Confessional and catchy, Canberra singer-songwriter Sophie Edwards’ new five song EP ‘Feel Again Soon’ takes a look into feelings of confusions and frustrations surrounding love and life. Described by the singer as a ‘2 year backlog of music’, the EP is out today.

Edwards pairs hard-hitting lyrics with multi-genre explorations, to create moody indie-pop music. Her tracks have been described by Triple J Unearthed reviewers as raw, clever, youthful, and ‘overflowing with heart and charm’. Listeners may liken her sound to other much-loved Aussie singer songwriters like Missy Higgins, Alex Lahey, or Stella Donnelly. She has supported other Canberra greats like Lucy Sugerman and Hope Wilkins, and taken her music to some of Canberra’s biggest stages including Groovin the Moo Warm Up Party, Live in Ya Lounge, Googfest, The National Folk Festival and her own sold-out show in 2019.

We sat down with Sophie to find out more about the meaning behind the lyrics, coordinating the tracks during lockdown, and how it feels to have the release in sight after two years of work.

When did you first start writing this EP and what inspired it?

SO LONG AGO lol. All of these songs are written in 2019-2020 and I like to think they are about some of the less talked about experiences that everybody goes through in life, feelings of numbness, inadequacy, and concern for the future. It sounds gloomy but I promise I am usually a happy person!! When I was writing these songs it was a big transitional period finishing up uni and navigating relationships and growing up, but I feel like I am in a much more secure place now. 

Can you give us some insight into the meaning behind the lyrics?

Lyrics for me are my favourite part of writing songs, and I feel like most of the people close to me know how much I prioritise them. I think the Soph that talks every day is very sarcastic and loves a laugh, but the minute I write songs it’s serious-mode only, but maybe that’s the outlet for me. The lyrics on the EP are pretty eclectic, a big mish-mash of feelings over a long period of time. I’d say the weirdest is “Mining on the Moon”; the camp I wrote the song at was a creative camp for contemporary dancers (note: I am definitely not a contemporary dancer) that was celebrating 50 years since the moon landing. We were given a bunch of stimulus to be creative with and I got this article about how in a few years they might start mining on the moon. The whole idea freaked me out so I wrote about how great it is that the world is advancing so quickly technologically but also a bit scary and lacking humanity at times. Super weird stuff. Fun though.

Was it difficult writing, rehearsing, recording, and coordinating instrumentals from a live band given the lockdown situation?

I was lucky that because this project has been so drawn out, when it came to recording, the band had already played the songs live quite a bit. We recorded all the tracks in the first lockdown in 2020 and it was quite nice to just focus on recording, rather than doing a full day at the studio then rushing to a gig straight after. I like to think that the band has a fair bit of creative control in how they play my songs too. I don’t know how to play the bass so I’m not going to tell Liv to play it any differently to how she feels it. I think Micah (drummer) cops it the worst, I’ll give him real weird directions like ‘make it washier, shouldn’t be so chunky, should be more of a light pink’ and he will have to decipher what I am on about.

What projects can we look forward to in the future?

I spent this year writing and producing the next lot of stuff to come out. Next year I’ll be putting out some music that is self-produced hopefully, as well as some really lovely collaborations with artists from Canberra and interstate that I have made over this lockdown. But I can 100% guarantee more oversharing on Instagram and pictures of my dog.

Follow Sophie on Instagram @sophieedwardsmusic

And listen to her new EP here.