Soccer Mommy spoke to NME backstage at Governors Ball 2022, and discussed the different approach she took to making ‘Sometimes Forever’ in comparison to her previous album, ‘Color Theory’and the band’s that inspired album’s sound.Watch our full interview above.
Less than two weeks before its release, Sophie Allison explained how she and her band created a “vast” sound for their third record, and why she felt comfortable with a more stripped-back approach this time around.
“I started recording music by doing it myself and it was very much about going until it’s done,” she said. “With ‘Color Theory’ specifically, we wanted to make it poppy at certain points and make it have all these transitions, that came in, in the post-live take. This time, I really wanted it to feel like a live performance, and have this space and breadth in it.”
She also discussed creating the spacious sound of the new album. “Making something feel vast, is surprisingly about having space,” Allison said. “Less is more. With the basic tracking, when we’re all in a room playing together, we really wanted to get everything really tight and solid from there so that we could be specific and intentional about adding interesting stuff on top.”
She added: “It didn’t have to get cluttered, we didn’t have to start taking pieces apart and wanting to put them back together. You have to add space so you can have that feeling of space.”
Allison also talked about the bands that inspired the sound behind, ‘Sometimes, Forever.” When we were recording, we were talking a lot about ‘80s music, a lot about The Jesus and Mary Chain, shoe-gaze stuff. We really wanted to get that sense of a live band and everything, but also these strange ambient sounds, things coming in and out that have weird tones to them.”
She added: “We were listening to a lot of stuff like My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, Magnetic Feilds. There was a lot of stuff that made us want to have that sense of washy, ambient, strange, watery, sound effects.”
In a four-star review of, ‘Sometimes, Forever’, NME said, “The combination of these intensely confessional lyrics and the musical exercises in mood and atmosphere lends the album a balance between control and catharsis. Whether she’s exorcising demons or shaking hands with them, Allison explores in ever more depth how to channel that most potently.”