This Friday, 17th September, sees the release of Starlight, the new single from Sophie Janna.
Sophie Janna fell in love with traditional folk music in Edinburgh and took that love back to her hometown of Amsterdam. Old songs were more soothing to her than the songs she wrote herself: in someone else’s story, you can forget about your own troubles. But after secretly playing some of her original songs in a live set, Sophie discovered that her own songs could be soothing too. This year, after ten years of playing traditional songs, Sophie is finally releasing an EP of original music. As a songwriter, she is very much inspired by musicians from the Scottish and Irish folk tradition and contemporary artists like The Weather Station, Joan Shelley, and Sylvan Esso. Her new single, Starlight, the third song from her forthcoming EP, Wide World, will be released on Revanche Records on September 17.
Janna says about the song: “I wrote Starlight at a festival in the Netherlands, a month after my ex broke up with me. I had the stupid plan to borrow his tent to stay at that festival so that he would realize how cool I was and would take me back. The plan failed, and I had to sleep in that stupid tent all by myself. The only way I could deal with my emotions was to pick up the guitar. A few festival-goers came to sit by me while I was playing, and with a little help from my audience, this song appeared.
“When I listen back to the recording now, I can still feel that sadness of being cut away from the one you love, but also the wonder of sleeping under the stars and being surrounded by our beautiful universe. I tried to reflect that in the artwork, which I created by making a linocut. I’m not very good at linocutting yet so it’s pretty rough, but I think that fits with the raw feeling of the song.”
The production was made in collaboration with Hannah Jacobs and Nicholas O’Brien of Upcycled Sounds. Jacobs played the piano.
Presave Starlight via https://show.co/QP3JKCo
More: www.sophiejanna.nl
Photo Credit: Roosmarijn Broersen