Soccer Mommy looks back to move forward with her elegant fourth album, ‘Evergreen’.
Words: Ciaran Picker.
When Sophie Allison first started releasing music as Soccer Mommy, she was just a 17-year-old in Nashville playing with an acoustic guitar and seeing what came out. That was ten years ago. Since then, she’s had a stint in New York City, made herself a globally known alt-popster, and released three critically acclaimed LPs. Her fourth album, ‘Evergreen’, sees her journey back to that teen sensation, returning to her roots to process both where she is now and how far she’s come.
If her last two albums, 2020’s ‘Color Theory’ and 2022’s ‘Sometimes Forever’, represented Sophie’s time in New York City, then ‘Evergreen’ is an ode to her Tennessee hometown. Taking out the buzzy electronics and thick distorted shoegaze that mimicked the overpopulated, overstimulated atmosphere of the Big Apple, this is an album that pays tribute to space. Allowing herself to breathe deeply, to feel the grass beneath her feet and see trees swaying in the breeze, Sophie set about creating a sound that really felt like home.
Calling in from her house in Nashville, Sophie notes: “I’m looking out my window now, and it’s all green. I can drive for fifteen minutes and hike in the woods but still be in the city. New York has its own beauty, but this record is more about pondering.”
Sophie is very open about the fact that ‘Evergreen’ is a necessary album for her, providing an opportunity for her to properly process the grief that came from the loss of someone central to her life. As a result, she had no problem in taking full control, dictating every detail of the direction she needed to go in.
“I have a real chokehold on what I want and need [the album] to be for myself. I feel very strongly about it. It’s me stepping away from industry ideas of what I could do or what they want me to do next, and making something straightforward, something I’d be making in my bedroom.”
It was clear from the release of singles ‘Lost’ and ‘M’ in the summer that this was going to be an album more about telling a story than creating a big guitar-rock moment. When Sophie started writing for this album, she stuck to simplicity, shutting out any voices that told her to turn up the volume and tune out the sentiment.
“I didn’t want to turn the songs into something they’re not,” she recalls. “I wanted that stripped-back feel. It was never going to be loads of rock bangers; I wanted more songs that sounded like stuff I would have written years ago.”
She continues: “All the demoing was done on a four-track cassette machine, and they were basically just me playing the songs through with a guitar so I could really feel what was important and what wasn’t. From there, I got in touch with [producer] Ben Allen and travelled down to record in Atlanta.”
“It’s me stepping away from industry ideas of what I could do or what they want me to do next”
soccer mommy
When discussing with Ben what she really wanted from the record, Sophie made sure to stick to her guns and her roots, returning to the rural landscape she grew up in to provide most of her inspiration whilst being mindful to leave enough room for the songs to expand.
“The word I kept coming back to was organic. I wanted it to be mostly acoustic instruments, so where we could have used a synth pad, we brought in flute or strings. I was really conscious of getting really specific textures and tones so that it wasn’t super dry. We were going for clean, crisp, and sunny, but we still wanted to get a bit weird with it.”
This fourth record ties together all the threads that Sophie weaved through her back catalogue. Lead single and album opener ‘Lost’ lets Sophie’s ethereal vocal break your heart and put it all back together again, while ‘Driver’ delves into the crunchy shoegaze guitar that permeated through ‘Sometimes Forever’. This makes it her most mature and well-rounded album so far, dipping into every configuration of Soccer Mommy to create an intricate and nuanced atmosphere that surprises you with each listen.
Unsurprisingly, given Sophie’s obvious talent for songwriting, this varied tracklist was completely intentional. Travelling between upbeat, shimmery tracks like ‘Some Sunny Day’, smiley alt-pop songs like ‘Abigail’, and spiralling ballads like ‘Dreaming of Falling’, she creates an album that speaks to an innate understanding of what it takes to make music that stands out on the scene.
“I’ve never been able to write an album without writing different song styles. I don’t really think about it going in. It’s never like, ‘Ok, I want four happy songs, then two acoustic ones’. I just know that I don’t want one really stripped-back album because it would feel really stagnant.”
“I wanted that stripped-back feel; it was never going to be loads of rock bangers”
soccer mommy
Sophie’s eclectic music taste feeds directly into this determination to keep everything fresh, to jump around and subvert expectation. Her 2023 ‘Karaoke Night’ EP saw her cover artists including R.E.M., Taylor Swift, and Sheryl Crow, while her being back in Nashville and dealing with the toughest time of her life saw her dive back into classic folk music. It was this that really paved the way for the lyricism on this album, with tracks like ‘Change’, ‘Thinking of You’, and ‘Salt In Wound’ seeing her write with the same clarity, honesty, and vulnerability that ties together her musical heroes.
“Having a folkier sound was definitely a bit conscious. It’s really emotional but still light and airy, and I returned to Emmylou Harris and Joni Mitchell when I was writing or just when I needed to roll the window down and breathe.”
Much of this album gives that feeling of being on a road trip through America’s backroads, travelling out from the East Coast through the industry of the Midwest and out into the wilds of the Rocky Mountains and redwood forests. The album’s closing track, ‘Evergreen’, speaks to Sophie’s travels as a child and acts as an old polaroid stuck in a pinboard, drawing her back to memories that keep the past alive and keep her in tune with where she’s been.
“Obviously, if you say the word ‘Evergreen’, it immediately draws you back to nature, to green, and to trees. When it came to naming the album, I never really thought too much about it. The song referenced a really specific circumstance in my life and used the term ‘Evergreen’ as a name for a bigger thing, so it just seemed all-capturing.”
Ten years in the industry is a long time for anyone, but especially when it comes during the most formative period of your life. By going back and making songs in the same way that she did when she first started out, it was inevitable that Sophie was going to reminisce about the person she was and who she has grown to be.
“I’m almost an entirely different person,” she candidly states. “Of anything I’ve done, I feel the most tied to those first demos I made when I was 17. I did some acoustic shows when ‘Lost’ came out, and I played songs that were on my first record, and some of the stuff I had to sing was so dramatic! I guess that’s part of the beauty of them, though; they’re so pure and powerful.”
As the first decade of Soccer Mommy comes to a close, Sophie finds herself ready for the next one. “If I had to guess,” Sophie wonders, “I think I’m going to switch it up. I get tired of doing one thing and want to move on to something else. So yeah, I’m excited to keep going and see what’s next.”
She’s always been a songwriter to be reckoned with, but Sophie is now the person she was always born to be, and she can do whatever she puts her mind to. There’s never been a more exciting time to be a Soccer Mommy fan, and there’s a lot more about to come on board, thanks to this wondrous new chapter.
Taken from the November 2024 issue of Dork. Soccer Mommy’s album ‘Evergreen’ is out now. Follow Dork’s PLAY Spotify playlist here.
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