Sofi Tukker speak WET TENNIS, upcoming reveals, dwell from CRSSD Fest [Q&A] – Dancing Astronaut
by: Cameron DeFaria
Mar 18, 2022
On the cusp of a global tour run, Sofi Tukker kicked off their first dwell present of 2022 by previewing songs from their forthcoming sophomore album,WET TENNIS, at CRSSD Competition on March 6. The eclectic duo’s dwell efficiency from the Ocean View stage cemented their first headlining slot at a significant music pageant. Though they’d performed the San Diego mainstay in years previous, Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern had been deservedly billed as pageant frontrunners this 12 months, positioned alongside the likes of Glass Animals, 4 Tet, and Gorgon Metropolis.
Learn Dancing Astronaut‘s interview with Sofi Tukker, executed forward of their headlining set at Waterfront Park, under.
You each are on the point of a global tour run. What most excited you about headlining CRSSD?
Sophie: “That is our first headlining slot at a significant pageant!”
Tucker: “Properly, form of, however essentially the most thrilling factor about this specific one is that we performed right here earlier than. Like method decrease on the invoice about three or 4 years in the past. So, to come back again as a headliner? It simply feels fucking good…The work is paying off!”
Who else on this 12 months’s lineup stood out to you guys?
Sophie: “Properly, the homies John Summit and Gorgon Metropolis.”
Tucker: “Yeah, we launched tracks with each of them over the pandemic, so it was good to see these dudes. Properly, we didn’t get to see them, however speak to them!”
Sophie: “It was good to really feel represented yesterday [when they played].”
Tucker: “I’d have additionally liked to see Nina Kraviz.”
What does band apply appear like for Sofi Tukker; how usually do you guys rehearse your dwell set?
Sophie: “We had been simply in rehearsals for the previous couple of days. They’re lengthy days, [but] they’re very enjoyable; I’ve to say, I actually like rehearsals.”
Tucker: “It’s not for me. That’s like apply and I just like the video games. I’m like Allen Iverson.”
Is it simply the 2 of you throughout rehearsals?
Tucker: “No, there’s tons of individuals.”
Sophie: “It’s us, our crew, which is like 5 or 6 folks…”
Tucker: “…Sound, lights, video, manufacturing supervisor, tour supervisor. They do greater than us at rehearsals, actually, ’trigger [they’re] programming new songs. We’re including three or 4 new songs tonight that we’ve by no means performed earlier than; they’re unreleased songs from the brand new album.”
Sophie: “[We’ll even be playing] songs we’ve had out for some time that we’ve by no means achieved earlier than. Like we’re doing an acoustic tune tonight that we’ve by no means achieved earlier than.”
At what age did you each be taught to DJ and what had been your first controllers?
Sophie: “Oh, shit. I used to be a lot older. You may go first.”
Tucker: “I wasn’t younger in comparison with lots of people. I performed basketball in faculty and I acquired sick my junior 12 months, so I used to be most likely 22. After I stopped taking part in basketball, I began producing music and fell in love with that. I fell in love with dance and home music, after which I began making an attempt to make it myself. So, DJing? Not till I used to be a senior in faculty. I began on TRAKTOR after which I had a good friend, who was this loopy celebration animal at Brown, who lent me his CDJs for a complete semester. Then I began working, like each morning I’d get up, not go to class, and DJ.”
Sophie: “I realized a pair years in the past on Tucker’s CDJs.”
Tucker: “Sophie acquired actually good on the DJS-1000, which is form of like a remixer…it syncs up with the mixer and every part. She began doing a little loopy sampling and sequencing.”
Sophie: “So I’ll do stuff like that. I can play the guitar, after which I’ll pattern the guitar and loop it. And I can do no matter I need over the tracks; I can put it in the appropriate key, or no matter.”
Tucker: “She does DJ too, however typically I get within the zone and I’m like ‘fuck…’”
Sophie: “And I’m like, ‘Tucker, let me combine!’”
How a lot of WET TENNIS do you propose to carry out tonight and at your reveals main as much as its launch in April?
Sophie: “So, we solely have two dwell reveals till the discharge of WET TENNIS. That is one among them after which Extremely is the second. So these two reveals are actually, actually particular due to that.”
Tucker: “They’re actually the one [shows] that we’re previewing the album at.”
What’s your private favourite monitor on the brand new document and why?
Tucker: “It’s a tune we gained’t be taking part in tonight for me.”
Sophie: “What, ‘Summer time In New York’”?
Tucker: “Yeah, it’s too particular. We are able to’t play it till it comes out. We began the band in New York, and we lived there for like the primary three years. Then we began touring a lot that we left. Over the pandemic, we had been simply lacking [New York] a lot. And we had been so impressed that we simply put ourselves in a day within the life in New York and wrote a tune about it. We liked the tune a lot that we actually went [back] and acquired a home there. I really feel like our complete lives are constructed across the dream of this tune.”
You guys satisfaction yourselves on collaborating globally, which should account for a few of your huge worldwide attraction. What nations are you most wanting ahead to touring in 2022?
Sophie: “Brazil, for positive. Arms down. We haven’t been there in 4 years, and it’s actually about time. It’s the supply of a variety of inspiration for me and for us. And never being there may be torture to the soul. That’s a really dramatic method of placing it, however I should be in Brazil.”
Tucker: “It’s attention-grabbing as a result of so many individuals make the US the middle of the world in leisure and music. And once we began, our music [first] acquired massive in different nations, so [we were doing really well] in Brazil, Turkey, and Italy when nobody gave any fucks within the US…and it was resulting from Sophie! She lived in Brazil and speaks Portuguese. The primary two songs we put out haven’t any English phrases in them. It was type of loopy that it wasn’t even the collabs that began that, however the collabs have been actually enjoyable to maintain that [global] really feel…Different components of the world are simply as necessary.”
Sophie: “These first two songs had been in Portuguese, however the locations they acquired the most important in had been Turkey and Italy. And that’s wild! We’d go to those locations the place English isn’t the primary language, Portuguese isn’t the primary language, however everyone seems to be singing the Portuguese phrases to our songs. It’s so cool to see the world get smaller like that.”
Your AirPods are in on noise-cancelling mode whereas flying to your subsequent gig. What are you listening to?
Tucker: I don’t like noise-cancelling mode. It fucks me up. I prefer to know my environment; if somebody’s making an attempt to come back up on me, I’ve to be prepared! However I’d be listening to Stromae; that’s my favourite artist. And we haven’t heard his new album but! It got here out like two days in the past and I haven’t had time.”
Sophie: “I do know! Who’re we?”
Tucker: “Losers. Idiots. He’s so good, god rattling.”
Sophie: “I’d be listening to Stromae’s new album as effectively.”
Tucker: “We don’t agree on [other] music that usually, to be trustworthy. However once we do agree, it’s Stromae.”
You’ve labored with John Summit, ZHU, Girl Gaga, Icona Pop, Gorgon Metropolis, and so many different extremely famend acts. Is your dream collaboration nonetheless on the market?
Sophie: “Stromae, sure.”
Tucker: “For positive it’s on the market. Stromae.”
Featured picture: Felicia Garcia
Classes: Options