of excited to put it on to somebody else. These things [the experiences Sophie writes about in her EP] that have made me feel really bad at points, so it's nice to give it to other people and see people like it. That's kind of cathartic in itself.

The record feels super intimate sonically as well - as if it’s just you and the listener in the room. Was that intentional?

I think it was this time around. On my first EP, I was trying a lot of different sounds. I felt very thrown into the music world when I first started because I'd never done a session, never worked with a producer, it had always just been me. It was kind of a big learning process. I was trying a lot of different things. So I love all those songs in different ways, but I did find at the end of the day when performing, or even just seeing how people reacted to my music, it felt like my more folky stuff that I just recorded at home was resonating with people, and that was also the kind of stuff that felt the most me.

So for this second EP, I wanted to dive into that again. It made me feel like I had solid ground so in my next project, to explore more in production now that I know what I want more. So this EP felt like, let's just get back to the root of what I really enjoy. And that's basically just songwriting, I guess. I think naturally, the songs ended up feeling quite bedroom-y, because I think the period that I wrote it in was winter, in my bedroom. So it just came off that way. So it wasn't on purpose, I guess.

The harmonies on ‘Wish I Was A Single Girl Again’ place the song in a slightly different room from the others on the EP. Was there a reason why you decided to include them on the track?

That one I produced myself; the only one I produced myself. Specifically with that song, I just knew I wanted it to be really pretty. It's a Eva Cassidy cover. When I first heard it, I was like, wow, these are crazy lyrics to have been written in the 70s. But it feels really modern still. It was kind of on purpose, I guess, to make it as pretty as possible, because I wanted it to be as listenable as possible as well. There's one thing having good lyrics, but if it doesn't sound good, then it doesn't really matter.

As a response to your TikToks about the track, ‘Worst Thoughts In The World’, people have been sharing their own experiences with OCD. Were you hoping to create a space for this sharing and relating? 

It wasn't on purpose for the EP to go this way, or even talk about obsessive thinking, intrusive thoughts. It just happened to be something that I couldn't escape and so it ended up being in the music. It was almost like, I have to write about this, because it's ruining my life, I can't think about anything else. It's such an obsessive way to feel bad; it's such a weird way of thinking when you get intrusive thoughts. Everyone has intrusive thoughts,it's just how you deal with them. It's the rumination that comes with it. What was really nice is when people have been coming to me like, 'God it's so isolating. This song is really nice to hear', because it is so true. It's come with it, which is nice.

When you go around your day-to-day life are you always aware of how you are processing emotions or experiencing situations, from a creative songwriting perspective?

I usually go through it then realise I can write about it. Specifically with the intrusive thoughts, I never thought I could write about that. Maybe five or six months later, you come out of this fog and maybe start to talk to people about it. They might laugh at one of the things you said, like 'Put that in a song' or something. You go, 'Oh, can I put that in a song?' It usually happens like that. I think if you're going through heartbreak or a really intense emotion, it's not often that I want to write in the middle of that. I feel like I don't understand what's going on yet. You almost have to feel the whole emotion to then be able to write a good song about it.

Since you started releasing last year, you’ve put out an impressive amount of music, and you always seem to be writing and sharing snippets of new creations on TikTok. The TikTok reaction is quite instant and there’s a short attention span - has it influenced your creative process and output?

I think it's influenced me not to be too precious with music. The fire can burn really big and then it can go the next day, which I think can be really cool, and really upsetting for a lot of artists. But I think it's good to just get stuff out there. With today's internet, everything moves quite quick. And I'm not saying not to put a lot of time and work into your craft but, maybe this is just for me, personally, if I sit on something too long, I would have grown so much in six months that I probably won't even like the thing I did six months ago. So it's just trying to put the songs that people really like out and let them have it before it goes all wrong in your brain [laughs].

Which song do you enjoy performing live the most?

I have played the whole EP live but maybe not in one show. Through a few different shows I've probably played everything but I reckon my favourite song to perform so far is definitely 'Worst Thoughts In The World'. I'm a very talky person naturally, I love talking about it, I love joking about it, and that's the only way that I feel normal on stage. And 'Worst Thoughts In The World' has a really good build up. It's probably the first song where people will laugh while I'm singing it which is such a strange experience, but it feels very gratifying, like ok good, I'm not crazy. It's just been really healing. Everybody thinks the craziest shit, basically, and it's fine. It's just been really fun doing that song.

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More about: Sophie May