Charli XCX has revealed how SOPHIE impacted her life and career.
In an emotional new interview with Zane Lowe to celebrate the release of her fifth studio album, CRASH, the British singer said the late Scottish trailblazer was one of the “biggest champions” of her artistry.
“SOPHIE was always pushing me to not record with autotune, which I think people would find quite interesting,” said Charli. “She was always like, ‘Just sing with your voice. You sound great. Let’s do this like that.’ SOPHIE was just a champion of people that she believed in.
“And no matter what level you were as an artist, if you were a big artist or if you were her friend who was making music with her in her studio and no one else had heard any of the songs at all. She believed in those people.
“She thinks people are stars. And when she thinks you’re a star, she’s not going to let you do yourself an injustice by not going for it.”
SOPHIE tragically passed away on 30 January 2021 following an accidental fall from a three-story balcony in Athens, Greece. According to her girlfriend, Evita Manji, she had climbed to take a picture of the full moon.
A producer for artists such as Madonna, Kim Petras and MØ, SOPHIE only received one album in her lifetime, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, which received widespread critical acclaim and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album. It also topped several year-end lists for 2018.
She collaborated with Charli on tracks such as Trophy, Out of My Head, Vroom Vroom, After the Afterparty and No Angel.
During the creative process for CRASH, Charli said there had “been a few times” where she wished she could’ve leaned on SOPHIE for guidance.
“The answer always is, SOPHIE would just always be like, ‘Do your thing. Go for it, push yourself.’ So yeah, I think SOPHIE would’ve really backed me on it,” explained Charli. “And that’s really cool, because she obviously was so…
“She changed my life, you know? And she changed all of our lives. Not just because of her music, which obviously is so incredible. But because of the person that she was as a person, she championed us, she has this incredible energy.
“And when she wants to converse with you or have a moment with you, it’s so special because she’s so inspiring.”
Charli ended her tribute to the trans trailblazer by saying she has “never met anyone like her” and doesn’t think she “ever will.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Charli revealed that CRASH is an amalgamation of her previous projects: True Romance (2013), Sucker (2014), Number 1 Angel (2017), Pop 2 (2017), Charli (2019) and How I’m Feeling Now (2020).
“Those six bodies of work encapsulate all the different things that I think pop music could be, from things like Boom Clap and classic shouty pop songs to the more avant-garde world of pop too, or rave tracks like Visions,” she said.
“All of those things feel like the little puzzle pieces that make up what I want pop music to be and on this final album, I feel like I’ve used all of the different puzzle pieces-to make the album.”
Released to universal acclaim, CRASH includes massive pop anthems such as Good Ones, New Shapes (with Christine and the Queens and Caroline Polachek), Beg For You (with Rina Sawayama), Baby, Every Rule and Used to Know Me.
You can listen to the incredible album here or below.
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