Welcome back and congratulations on the release of your new album! Talk us through the process of writing, recording and producing Free Myself.
I write all the time, so each album reflects a cycle of new consciousness, or realizations born of the experiences and coming of a new age. I call the Free Myself cycle my third act. It is really a departure from the wants and needs of my ambitious twenties and thirties and early forties. Free Myself is a further delve into awakening my spiritual and emotional relationship with myself. My career and external life imploded in California and I came home to New York to start again, with wisdom and new goals for the rest of my life. Also, I have another child, and I was able to be here for my mother in her last ten years, which was so important; being a witness to my mother and my newborn daughter engaging in such a healthy, warm and sweet relationship.
How did you select the ten tracks that you eventually settled on and how did you know that they were right for this album?
There were six tracks originally, but only eleven felt really in one theme musically and emotionally. The eleventh is yet to be released – I was told to hold it back for a special release… record company stuff. It was hard NOT putting on at least three more that I’d recorded at the same time as these, in Brooklyn with Ken Rich. However, I’m glad I listened to an adviser on streamlining the track list, mainly because it’s so hard to get attention for the work now, and the album is full, I feel, of music and poetry and meaning. We recorded with all live musicians, no synths, no beats, a real recording like those of the great old artists I love listening to. The basis of all the tracks is a live performance, and you can hear it. Some tracks are so musical and yet there are limits when you do it this way, because you can’t change easily once you’ve chosen a path. There is wisdom to this way of being in a world where pivoting and changing at the drop of a hat to “fit in” is the mode of operation.
Now that you’re making music at a different stage in your life, how does the creative and emotional process differ? Do you feel less pressure to prove yourself having established your position and musical style?
I feel internal pressure, always, to make great songs that tell a new story, or an old story a new way. My singing and musicianship is still growing, so I have the desire and drive to make songs of different styles, I don’t feel hemmed in by POP anymore. I feel expansive. I think about a song I’m writing not as a potential hit, but as a short novel, a spare story in which the delivery really hits the listener because of its hidden depth. Not because it’s repetitive. Which, I have to say, is a hallmark of mine; my songs have been hits without ever having to be repetitive.
You describe “Better Off Without You” as ‘the beginning of the end of one life and the beginning of the new Free Myself life.’ Do you feel like this album overall marks the start of a new trajectory in your personal and musical journey?
Yes, it’s confident. I am finally the person I’ve been working so hard to be, and no relationship or hard times can take that away from me.
I really admire the candour with which you have expressed yourself throughout your career, remaining true to your identity regarding your image as well as within your lyrics. Is this something that comes naturally when writing, or can it be uncomfortable?
I’m naturally a truth teller, and I like to put people at ease by showing my inner self, first. Thank you for recognizing this. It’s uncomfortable when I clearly state my truth and it’s misunderstood or manipulated. I think we all suffer from this “not being seen” and feeling “taken advantage of” when we are generous with our spirit and want to help other people feel free.
The song “You Are My Balloon” is particularly evocative, detailing the close relationship between you and your children. What message do you hope that they take from this song in years to come?
Such a nice question. I’m glad this song came out, my children will always have this clarity that they are the most loved and cherished people in my life, and that they inspire me. Perhaps that’s the best; no matter how hard life is, how much work we have to do for our children and our parents (when they are old), that those relationships are the most giving of all, the most fulfilling, and important. I hope that my children have relationships in their adult lives that feel like “You Are My Balloon”.
How does it feel to bring this new sense of liberty to life through touring and shows? How do you hope the emotional release of Free Myself translates live?
Free Myself is great live! The songs feel effortless, such and ease and joy to perform. The audience has said they love Free Myself songs as much or even more than the hit albums of our youth!
What do you hope to achieve with this new album? What aspirations do you have for the impact that it is certain to make?
I hope to achieve the beginning of an already long lasting artist career where I am doing shows and writing musicals and books and making paintings that support me without draining my family, and that give to the world as a whole. I’m furthering my legacy for myself and my children, but mainly, I’m enjoying my life as a multi faceted artist of our times, and I want to continue to share this as we all grow.
Sophie B. Hawkins plays The Forge in Camden, London on Sunday, 26th November. Tickets are available here.
