#Sophie Jamieson

[sinceileftyoublog]

Sophie Jamieson Interview: Driving in a Circle

Photo by Tatjana Rüegsegger

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Love is the perfect fodder for pop songs because, like a catchy melody, it feels good to the core, captivating. To make love last, though, you have to nurture it every single day, and when that stops feeling worthwhile, keeping it alive feels like feeding a parasite. It's those painstaking processes that concern the songs of I still want to share (Bella Union), the sophomore album from London singer-songwriter Sophie Jamieson. Her not-quite-meandering, oft-deliberate collection asks why we keep coming back to the romantic connection that has as strong a capacity to hurt us and divert us as it does to allow us to find a sense of home and belonging.

It was important for Jamieson to find arrangements, instrumentation, and production that kept the bare bones of the songs front and center while emphasizing their strongest ideas. Throughout I still want to share, bass and drums creep, and keys and strings shimmer (along with Jamieson's lower-register vibrato), combining to create an overall sense of standstill even if you can pinpoint individual moments of motion. It's the perfect accompaniment to songs in which partners are stuck in neutral, doing things to piss each other off but nowhere near move the needle one way or the other. On the opening track, the narrator breaks a (presumably expensive) camera while trying to take a picture, ultimately accepting that they can't do anything about the mess they've made. "I'm not here to look at you," Jamieson retorts, her voice descending into the strings as if she's disappearing like the love between two people. On "How do you want to be loved?", the narrator views their relationship as something animalistic and ritualistic, comparing it to birds feeding each other, intimate, but more just necessary for survival. The pace of the album's final song, "Time pulls you over backwards", changes like that of a companionship itself. "Time pulls you over backwards, deep beneath your age / Bends you at bloody angle, every time you play," Jamieson sings, overwhelmed by the inevitability of it all.

This isn't to say that I still want to share is a plodding, doom-and-gloom listen. Jamieson's careful to give space to the highs. "I guess I’m lucky that this is all mine / but I still wanna share sometimes," she sings, layered, on the title track, emphasizing our innate need for socialization. "Vista" is a sparkly ode to the lovestruck--"feed me coffee at the drive-in," Jamieson sings, one of the album's most specifically devotional lines--and "Baby" finds similarities between the parental and the amorous via a sense of specificity, the narrator contrasting the closeness of "I can identify your toes" with the admission that "I can't contain you every day." But that's just the thing: Even in the addictive peaks of romantic love, Jamieson knows there are raw, ugly, weird, and uncomfortable layers to reveal. If Bryan Ferry sang, succinctly, "Love is the drug for me," Jamieson reminds us of the gnarly aftereffects.

I still want to share is out today. I asked Jamieson some questions over email about the album, long drives, playing live, and her songwriting process. Read her responses below, edited for clarity.

Since I Left You: I still want to share is an album about, among other things, love and why we choose to keep loving. Is it easiest for you to communicate such thoughts through songs, either to the general public or with others?

Sophie Jamieson: I guess so, in the sense that I’ve learned what my thoughts are through writing the songs. I don’t think I had a way of thinking about this subject before I wrote this album, and recorded it, and spent time choosing how to group the songs. I don’t think I’ve necessarily had something specific I’ve wanted to communicate. The process of creating has been a mode of communicating with myself, and shaping something that I can use as a touchstone and learn from in the long term.

SILY: The arrangements on the album--and sometimes within the same song--alternate between lush and stark. Was it important to you to achieve a contrast in sound from song to song, or within a song?

SJ: It wasn’t, but as we recorded the album, these different characters of songs began to emerge, and we followed them each down their respective paths. I think I imagined the whole album would be a little lighter and driftier than it turned out [to be]. But that is the beauty of working with a producer who really allows you to play and encourages the true spirit of the songs to make themselves heard. [Co-producer] Guy [Massey] helped me find dimensions that I didn’t realize were there. I also think I do gravitate towards peaks, troughs, and drama when it comes to arranging songs. I don’t know why I thought I’d make something drifty. [laughs]

SILY: "Vista" and "Highway" contain lines about being in the car. Is there something about long drives and road trips that remind you of other transient aspects of life?

SJ: I guess so--I hadn’t thought of that! Both those songs describe an imagined journey, and I guess both journeys are inner ones. "Vista" is probably a path to losing yourself, and "Highway" is about trying to escape but finding you’ve driven in a circle all the way back home. I think I used that imagery because there is something lonely about long car journeys where you’re in a liminal space of nowhere in between destinations. I would say it’s less about transience than about the no-man’s land that is always waiting to receive you when you lose your footing and sense of belonging.

SILY: Why did you pick "Camera" and "I don't know what to save" as the singles for the album? Was there something about them exemplary of the record as a whole?

SJ: To be totally honest, I picked them because I felt they had more immediate impact than most of the other songs. Most of this album is quite a slow-burn, we didn’t record with things like radio or playlists in mind, so when it came to picking singles, I had to pick the best of a slow bunch. These two songs explore similar territory to one another, and I actually would have loved to cover more of the album’s layers with the singles released. But these days, you’ve just got to be a bit pragmatic about these things.

SILY: On the record, did you try to establish a consistent or perhaps contrasting relationship between a specific instrument, e.g., swelling strings, and a specific emotion?

SJ: I did not, but now that I think about it, I guess the strings come in a lot of places where there is intense longing. But there is a lot of longing through this album, so I guess we expressed that in several ways. I think perhaps more consciously, we brought in toy-like sounds like omnichord and glockenspiel in places where we wanted to bring a child-like sense of innocence, play, or purity, which we wanted to always feel slightly eerie and at odds with the rest of the arrangement. This sense of wonder and naivete is really important to the album, I think, for some reason.

SILY: What's the inspiration behind the sequencing of the record?

SJ: I initially wanted the record to feel clearly like a cycle of loving, from beginning to end and back again, but it didn’t work out like that. I found myself grouping songs that explored a deep attachment and inability to let go, in the first half, songs of losing yourself. Then “Highway” brings you on the long journey of escape and arriving back at your own front door, where you have to really begin to look at yourself. The second half of the album does this more, I think. It’s a slightly more uncomfortable examination of the contradictions within ourselves and within loving, that can be so painful.

SILY: What's the story behind the cover art?

SJ: I took my dear friend and long-time photographer, Tatjana [Rüegsegger], to Dungeness (her idea) for this shoot. I wanted photos with lots of sky, which was for some reason important, but I didn’t want just nice nature in the background: I wanted an atmosphere of eeriness, odd loneliness, lostness. Dungeness was perfect for this. I think it’s the only certified desert in the UK? I also wanted to be constantly in motion for these pictures. I think it was important to create a sense of ungrounding, constantly in search of landing somewhere that doesn’t exist.

SILY: How are you planning on adapting these songs to a live performance?

SJ: We won’t be trying to re-create the album precisely but are re-arranging and adapting most of these songs for a 5-piece band of drums, bass, 2 guitars, and cello. That’ll mean letting go of some of the finer details and focusing on melody, harmony, emotion, and dynamic. Smaller gigs I’ll play accompanied by solely my dear friend George [Lloyd-Owen] on cello. It’s proving a really joyful, creative process, re-imagining these songs for the stage.

SILY: When performing a song, do you find yourself entering the same headspace you were in when you wrote and/or recorded it?

SJ: I guess I do, and sometimes that is really uncomfortable or even unbearable. I’m very quick to stop playing certain songs live, I think it might make me quite an infuriating person to go and see play. For me, it’s important that I can enter into a song fully on stage, and gig to gig, that means choosing the setlist very carefully. If I’m on tour, the set has to be very different from night to night because I feel so different every day. Having said that, it’s never the same song as it was when you wrote it. The meaning will always change for you over time, and I do find that some songs come around full circle and take on a new lease of life after a time, like old friends come to support you after a long period away. That’s a very special thing.

SILY: What's next for you?

SJ: Next right now? I’m preparing the band for touring in the new year, doing a lot of release-related admin, writing LP3, and trying to find a paying day job. I find I’m constantly trying to find a way to balance all of these things, and thinking I’ve almost cracked it, but I never do. [laughs]

SILY: Are you the type of songwriter who is always writing, or do you need to set aside time to write?

SJ: Until about 1.5 years ago, I was always writing. Something changed last year: I burnt out, my worldview fell to pieces, and I found it wasn’t coming anymore. I just didn’t want to dig into myself. It was too jarring, painful, and exhausting. So I’ve had to change the way I write. Over the past 6 months, I’ve been setting time aside and doing it no matter how much I don’t want to. It’s been very interesting. It’s the first time I’ve really applied discipline to my writing, which I’ve been nervous to do all my life. I’ve gone from losing a lot of confidence in my writing to realizing it doesn’t always have to be such a mysterious and unpredictable thing, that if you put the time in regardless, it’s likely that something good will come.

SILY: Is there anything you've been listening to, reading, or watching that's inspired you or caught your attention?

SJ: I’m currently slightly obsessed with depictions of night in art of all kinds, also space (outer), silence, and stillness. These things will be woven through LP3. I read a book a couple of months ago which absolutely captivated me: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempest Williams. It’s in some ways a meditation on silence, on what women don’t say, and what that means, what silence really is and why it’s so uncomfortable for us humans. Is it a gift or a violence? I read a few pages of this book and immediately went and wrote a song rooted in it. It’s a poetic, wild, transcendent read.

Tour dates

1/21: A Slice of Vinyl, Gosport, UK

1/22: Truck Store, Oxford, UK

1/23: Jumbo Records, Leeds, UK

1/25: Bella Union Vinyl Shop, Brighton, UK

2/7: Low Four, Manchester, UK

2/8: The Duncairn, Belfast, UK

2/11: The Folklore Rooms, Brighton, UK

2/12: The Lexington, London, UK

2/16: Peggy's Skylight, Nottingham, UK

2/20: HydeAway, Frome, UK

5/16: Braziers Park, Wallingford, UK

[sonicziggy]

"How do you want to be loved?" by Sophie Jamieson https://ift.tt/mt1G6yR

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Video: Sophie Jamieson Shares Gorgeous "Camera"

New Video: Sophie Jamieson Shares Gorgeous "Camera" @sophie_j_music @bellaunion @CharmSchoolM

London-based singer/songwriter Sophie Jamieson released two EPs in 2020 that caught the attention of Bella Union Records, who quickly signed the rising British artist, and released her Steph Marziano-produced full-length debut, 2022’s Choosing. Choosing was a subtle reworking of the sound that Jamieson quickly established through her first two EPs. While her first two EPs flirted with playful…

[willstafford]

Life's a Peach

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH The Bear Pit Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Wednesday 6th December 2023 David Wood’s masterly adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic children’s book offers many challenges for theatrical production, and so part of the fun for me is waiting to see how key scenes will be staged: the shark attack, the hundreds of seagulls, the giant peach itself… Director Emily Myerscough…

[dreamings-free]

“Guy [Massey] is currently producing and mixing albums for Sophie Jamieson (Bella Union) and Mezanmi plus mixing albums for Will Young, Louis Tomlinson (Live) and Lady Blackbird.”

— Sound On Sound, March 2024

👀

[brknmnds]

Muse list

Stranger things

Eddie Munson

Billy Hargrove

Steve Harrington

Chrissy Cunningham

Henry Creel

Jonathan Byers

Stephen King's IT

Henry Bowers

Patrick Hockstetter

Reginald 'Belch' Huggins

Victor 'Vic' Criss

The Lost Boys

David

Dwayne

Marko

Paul

Edgar Frog

Alan Frog

Sons of Anarchy

Happy Lowman

Alexander 'Tig' Trager

Child Play

Charles Lee Ray

Scream

Billy Loomis

Stu Macher

Crazy Fun Park

Remus

Zed - Trial

Gonzo - Trial

American Horror Story

Michael Langdon

Tate Langdon

Original Characters

Olivia Bowers - IT

Frankie Bates

Violet Bates

Hestia Wolfe || HP verse

Faustian Wolfe || HP verse

Cornelius 'CJ' Jamieson - Good Omens

Jimmy Cunningham - Stranger Things

Adelia Brooks - Crazy fun park

Maximus Grant - Crazy fun park

Colette 'Cole' Murphy

Aleksandr Volkov

Polaris Snow - The Hunger Games

Avery Hart

Ástríðr Svendottir

Hati Greyback - Harry Potter

Lucas Wesley James

Aiden Sullivan

Elijah Crane - DC Batman

Silas Hawthorne

Sophie Thatcher

Baelon Targaryen - HOTD

Amelia Beaufort - Walking Dead

Skylar Evans

Harry Potter

Tom Riddle

Regulus Black

Draco Malfoy

Lucius Malfoy

Blaise Zabini

Vikings

Ivar The Boneless

Sigurd 'Siggy' Lothbrok

Hvitserk Lothbrok

Floki

Mythology

Angrboða

Jörmungandr

Hati

Skoll

Thrúd

Iðunn

Skaði

Loki

Týr

House of the Dragons

Aegon Targaryen II

Daemon Targayen

Nettles

Alys Rivers

Laenor Velaryon

Outer Banks

Rafe Cameron

JJ Maybanks

Divergent series

Eric Coulter

The Invitation

Walter De Ville

Julie and the Phantoms

Alex Mercer

Gen V

Maverick

Sam Riordan

Jordan Li

Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Coriolanus Snow

Tigris Snow

Batman

Jack Napier - Pre - The Joker

Jonathan Crane

Jervis Tetch

House of 1000 corpses

Otis Driftwood

Fargo

Gator Tillman

Fear the Walking Dead - Season 3 and before

Nick Clark

Troy Otto

Qaletaqa Walker

Baldurs Gate

The Dark Urge - Zion

Assassin Creed: Valhalla

Eivor Varinsdottir

Farcry 5

Joseph Seed

Jacob Seed

John Seed

[28mindgames]

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/guy-massey-engineer-producer-podcast 👀

"Guy is currently producing and mixing albums for Sophie Jamieson (Bella Union) and Mezanmi plus mixing albums for Will Young, Louis Tomlinson (Live) and Lady Blackbird"

i'm all for it <3

[chrisryanspeaks]

Sophie Jamieson Announces New Album I Still Want to Share with Emotionally Charged Lead Single

Sophie Jamieson, the London-based songwriter, is set to release her highly anticipated sophomore album I Still Want to Share on January 17, 2025, via Bella Union. Co-produced by Jamieson and Grammy Award-winning producer Guy Massey—known for his work with Spiritualized and the Manic Street Preachers—this new collection is a raw exploration of love, loss, and the relentless longing for connection. The album delves into the anxiety that seeps into relationships, revealing the universal struggle of seeking home in others, even as we face the inevitable cycle of trying and failing. The album's lead single, “I Don’t Know What to Save,” perfectly captures this theme, driven by Jamieson’s deeply emotive lyricism. The track builds with a palpable sense of yearning, leading to an exhilarating climax as it searches for release. Jamieson describes the song as a desperate push for freedom, a reflection of the struggle to let go of a painful attachment. As she puts it, “It was an enormous push towards letting go. The unbearable pain of detaching felt like entering some kind of eerie, unknown space that turned out, upon arriving, to be not only totally survivable but like pure, fresh air.” Accompanied by a visually striking video co-created with fellow musician and filmmaker Malena Zavala, the single sets the stage for an album that promises to be both intimate and expansive, reflecting the intricate complexities of human connection. Jamieson’s upcoming release marks a bold step forward, blending introspective storytelling with atmospheric soundscapes that promise to resonate long after the final note fades. Read the full article

[audiofuzz]

Sophie Jamieson Announces New Album I Still Want to Share with Emotionally Charged Lead Single

Sophie Jamieson, the London-based songwriter, is set to release her highly anticipated sophomore album I Still Want to Share on January 17, 2025, via Bella Union. Co-produced by Jamieson and Grammy Award-winning producer Guy Massey—known for his work with Spiritualized and the Manic Street Preachers—this new collection is a raw exploration of love, loss, and the relentless longing for connection. The album delves into the anxiety that seeps into relationships, revealing the universal struggle of seeking home in others, even as we face the inevitable cycle of trying and failing. The album's lead single, “I Don’t Know What to Save,” perfectly captures this theme, driven by Jamieson’s deeply emotive lyricism. The track builds with a palpable sense of yearning, leading to an exhilarating climax as it searches for release. Jamieson describes the song as a desperate push for freedom, a reflection of the struggle to let go of a painful attachment. As she puts it, “It was an enormous push towards letting go. The unbearable pain of detaching felt like entering some kind of eerie, unknown space that turned out, upon arriving, to be not only totally survivable but like pure, fresh air.” Accompanied by a visually striking video co-created with fellow musician and filmmaker Malena Zavala, the single sets the stage for an album that promises to be both intimate and expansive, reflecting the intricate complexities of human connection. Jamieson’s upcoming release marks a bold step forward, blending introspective storytelling with atmospheric soundscapes that promise to resonate long after the final note fades. Read the full article

[findasongblog]

Find A Song that is a reflection of what it can mean to fall in love

Sophie Jamieson - Vista

New single “Vista” was described as "a slow-burning nocturnal ballad, burnished by delicate finger-picked guitar work and misty vocal harmonies." A woozy and sweeping reflection of what it can mean to fall in love, It chronicles the dizzying intensity while also reflecting on how easy it is to lose yourself to it all, when you are constantly seeking footing in another person.  She shares, "Written in the midst of falling in love, I think I sensed the danger in my own emotions. It was intense and rapid, and though I didn’t realise it at the time, this song seems to reveal my awareness of losing myself very quickly. I felt like a child, in good and bad ways. Everything felt electrified, but also lonely. I found myself painting this picture of a long car drive along cliffs under empty skies, constantly ruining everything, always asking for too much."

Added to FAS Spotify playlists singer/songwriter and relationships.

[windor-truffle]

also randomly found on my desktop is the isolated audio from one of my favorite skits in the game. this one always makes me laugh so much, Asbel can forgive Richard for attacking Sophie and trying to end the world but heaven help him if he wants to use the same silly metaphor three times in a row 😂

[gzig]

Sophie Jamieson @ Left of the Dial 2023 by Marcel van Leeuwen

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB6M7B

[a-devious-route]

A.  Ahn Hyoseop Alice Pagani Alyda Grace Anders Hayward Astrid Grove 

B.  Bliss Kelly  Byun Jungha 

C.  Catherine Pham  Choi Yewon (arin) 

D.  Diana Silvers 

E.  Emile Woon  Emilie Dalsgaard 

G.  Go Younjung 

H.  Hamlet Willoughby Hannah Dodd Hunter Doohan 

I.  Iva Varvarchuk 

J.  Jeon Sonee John Jamieson Jung Haein 

K.  Kim Chaewon  Kim Junghyun  Kim Seonho  Kim Taeyeon  Kristín Sóley 

L.  Laura Harrier  Lee Dohyun  Lee Jaewook Lee Jieun  Lera Abova Linus Wordemann  Lizeth Selene  Luca Hollestelle 

M.  Misha Hart

O.  Ola Rudnicka 

P.  Park Hyungsik  Park Sunyeong  Pyo Jihoon (P.O.) 

R.  Ruby Pedersen 

S. Sabrina Lan  Shonali Singh Sophie Nélisse  Song Kang 

X.  Xu Jiaqi (许佳琪) 

Z.  Zo Ahmed  Zoe Barnard  Zhou Jieqiong

29 notes

Galerie de FC

Salut la gang!

Petit message pour vous informez que j’ai commencé à mettre disponible les galeries des FC sur lesquels j’ai fais des avatars au fil du temps.  Ce n’est rien de fou, mais si jamais j’ai déjà graphé sur une tête que vous aimeriez essayer aussi, ou qui vous inspire, fortes sont les chances que j’ai gardé une panoplie de photos d’eux!

Bref tout est ici: Dans la section galeries de mon tumblr

Je dois passer aussi sur mon vieil ordinateur, alors ça va se remplir lentement mais sûrement!  Si ça peut servir à quelqu’un d’autre et vous évitez quelques heures de recherche, ça aura valu le coup hihi!

Bonne journée <3

[raissiemarten]

No shit but these really are the 10 albums (including an EP) that have changed my life.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Sophie Jamieson previews forthcoming EP with new single 'Concrete' 

Sophie Jamieson has previewed her forthcoming EP, Release, with new single ‘Concrete’. Release is out December 1st and reflects on a period of intense loneliness, spiralling and self-destruction.

‘Concrete’ is perhaps its central statement. It is a neurotic imagining of her final tired, peaceful moments crawling along her local roundabout. In a strange turn of events, Jamieson actually ended up getting knocked off her bike in that exact place shortly after.

“When I was hit, I felt this intense relief as I flew through the air - the relief of being allowed to feel pain, having permission to cry, and a reason to be taken care of. It had a pretty serendipitous connection to the song I had already written, which is a song that fantasises about getting close to the ground - and being allowed to give up.”, explains Jamieson.

While ‘Concrete’ is a lean into oblivion, it does end on a hopeful note; Jamieson’s voice of reason cutting through to sound out her destructive inner-voice once and for all.

[pin-your-wings]

If we start walking

Maybe we'll arrive

What's one more hill to climb?