Why did you move from London to Vienna?
Mainly because I felt like I wasn’t connecting with London at all, and I’d always lived there. I was travelling a little bit, and ended up finding a few bands who were in Austria who I got on really well with. And, as happens when you aren’t from a place, everyone says, ‘You should move here! You should move here!’ So I just did.
Was it an easy move?
Yeah, it was quite painless. I think that, I sort of get off on that, anyway. That kind of thing of just deciding to just destroy everything and start something else.
Do you bring that into writing songs?
Yeah I think so, it’s quite prominent.
There were some high expectations for your debut.
Not from me. [laughs]
Well, that answers my question on how you dealt with the pressure.
The good thing was I wasn’t really aware of them. I’m not sure how much of that is due to anything I’ve been doing, or whether I wasn’t really plugged into that. When it’s you involved, you don’t see all that stuff, that sort of Internet stuff in the same way that outside people see it. Although now that I think about it, if I had seen the way that it’s gone for me the last year and half or so, and I’d have seen that from someone else, I’d be sort of looking at like “Jesus, it’s sort of massive” but when you when you’re involved it doesn’t really hit you in the same way.
The people around you are sort of taking care of it for you, sort of buffering you from it?
I think there’s just no context to understand it. There are big things I would probably be more amazed by, but things like, the way the music has come out so far, I wasn’t aware of that sort of blog world and internet stuff, it didn’t touch me in the same way.
What about your own internal pressure of going from an EP to a full-length?
No, for me it’s like, it’s just natural. I wanted to get an album out. I didn’t really expect anyone to be interested. It has come as a massive shock the last two weeks, the way it’s been since the album actually came out because I realized it’s actually hitting loads of people. I just, absolutely honestly had no idea that anyone would give a fuck about this album coming out.
I saw you at Roskilde last summer, at the Gloria stage. That was a lovely show.
Aww amazing yeah. [later he mentions that is the show where he realized his music was affecting people, as that small venue was packed]
SOHN – Photo by Amelia Troubridge
The album is definitely one that grows on you, it’s one that I listen to and the more I listen to it, the more I like it. It’s definitely layered, and the listener slowly uncovers the themes. So that’s one thing I wanted to ask about, the inspiration for the album. A lot of the lyrics are pretty dark.
Lyrically it’s very subconscious, like I’m not really aware of what goes into those. There wasn’t an intention to lyrically bring the album together in one piece, to make it ‘themed’ if you like. For me it isn’t themed actually. But when you are writing in a very subconscious way and doing things in one period of time, those things will come out.
Is the album for anyone?
No, the album is more like a repair album. It’s not directly tied to one sequence of events. In particular it’s more like a kind of collecting everything that goes on, in here [motions to chest] and laying it all out and being able to look at it and judge it. That’s how I feel about the album. It’s not particularly inside the emotion for me, it’s more like looking down on everything and looking down on me and my reactions, or how I dealt with x or y scenario. Looking down and saying ‘Okay, so this was it, right? What are we going to do with that now?’ It’s almost like looking at it through glass.
Like in a museum?
Like a viewing gallery, of your life or your decisions.
Imagine you have to describe what your music sounds like to a deaf person. What would you say?
[takes a long pause] Peaceful, warm… and freezing.
You hid your real name for awhile. Why? And why did you choose SOHN?
I didn’t see the point in it. Like my birth name, even though it’s now out there, is just so far away from relevant to my thought process and to my actual identity that I didn’t really want to mention it. I’ve gone by different names for a long time, since I was a kid. It’s kind of a weird thing when everyone’s digging for your birth name I don’t even use my birth name. I haven’t used my birth name since I was fifteen years old. For me it was very simple, I made the music and got into what I was through the music, so therefore I needed a name for myself and chose the name SOHN for that, therefore that’s now who I am. For me, anything outside of that name doesn’t apply actually, it’s just not something I would tie to who I am. I just find it useless.
Do you go by different names at different times?
I have, I have done that. It depends on where I am in the world, who knows me by what name.
You’re at the forefront of this wave of singe male singer songwriters doing soulful, introspective songs over electronica (JAMES BLAKE, RHYE and so forth). Any idea what has motivated this?
I think it’s always been there, I think the medium is just timed together more. People like me and JAMES BLAKE, RHYE and HOW TO DRESS WELL they would have just been in bands before then. They would have been piano players or guitarists.
Where do you see yourself in the musical continuum?
I’m less R&B than people seem to think I am. That’s just something I have to establish with time.
Does that bother you, that comparison?
No, that’s okay, it’s fine. [smiles]
What do hope and passion mean to you?
Life. That’s it really isn’t it? [chuckles]
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