Sofia Gillani | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: That is Sophia Gilani and the brand new single of Vulnerability,

0:04 Speaker 1: And I believe we have Sofia on the line with

0:06 Speaker 1: us via WhatsApp. Sofia, are you there?

0:09 Speaker 2: Hi? Hello, I'm here. Thank you so much for having me.

0:12 Speaker 1: Absolutely welcome back to the show. The last time that

0:14 Speaker 1: we had you on, I think we were I think

0:17 Speaker 1: you had just released wake Up. Does that make sense?

0:21 Speaker 3: Yep?

0:21 Speaker 1: Yep.

0:22 Speaker 3: Yes, I've just released wake Up, my first album, my

0:25 Speaker 3: first single to my new album that's coming out really

0:27 Speaker 3: really exciting.

0:28 Speaker 2: Have I loved the response that's happened so far?

0:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent, excellent. So I really like this track Vulnerability.

0:34 Speaker 1: The first thing, well, two things I noticed about it

0:36 Speaker 1: right away as it's First of all, it's got kind

0:38 Speaker 1: of a to me anyway. It has kind of a

0:40 Speaker 1: summertime vibe, which I like because that's my favorite time

0:44 Speaker 1: of year. And as we move into spring here, I

0:47 Speaker 1: enjoy that. I mean, that was That's what I hear

0:49 Speaker 1: in it. But also, but I think part of the

0:51 Speaker 1: reason I hear that is it's also very sort of

0:54 Speaker 1: and I noticed this with some of your other tracks too,

0:57 Speaker 1: it's very sort of stripped down. There's not a lot

1:01 Speaker 1: going on in terms of well, I shouldn't put it

1:03 Speaker 1: that way, but it's it's very you know, it's like

1:06 Speaker 1: you can clearly hear all the percussion and it's very

1:08 Speaker 1: sort of it's not overproduced in that sense. Uh do

1:13 Speaker 1: you know what? You know what I'm trying to say?

1:14 Speaker 3: I think, yeah, yeah, I mean I wanted to keep it,

1:18 Speaker 3: you know, clear to the message, simplistic. I want it

1:21 Speaker 3: to be just really a banger, if that makes sense.

1:24 Speaker 3: I want to listen to music. I want to make

1:26 Speaker 3: music that I want to listen to really, and you're right,

1:28 Speaker 3: I mean, it definitely is. Even though it is quite

1:31 Speaker 3: a raw track, it is definitely one with a summer vibe.

1:34 Speaker 3: I love some of the most as well. I'm enjoying

1:35 Speaker 3: the sunshine right now.

1:37 Speaker 2: During this interview. But I want it to be quite lighthearted,

1:41 Speaker 2: quite you know.

1:41 Speaker 3: That's why the beats, you know, upbeat, but with that

1:44 Speaker 3: like simplistic, down to earth message.

1:47 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Is that something that you try to go

1:49 Speaker 1: out of your way to do with a lot of

1:51 Speaker 1: because I feel like a lot of your work is

1:52 Speaker 1: like that. It's not it's not super overproduced as not,

1:55 Speaker 1: you know, so much going on where you almost kind

1:58 Speaker 1: of get distracted from the vocal, you know, like a

2:00 Speaker 1: lot of modern music is like that. But I feel

2:03 Speaker 1: like a lot of your I haven't listened everything necessarily,

2:06 Speaker 1: but I've listened to a lot of it and on

2:08 Speaker 1: your I'm looking at your SoundCloud right now, in fact,

2:10 Speaker 1: and I feel like a lot of it is like that.

2:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, less is more, really, And I feel

2:16 Speaker 3: like I'm quite a perfectionist when it comes to music,

2:19 Speaker 3: so you know, adding too much, I feel like it

2:22 Speaker 3: just complicates from what I'm trying to do in the

2:24 Speaker 3: first place. And you know, everyone kind of worries that, oh,

2:27 Speaker 3: is it commercial, is it relatable?

2:29 Speaker 2: D NA DA?

2:30 Speaker 3: But honestly, as long as it just sounds good to me,

2:34 Speaker 3: it doesn't need to be overproduced, doesn't need to have

2:36 Speaker 3: all these unnecessary effects, because I also wanted to hit

2:40 Speaker 3: just as well in performances and live.

2:43 Speaker 1: Right, That's true, And it does make sense if it's

2:47 Speaker 1: not overproduced in the studio, then when you're trying to

2:49 Speaker 1: replicate that live, it's a little less a little less

2:52 Speaker 1: daunting in some ways. Right, It's almost it's almost less

2:55 Speaker 1: to worry about in that sense.

2:56 Speaker 3: I would think, Yeah, I mean, you know, when people

3:01 Speaker 3: come to my shows, I want them to, you know,

3:03 Speaker 3: get what they get what they want essentially, and I

3:06 Speaker 3: want them to have this overduced song that has like

3:08 Speaker 3: ten thousand harmonies all over it, and then performance and

3:12 Speaker 3: it's like one.

3:13 Speaker 2: Vocal and it's a bit more slower.

3:15 Speaker 3: So yeah, I wanted my music to be it's easy

3:19 Speaker 3: to listen to a bad thing.

3:21 Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I just I songwrite all of it myself.

3:25 Speaker 3: I'm very independent. I have foot in every single part

3:27 Speaker 3: of the process. I me and my producer, we just

3:30 Speaker 3: don't like to, you know, try too hard on one

3:33 Speaker 3: track and then overthink it before it releases.

3:35 Speaker 1: Right right when you do You ever run into a

3:39 Speaker 1: situation where you're in the studio, you're recording, and something

3:42 Speaker 1: begins to sort of become too dense and you have

3:47 Speaker 1: to say, no, we're kind of going in the wrong

3:48 Speaker 1: direction with this. We're putting too much on it. We

3:50 Speaker 1: need to kind of strip this back a little bit.

3:53 Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.

3:54 Speaker 3: I mean with the new album coming out, it's my

3:57 Speaker 3: first ever album, so we wanted to construct it in

3:59 Speaker 3: a way that was that reflected my musical journey. I've

4:03 Speaker 3: started quite young and so looking at all the songs

4:06 Speaker 3: individually we thought were great, but some of them, like

4:09 Speaker 3: some of them didn't sound coherent at first, like towards

4:12 Speaker 3: the messaging, some of them sounded maybe more some more

4:16 Speaker 3: overproduced than others, and we really did have to strip

4:18 Speaker 3: it back to what is the message that we want

4:20 Speaker 3: to convey with this album? Why do we want wake

4:22 Speaker 3: up to start it? You know, how have I progressed

4:26 Speaker 3: so far? How do I show that? How do I

4:27 Speaker 3: show you know, the Sophia Galani that I am today

4:30 Speaker 3: in comparison to who I was a few years ago

4:32 Speaker 3: with songs.

4:33 Speaker 2: That were even more stripped back because I was just learning.

4:36 Speaker 1: Right, No, that makes sense. So the new album, when

4:39 Speaker 1: is the new album out?

4:41 Speaker 2: It's coming out at the end of May.

4:44 Speaker 3: We we've had to push it back a few times,

4:46 Speaker 3: but that's just just because similar to what I just

4:48 Speaker 3: said before, actually we were just reevaluating and reassessing. But

4:52 Speaker 3: also it's going to be coming on vinyl, which is

4:55 Speaker 3: really really exciting.

4:55 Speaker 2: So we've been figuring out the distribution of that.

4:59 Speaker 1: Is is vinyl still very important over there? I know

5:02 Speaker 1: that in America. I think it was a few years ago,

5:06 Speaker 1: might have been twenty twenty three, or twenty twenty four,

5:09 Speaker 1: it was the first time since the advent of CDs

5:12 Speaker 1: that vinyl actually outsold CDs. That's how the resurgence has

5:16 Speaker 1: been here. Is it like that where you are.

5:19 Speaker 3: Definitely, I mean more people my age are definitely wanting

5:22 Speaker 3: to have, you know, a product in their hands, have

5:25 Speaker 3: something meaningful to them because I feel like, you know,

5:27 Speaker 3: with streaming services, love it, but you know, sometimes it

5:30 Speaker 3: can feel like this weird numbers game where you want

5:33 Speaker 3: people to listen to it so that you know, you

5:36 Speaker 3: feel seen. And I just kind of wanted my song

5:38 Speaker 3: to be in that, my very first one anyway, to

5:41 Speaker 3: be in that product so people have something from me,

5:43 Speaker 3: so it feels personal. And also I feel like not

5:46 Speaker 3: a lot of independent artists are taking that risk, taking

5:49 Speaker 3: that risk to make vinyl tet their blood, sweat and

5:51 Speaker 3: tears and you know, distributing it and getting it made

5:53 Speaker 3: and all that, which in itself is a tricky process.

5:56 Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, I want people to have that vinyl.

6:00 Speaker 3: And it's actually available for pre order right now on

6:02 Speaker 3: my band camp, which is really exciting.

6:04 Speaker 1: Oh excellent. I'm glad you mentioned band camp too, because

6:08 Speaker 1: band camp is such a great I'm a big advocate

6:10 Speaker 1: for band Camp, and I don't Yeah, yeah, Well, the

6:13 Speaker 1: thing that I always say, and we might have even

6:15 Speaker 1: talked about this before, because I've talked about this with

6:17 Speaker 1: a number of guests, is how if you download, if

6:19 Speaker 1: you purchase and download music from band Camp, you're actually

6:22 Speaker 1: getting a higher quality file than say if you're just

6:24 Speaker 1: streaming it on YouTube or even Spotify. You really get

6:29 Speaker 1: the best possible product that you can as far as

6:31 Speaker 1: a download, if you get it from band Camp. So

6:33 Speaker 1: I'm a big advocate for that.

6:35 Speaker 3: Definitely me too, especially since I don't know, maybe this

6:38 Speaker 3: is just a personal opinion, but Spotify isn't really hitting

6:41 Speaker 3: it for me nowadays.

6:42 Speaker 2: I feel like, you know.

6:44 Speaker 3: There's so many there's so many like independent artists that

6:47 Speaker 3: I'm missing out on Spotify, and Spotify doesn't really benefit

6:50 Speaker 3: independent artists as much as say band Camp does, where

6:53 Speaker 3: you know you can actually help the artists, you get

6:54 Speaker 3: better quality, like you said, and it just feels like

6:57 Speaker 3: more of a contribution to the music industry worth Spotify.

7:00 Speaker 3: It feels like, you know, everyone's weirdly competing. You know,

7:03 Speaker 3: you have to splash out on adverts and campaigns, and

7:06 Speaker 3: you know what, I mean, it's such a convolutive process.

7:08 Speaker 2: So yeah, massive advocate of band camp as well.

7:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now so is wake Up? Wake Up

7:15 Speaker 1: will be the first track that opens the album? I

7:16 Speaker 1: as soon because the album is called wake Up as

7:18 Speaker 1: you said.

7:20 Speaker 3: It's actually called Reconceptualized, but wake Up is the first

7:23 Speaker 3: single on it.

7:23 Speaker 1: Yes, Oh okay, gotcha? Gotcha? And uh, how many tracks

7:26 Speaker 1: are going to be on the album? How many songs?

7:29 Speaker 2: Thirteen?

7:30 Speaker 1: Thirteen? Wow?

7:32 Speaker 3: We put a lot on it. We were like, you

7:34 Speaker 3: know what, We're just going to do this one album.

7:36 Speaker 3: There's not going to be like any DeLux. We're not

7:38 Speaker 3: messing around. It's one album, you know, just for you.

7:41 Speaker 2: You know.

7:41 Speaker 1: Oh great, okay, okay. And then so will that include

7:47 Speaker 1: all of the singles that you've released up to now

7:49 Speaker 1: or are there some that won't be on the album?

7:53 Speaker 3: Yeah? I think there's around three or four that I've

7:55 Speaker 3: already released, but there's a lot of new stuff on there.

7:57 Speaker 3: I mean, my genre is part but I'd like to

8:00 Speaker 3: mix pop sometimes with what I'm listening to, whether it

8:03 Speaker 3: be R and B or drill or garage. So it's

8:07 Speaker 3: really a mix of old and new. And you know,

8:09 Speaker 3: me trying some new things in my production, et cetera,

8:11 Speaker 3: et cetera.

8:11 Speaker 1: Right, excellent, excellent. And then have you been playing live?

8:15 Speaker 1: Have you been touring?

8:17 Speaker 3: Yes, we've been doing a lot of performances recently. Actually

8:21 Speaker 3: literally two days ago, just played not in Hill Art's Club,

8:25 Speaker 3: which was really cool in London.

8:27 Speaker 2: It was sold out, really cool. And on the thirty

8:32 Speaker 2: first of May.

8:32 Speaker 3: At the end of this month, we'll actually be going

8:34 Speaker 3: to Ireland to play in a festival at Waterford near Dublin,

8:38 Speaker 3: which is cool.

8:39 Speaker 1: Oh, very good, very good. I always say festivals are

8:42 Speaker 1: the best because not only oh yeah, well, not only

8:46 Speaker 1: does it get you in front of a huge audience

8:47 Speaker 1: and it's a great way to build your fan base

8:51 Speaker 1: and rapidly, you know, but also too just the contacts

8:54 Speaker 1: that you make, you know, with other industry people at

8:56 Speaker 1: a festival. It's it's really invaluable and definitely can be

9:02 Speaker 1: very very helpful. And then will you be releasing uh,

9:06 Speaker 1: because I know you've got you've got some videos. Will

9:08 Speaker 1: you be releasing videos with the album for these songs?

9:12 Speaker 2: Yes, we will.

9:13 Speaker 3: We've got visuals for a song on the album called

9:16 Speaker 3: Don't Forget Yourself, which are in the process of being edited,

9:19 Speaker 3: and you know, even after the album's released, we've still

9:22 Speaker 3: got visuals that we're planning to work on, including because

9:25 Speaker 3: the album is called Reconceptualized, the song Reconceptualized is going.

9:28 Speaker 2: To get its own visuals soon as well.

9:29 Speaker 1: Oh very cool.

9:31 Speaker 3: You know, love being creative in every single form of it,

9:34 Speaker 3: whether it be songwriting, singing, playing festivals, and then being

9:39 Speaker 3: a director behind the scenes.

9:40 Speaker 1: You know what I mean, right right? Tell me about

9:42 Speaker 1: the title. I'm curious about the title Reconceptualized. Why why

9:45 Speaker 1: did you choose that?

9:47 Speaker 2: Yeah?

9:48 Speaker 3: So, I mean we've played around with a lot of titles,

9:50 Speaker 3: including like Pieces of Me. But the reason why reconceptualize

9:54 Speaker 3: kind of stuck is because not only is it not

9:56 Speaker 3: a very frequently used word, but it kind of encapsulates

9:59 Speaker 3: what I was trying to do with my album. I

10:02 Speaker 3: started music at twelve, and since then I've been going

10:04 Speaker 3: through ups and downs, and really at this point, now

10:07 Speaker 3: I'm eighteen, I'm rethinking what it means to be Sophia Gane,

10:11 Speaker 3: what it means to make music, because I definitely songwrite

10:13 Speaker 3: and articulate myself a lot better than I did back then.

10:17 Speaker 3: So my first album is called reconceptualized because it's my

10:21 Speaker 3: starting point as to how I'm thinking, what I'm what

10:24 Speaker 3: Sophia Glani is going to be, and then hopefully my

10:26 Speaker 3: albums in the future will be an answer to that

10:29 Speaker 3: in a way.

10:29 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, very good. It's great that you have a

10:32 Speaker 1: plan and that you uh, you know, because a lot

10:35 Speaker 1: of people, you know, especially people who get started young,

10:38 Speaker 1: they you know, they're just kind of throwing everything against

10:40 Speaker 1: the wall and see what sticks. But you know, but

10:43 Speaker 1: you've clearly got a plan and you've got some good

10:45 Speaker 1: people around you too. You mentioned that the producer that

10:47 Speaker 1: you work with, Yes, his.

10:50 Speaker 2: Name is Doctor Kane's really really cool.

10:52 Speaker 3: Yeah, we've He's been there throughout this whole process, which

10:56 Speaker 3: is why this album is very very special to me.

10:58 Speaker 3: But I mean, like you said, I've got a plan

11:01 Speaker 3: just because I always I love making music.

11:03 Speaker 2: I'm always songwriting, I'm always recording.

11:05 Speaker 3: Even after this album will be released, I'm going to

11:07 Speaker 3: release more because I just love to do it, not

11:09 Speaker 3: because I want to keep releasing and hope that, you know,

11:13 Speaker 3: someday something really really sticks and I get really really big.

11:16 Speaker 2: You know what I mean.

11:16 Speaker 3: I just want to continue doing what I'm doing and

11:19 Speaker 3: this album is a second point first chapter.

11:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's that's outstanding. Well, very good. Well we

11:27 Speaker 1: look forward to I was singing about at the end

11:28 Speaker 1: of our conversation because you know, we played Vulnerability, I've

11:30 Speaker 1: seen it at the end, I might play wake Up again.

11:33 Speaker 1: I really like that track. And then absolutely absolutely, and

11:39 Speaker 1: then you know, we'll have you back in the future

11:40 Speaker 1: obviously because you know, as you're going to be releasing

11:42 Speaker 1: more singles and you know it gives us an excuse

11:44 Speaker 1: to have you back on.

11:44 Speaker 2: But yes, absolutely, thank you so much for your support.

11:48 Speaker 2: I've loved having this conversation.

11:50 Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, Sophia. Where's the best place to go online

11:53 Speaker 1: for people who want to keep up with everything that

11:54 Speaker 1: you're doing.

11:56 Speaker 3: I'd honestly say the three main which is Instagram at

11:59 Speaker 3: Sophia on the doc, Glani TikTok which is just Glani,

12:03 Speaker 3: and my Spotify which is also Sophia Glani.

12:05 Speaker 2: But honestly, you'll find me anywhere.

12:08 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, your name is very very googleable. As I

12:11 Speaker 1: like to.

12:11 Speaker 2: Say, thank you, you're not.

12:14 Speaker 1: You're not competing with a lot of other Sofia Gilani's

12:16 Speaker 1: which is a good thing. Hit exactly exactly. Well, very good,

12:22 Speaker 1: so we'll let you go and we're going to hit

12:24 Speaker 1: this track wake Up. But Sofia Gilani, thank you very

12:27 Speaker 1: much and we'll talk to you again soon, I'm sure.

12:29 Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Enjoy wake Up.

12:31 Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. You got to take care, bye bye.

12:35 Speaker 1: All right. That is Sophia Gilani and let's give this

12:38 Speaker 1: a spin. This is called wake Up. The album is

12:41 Speaker 1: reconceptualized and it will be out soon. Make sure you

12:43 Speaker 1: look for that and you'll be able to get it

12:45 Speaker 1: on vinyl, which is pretty cool. But here it is.

12:47 Speaker 1: This is wake Up by Sofia Gilani.