Studio Visit: Sofie Royer

Life and music are inseparable for Sofie Royer – one does not exist without the other. It should come as no surprise, then, that Royer’s music and her perspective on it are shaped by the myriad experiences she has gathered throughout her life, which now define her perception of reality. This also comes through in the singer’s sound, which defies definition – the genre is simply Sofie Royer. SLEEK visited the musician and artist in her Vienna studio, which is also her home.

The Viennese dialect, with expressions like ‘Griaß di, Oida’ (English: ‘Hi, mate’) and ‘fesch’ (English: ‘attractive’), has become a casual part of Sofie Royer’s everyday life. Born in the USA, she spent her life moving between the States and Austria before finally settling in Vienna, where she finally felt at ease. But no matter where in the world she was, music was her constant companion. Royer began playing the violin at just four years old; a life without instruments is entirely foreign to her.

Her career initially began behind the scenes. Before releasing music under her own name, she co-founded Boiler Room, worked at Stones Throw Records (where she is now signed), and wrote and produced songs for other artists. After her final return to Vienna, however, she felt the need to publish her own music, as she explains in the interview. Having spent much of her formative years abroad, she found it difficult to reconnect at first. She began writing songs in the basement of her university, just for herself, until her then-boss at the record label noticed and published her work.

Since 2020, she has been sharing her music with the world, although she still finds it difficult to refer to herself as a singer. ‘At this point, it’d sound strange if I said I’m not a singer, but four years ago, I really wasn’t. I had very little confidence and disliked performing live,’ says Royer. A breakthrough moment came when she played her 2022 album Harlequin for the first time at a release party in Paris – from then on, all subsequent performances were suddenly much less nerve-wracking.

Royer still struggles to define her music. Her sound evolves from album to album, resisting categorisation. Her music is a blend of genres, including Alternative, Indie, Pop, R&B, and Electronica. She does not like to be pinned down, drawing inspiration from the Nineties and embracing the melancholy that runs through her albums. Sofie Royer wants her music to remain open to interpretation, leaving room for the listener’s subjective perceptions. The only standard she holds herself to is creating timeless music. ‘I’m not trying to make incredibly intellectual, difficult-to-understand music. That’s not really what I am about. But what I do want is for people to listen to the songs in 30 or 40 years and not be able to place them entirely,’ she explains. For Royer, the act of making music is an attempt to capture a feeling, so there is no need for a deep analysis that reframes the final product in complex words.

With her attitude and approach, she stands apart from current trends in the music scene, which are heavily dominated by algorithms and social media. Although she is not actively rebelling against these tendencies, the dominant silence in her songs seems to be pushing buttons. ‘On Spotify, an intro is supposed to be about five to ten seconds long for the song to be placed in playlists. So, my song with its one-minute-twenty intro was the kiss of death for the algorithm,’ she says with a grin. She speaks fondly of TikTok, even though she is fully aware that music today is consumed differently than it was in the past.

Besides being a musician, Royer is also a painter. Her paintings are characterised by flowing shapes and colours that appear to drip down the canvas. When asked whether her paintings are meant to convey the same feelings as her music, she quickly responds, ‘No.’ Painting is intuitive for her, whereas with her music, she takes a more academic approach. These various forms of artistic expression have been part of her life since childhood and have almost become a routine, an automatic process. This is why Royer sometimes feels the need to break out of her comfort zone, leading her to learn new instruments; alongside two violins, her apartment is equipped with a piano, a guitar, and a bass.

Her next album is on the horizon, and the new single ‘I Forget,’ which was released on 21 August, offers a taste of what she has in store for us. Each of her albums represents one version of Sofie Royer at a certain point in time. Like an ongoing metamorphosis, she continues to grow, both as a person and as an artist.

As featured in SLEEK 82 – BALANCE. Available in print and digital here.