An interview with Sofia: A true D&B professional

I’m sitting in my mother’s cellar office in front of a notebook full of frantically scribbled question ideas, bent under the desk trying to switch off a dehumidifier and hoping my face doesn’t go all pink in the video call like during my last interview. As I bang my head on the desk, I notice Sofia has joined the call late and is waiting politely while I swear at my office lighting. Maybe it’s because I’m not part of the tech fleece armada that is the D&B crowd, but I couldn’t see any obvious difference between Sofia and the trust fund spawn of Southwest London with musician as the top line of their Instagram bio. I had no idea how wrong I was.  

“To be really honest, stubbornness, my brother said I could never make a job out of it, so I kind of just went, watch me.” 

I can’t really speak on other people’s behalf, and I don’t want to insult anyone, but I knew that this is the only option, I hyper-focus.

Sofia  

In an age of social media and music being two sides of the same weighted coin, Sofia seems committed to being a musician, and has a professional and relaxed attitude to the new trends of music: “I don’t resent it because I don’t see it on the same level, I would actually resent the fact that they’re really good at content, not good at music. It’s a different ball game … I’m just here to do music.” 

Sofia also recently made the decision to separate from her record label in favour of independent promotion and an effort to expand her genre base. She states: “I don’t mind being in the D&B bracket, but that’s obviously not what I want to stay in. I like electronic dance music. That’s what I actually like being in. And over time, yeah, like I’ve changed so many styles in the D&B that I’ve done. I’ve done actually quite a lot of tunes that aren’t D&B, but they’re just not released.” 

Not only has Sofia separated herself from the crowd by parting with her record label, she has also shunned the idea of pursuing a career in London, in favour of her native Jersey, claiming: “I don’t think Jersey’s ever limited me, this is the greatness of social media. The best positive you can get out of it is the fact you don’t need a label.” She expands: “You can literally go solo if you want to. Because before only labels were able to do your promotion, your marketing. Now when it comes to promoting stuff through TikTok, yeah I can’t do it, but when I go away I can.” 

I’ve never stopped in any way making different genres. It’s more just whatever blew up first. It’s a business.

Sofia

Here it would be easy for the Jersey-based artist to score cheap points and rave about not being in her genre of choice, but she refrained again, some would call that boring and maybe less clickable; I would call it professional. While many would use this as a talking point or verbally pat themselves on the back for bravely grasping for aura, she was grounded when discussing the move. She insightfully remarks: “I’ve never stopped in any way making different genres. They were happy to hear all of them and post all of them. It’s more just whatever blew up first. It’s a business. There are numbers. I mean, and they get pissed off about it. But like you are dealing with the business. And I understand that.” 

As the interview went on, Sofia’s replies continued to be well-thought and balanced, she wasn’t even drawn into the House vs D&B debate, claiming: “There’s always two sides to everything, there’s good house, there’s good D&B, but there’s also shit house and shit D&B.” This was defiantly new, if I can’t even get her caught up in meaningless arguments about genre, am I even a journalist? That’s what separates Sofia from other artists and something you don’t find very often: a sense of normality. She cuts through the bilge of music tribalism.  

“People actually don’t realise what D&B is. People generalise it to do with raves and the heavy stuff.  My boyfriend can’t even tell what is drum and bass and what is house. I can because I do music, and sometimes we forget that people actually don’t know what they’re speaking about.” 

It might not sell as many clicks, but she certainly seemed above that; you don’t need buzz words when you’re making sense. In the end I found what separates Sofia from the crowd of lesser-known D&B artists (other than the fact that she is fairly well known and growing fast). She is a straightforward, if slightly unorganised professional.