Sophie Tex is an emerging artist, and the sound she’s making is both highly emotional and very atmospheric. In her new song Broken Promises, she offers a heartfelt song where she is both letting go and holding on to hope. The song is a hypnotic mix of dreamy indie sounds and grim, dark lyrics, cinematic production, and conveys the slow, quiet emotional weight of relationships that fade over time.
The only thing which really makes Broken Promises stand out is the balance of light and dark in the image. Sophie’s layers of vocals and soothing harmonies, also her atmospheric guitar work, lend a truly personal and immersive feel. The song is about change, loss and how hard it is to move on from something that isn’t making us happy. But while it’s so sad, it also has a comforting message that it reminds the listener that the listener is not alone in those feelings.
In this interview, Sophie Tex talks about the emotional inspiration behind the song, the breakthroughs that helped to form the song in the studio, and how she strives to write music that people can connect with on a deeper level. She also discusses how she is developing her artistic identity, performing in her hometown, and what she has in store for her fans on her next artistic journey.
Listen to inside this song
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Casey, “inside this song” pulls us into your raw, rhythmic world, what’s the intimate vibe you’re inviting listeners to feel on this track?
I imagined a time when i was already dead and that a piece of me would be left there in the song, which is immortal. I wanted to capture little flashes and details from my life that could remain in a sonic time capsule.
Blending hip-hop pulse, blues grit, and cinematic soul, take us back: what personal chaos or rebirth sparked “inside this song”?
Often times, my writing style is an absense of writing… I free associate; a skill I honed from freestyle rapping over the years that I apply to every genre that I experiment with. So, I often surprise myself with the songs I create. It feels more honest and raw to just push record and see what comes out. I think of songs as being living things that you pull out of the air and if you don’t capture them someone else will.
Son of Tom Waits but forging your defiant path, how did the creative process channel vulnerability into this confession-on-drums gem?
Again, I don’t usually write down lyrics… my creative process is spontaneous and random. I speak freely from the gut and the heart rather than writing out a song. That is why most times I don’t follow a typical song structure… It is just a long poem over music.
Your sound defies boxes, speaking for outsiders, whose scars or late-night reflections shaped the lyrics here?
I have many influences from Americana legends like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, to Wu Tang Clan, Earl Sweatshirt, Mac Miller and Vince Staples… as well as blues roots like Lead Belly, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Curtis Mayfield and of course The Rolling Stones and Led Zepplin… My tastes in music is similar to my pallet for food, I don’t have a favorite I like to devour them all…
Boom-bap meets jazz textures and spoken-soul, walk us through key production choices that make “inside this song” breathe?
My process is generally in found sounds… I scour youtube for instrumentals and self record. Singing at my dinner table into a hundred dollar mic. I have used sites like Beatstars to connect with producers all over the world from France to England, Ukraine and Russia, and here at home in Los Angeles.
Pain-to-rhythm alchemy: any pivotal “scar-to-sound” moment during its creation?
I just sing from the heart and whatever comes out is my truth in that moment. At times I will write out long poems, but that process is similar to my singing… I don’t question lines or stanzas, its a free associated poem… automatic writing. But in this case for “inside this song” I just made the song up as I went along. A lot of times my strongest work isn’t planned it just comes from the sky or the unconscious… like ghosts whispering in my ear.
From mania to stillness, faith to doubt, how does this track fit your arc of recovery and reflection?
I am always in a state of flux spiritually, emotionally, and sonically. I often have bouts of sobriety followed by long periods of alcoholism. So I am either breaking myself down or building myself up. It’s an ebb and flow that I am used to. I am manic depressive, bipolar… so I have bouts of extreme creativity and a depressive lull where I am unable to find any words. I have learned to use my mania to my advantage and utilize it to work for me rather than against me.
Inviting us “inside” feels personal, what risks or breakthroughs unlocked its honest core?
I couldn’t tell you where the words came from, only that it is an honest, confessional that I created as I went along… much like a man building a staircase as he ascends it. Unsure where his next footstep will land but marching ahead with confidence.
In a world craving realness, why’s “inside this song” the groove outsiders need right now?
I don’t know that folks need any of my songs, but I need them to survive. Songwriting gives my life meaning and structure. These poems and confessions ground me, push me to explore and develop as a man and a songwriter.
I hope that outsiders discover them, like hearing a secret in the wind. Regardless how many Spotify listeners I have, or streams on songs, I will continue to challenge myself and further evolve. Inside this song, is meant to be an immortal sound bite of my core left behind to be found by folks once I am gone, like a page ripped from my diary inside a bottle floating out at sea… waiting to be found, waiting to be read.
I always think about how you never really know the impact you may have, or the influence. Perhaps this song will drive someone else to create a song we all need… I think of it all like spells, voodoo, magic and prayers making music is a way to create art out of thin air.
Post-release fire: more tracks from this world, live confessions, or collabs blending your hip-hop-blues edge?
I am always working on music. I create songs ceaselessly. My biggest fear is that I will get writers block and the words will all escape me. So I treat songwriting like a guy who works out in the gym five days a week. Its a discipline, whether I’m writing poems or free associating over instrumentals I am akin to a boxer. Stick and move. Stick and move.
