“Really feel Secure to Be Your self”: How SOFI TUKKER’s Sophomore Album Speaks to the Energy of Positivity – EDM.com
What do Larry Hen, tennis, and persimmons have in frequent?
They’re three of the numerous motifs that comprise the DNA of SOFI TUKKER’s long-awaited sophomore album, WET TENNIS, which is out now after showing in our checklist of the highest 22 digital albums to return out in 2022.
Contemplating the truth that their debut album, the Grammy-nominated Treehouse, was launched in 2018, it is protected to say that Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern of SOFI TUKKER have advanced each individually and as a pair over the previous 4 years. And WET TENNIS just isn’t solely a testomony to that development, but in addition an intricate assertion on liberation and self-empowerment.
There are three ranges to the album’s title: the “WET” half, the “TENNIS” half, and the total acronym.
“The ‘WET’ half is pleasure, circulate, sweat—it’s an ode to the pussy,” Hawley-Weld tells EDM.com. “Then there’s the ‘TENNIS’ half, which is every thing that we do is a backwards and forwards. Historically, tennis has been very unique and you must gown in all-white to get in to the nation membership. We actually needed to flip tennis on its head and make it moist and colourful, and make it inclusive.”
“The acronym [‘When everyone tries to evolve, nothing negative is safe’] is mainly what we actually needed to say,” Halpern provides. “It’s a thesis assertion of the entire thought and what we needed to place out into the world. We would like individuals to depart this album feeling good and feeling hopeful and impressed to construct and evolve and be higher, all the time.”
In celebration of WET TENNIS, Halpern and Hawley-Weld caught up with EDM.com by way of Zoom to interrupt down every monitor from their exceptional album.
1. “Kakee”
EDM.com: Sophie, it’s no secret that you’ve got a “wholesome” obsession with persimmons, which impressed the album’s first monitor, “Kakee.” Are you able to inform us a bit extra about the way you and [70-year-old Brazilian poet] Chacal wrote this ode to persimmons?
Hawley-Weld: Chacal lives in Rio, and I texted him at some point and stated, “I’m actually obsessive about persimmons, we now have to jot down a music about persimmons.” So he labored on this poem and despatched it again to me and it is virtually verbatim what he wrote.
It is actually absurd. It is like, “I am not Sophie, I am persimmon. I do not go by automotive or by foot, I’m going by persimmon. The persimmon juice is throughout my physique, so attractive, so sticky.” It is simply a kind of absurd poems that he’s excellent at writing.
Halpern: [Chacal] is certainly like an eccentric nutcase and that is what we love about him, as a result of he actually thinks about how the phrases sound. That is what’s actually cool in regards to the Portuguese language as a result of it sounds so good and it flows so nicely and it is attractive.
Hawley-Weld: That’s his speciality. He is all about sound over that means.
Tucker: Identical. I do not even like persimmons. I used to be making a techno monitor and Sophie needed to make a music about persimmons and he or she simply type of went off and talked to Chacal and so they made this factor.
2. “Unique Sin”
EDM.com: “Unique Sin” was your first launch of 2022. Let’s dive into this one.
Hawley-Weld: We wrote [“Original Sin”] in the course of the pandemic, after we had been locked in our home. It was in the direction of the start after we had been livestreaming each day in our front room and the Freak Fam had been created.
We had been having lots of conversations throughout the Freak Fam and throughout the chat, speaking about how individuals weren’t essentially their finest selves to the those that they love probably the most and the those that they’re quarantining with.
We had been ingesting lots of actually dangerous information on a regular basis and there was a lot anxiousness and a lot uncertainty within the air, and I believe lots of people took it out on the individuals they love probably the most. This music actually began as a reminder…
Halpern: Be good to your self. We’re in a shitty time. It is okay you probably have dangerous days.
Hawley-Weld: Precisely. And it is okay if you happen to make errors.
3. “Summer season In New York”
EDM.com: After graduating from Brown College, you moved to New York to pursue music full-time. What’s it about New York that you simply love a lot?
Hawley-Weld: Gosh. It is the very best metropolis ever.
Halpern: Yeah, there’s an power that no different metropolis that I’ve lived in—and even been in—looks like. We even have a lot group there. Now we have so many pals that we are going to stroll out onto the road and we’ll run into individuals from totally different eras of our lives nonstop. No different place do you simply run into individuals getting espresso, after which they be part of you for the remainder of the day, and then you definately go elsewhere and run into one other pal. There’s only a vibe.
Hawley-Weld: For me, it is also that it is a strolling metropolis—that is a part of what does that. I used to be telling Tucker the opposite day that it seems like faculty. Like there was a spot known as the Foremost Inexperienced that was the gathering spot at Brown, and New York simply feels just like the Foremost Inexperienced since you stroll out of your door and you don’t have any thought who you’re going to run into, and what you are going to do, and the place you are going to go. And that’s simply so electrical.
Halpern: [“Summer in New York”] actually impressed us to maneuver again to New York. We had been in Florida after we wrote it throughout quarantine, and we had been like, “Shit, we wish to be in New York.”
We hadn’t lived there in three or 4 years and we determined, “Let’s simply do it.” We wrote a music about our supreme day after which we had been like, “Let’s have that day. Let’s dwell that.”
4. “Forgive Me” (with Mahmut Orhan)
EDM.com: “Forgive Me” got here out final month, certainly one of your most private songs thus far. Are you able to inform us in regards to the inspiration behind it and artistic course of? How have your followers responded to it ?
Hawley-Weld: It has been actually thrilling listening to [the feedback] from individuals. The individuals who do join with this music join with it on a degree that’s extraordinarily significant. It creates a connection immediately, partly as a result of it comes from a very exhausting state of affairs.
It undoubtedly is without doubt one of the extra emotional and dramatic songs we have ever made. One thing actually difficult occurred in my life and I used to be like, “Tucker, I actually do not feel like writing music. I’m a large number, I’m bawling my eyes out, and the very last thing I wish to do proper now could be write music.” And he stated, “No, let’s use it. Why do not we simply write a music about it?”
We normally do not write from that place, nevertheless it was the one factor that I felt like I might write about. It has been actually cool to now see that writing from that place has created all of those connections with individuals who have been in difficult conditions that really feel related.
5. “Moist Tennis”
EDM.com: The titular monitor “Moist Tennis” is celebratory in nature, exploring internal work and reworking one’s shadows. How did this music come collectively?
Halpern: We received these wonderful musicians from Cuba, Brazil and another locations, and we went to a studio in Miami and recorded a bunch of stuff. So mainly, we wrote the components in our home after which we had been like, “These components would sound actually nice in the event that they had been completed by correct musicians on loopy devices.” So we received them to replay a bunch of components and it was a lot enjoyable to observe the power come to life.
The components themselves did not actually change, however the musicality and the texture of all of it was so totally different. Somewhat than a faux organ from my pc, it was an actual Hammond organ. It was so enjoyable and a very cool experiment for us, I believe.
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[“Wet Tennis”] offers out lots of pleasure and optimistic vibes and that was undoubtedly the purpose.
6. “Interlude”
EDM.com: The lyrics in “Interlude” outline the WET TENNIS acronym and conclude with: “Perhaps I do not wish to know what’s on the opposite aspect.” Are you able to communicate to that?
Hawley-Weld: I believe the reality is: I do not wish to know what’s on the opposite aspect, however I will be brave sufficient to go there anyway.
The primary half of the album has shorter, punchier songs after which the second half of the album is a bit bit extra of a journey. Putting the “Solar Got here Up” subsequent was purposeful.
7. “Solar Got here Up” (with John Summit)
EDM.com: Do you know know that “Solar Got here Up” was going to be part of the album whenever you launched it?
Halpern: No. We had so many songs and so many variations of the monitor itemizing. [“Sun Came Up”] was one of many later additions. We had been like, “This really feels actually good right here.” And we did write it in the identical time time period with lots of the opposite songs on the album, so it did really feel prefer it belonged although it was not a part of the album marketing campaign.
It looks like we began releasing the album with “Unique Sin,” however then we added a few earlier songs that we felt instructed the total story from a beginning-to-end album.
8. “Larry Hen” (with Tuck’s Dad)
EDM.com: So Tucker, your dad is definitely on this one?
Halpern: Yeah! My dad is the one who gave that speech. We made it sound like a pattern from a TV announcer, however that is simply my dad speaking previous legendary tales about Larry Hen.
Larry Hen was mainly my dad’s hero—type of my hero, too. By my dad, I all the time wore #33 rising up and enjoying basketball in faculty. I discovered lots of work ethic that carried into all features of my life from listening to about Larry Hen, and I believed that it could be a very enjoyable music.
Larry Hen undoubtedly performs an enormous half in SOFI TUKKER as a result of the entire issues that I discovered from him. We took into this undertaking and the music world. I believe it is a good ode to him and it is a good ode to my dad, who’s hyped to be part of the album.
9. “Maintain” (with BOII)
EDM.com: “Maintain” is a smooth and sensual music, reminding listeners of the significance to first themselves earlier than they will totally love one other. Do you have got extra so as to add?
Hawley-Weld: The factor that’s so cool about this music is that it’s sensual and smooth and introspective, however there’s that rave synth that occurs. So it additionally goes off. [“Hold”] is a mix of the interior and exterior.
Halpern: Like us.
Hawley-Weld: Sure, it is identical to us. I in all probability signify extra of the introspective aspect and Tucker is extra of the exterior, however clearly we now have components of us which might be each.
Adam’s voice from BOII is certainly one of our favourite voices ever and we’re actually blessed to have that on the album.
Halpern: And the opposite man from BOII is a man named Josh, he was on our crew. He was our Ableton stage tech. He ended up having a child and transferring to Michigan and beginning a band and we have all the time been involved, supporting that endeavor.
Hawley-Weld: We began this one collectively on the tour bus, when he was nonetheless on tour with us 4 years in the past. This was in all probability the earliest music that we wrote that is on the album. I bear in mind it so nicely. I used to be really on the tour bus, having a tough time holding myself. I bear in mind feeling very remoted and lonely, and so it was type of like a music written to myself to remind myself what to do.
10. “Mon Cheri” (with Amadou & Mariam)
EDM.com: Over time and numerous interviews later, a standard query has been, “Who’s your dream collaborator?” To which you’ve all the time answered Amadou & Mariam. What was it prefer to lastly work collectively?
Hawley-Weld: After we discovered, we had been shrieking and working up and down in our kitchen.
Halpern: We did not assume that they’d be into it. They make actually stunning, attention-grabbing world music and we had this music thought and we despatched it to them and so they had been down. We nonetheless have not met them in-person—all of it occurred over the pandemic. [Amadou & Mariam] are unimaginable and like probably the most inspiring… We had each beloved them individually—earlier than we met one another even—in order that was simply cool.
I am glad we put [“Mon Cheri”] on the album too as a result of I wish to give it a second life for these individuals that will have missed it. I’d love extra individuals to listen to the music.
11. “Freak”
EDM.com: “Freak” is infectious, upbeat and true to the SOFI TUKKER sound. In your individual phrases, what does it imply to be a freak?
Halpern: I believe within the context of the Freak Fam, it actually simply means to be your self. No matter bizarre shit that you have perhaps been instructed just isn’t good or snug… Simply be proud to be your self and really feel protected to be your self. It may imply actually something, like a weirdo, sexually, asexually… No matter you’re feeling like is authentically you.
Hawley-Weld: Unabashedly.
12. “What A Fantastic World”
EDM.com: I really like the way you ended the album with a optimistic, unifying message. The facility of positivity is every thing.
Halpern: [“What A Wonderful World”] was a vacation particular. We did it for Apple Music, however then we received the music and we’re in love with it so we thought it was the proper method to depart the listener and ship them off into the world.
Hawley-Weld: My dad used to sing that music to me and he sang it to me after I was born, apparently.
Halpern: We every have a Dad music on the album.
In help of WET TENNIS, SOFI TUKKER are set to kick off a large, eponymous world tour. You should purchase tickets here.
Within the meantime, stream the album here.
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