15 minutes with Sofi Tukker

On NYC, Panorama Music Festival and Brazillian poetry.

Sofi Tukker, the New York-based duo comprised of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern, hit the spotlight in 2016 after the release of their debut EP Soft Animals.

It features the viral tropical track Drinkee, which was nominated for this year’s Best Dance Recording Grammy.

The combo’s unique sound contrived of jungle-pop and acoustic house is a fresh take on the current dance music scene, where you can escape to another world but still be at the party.

We had a quick chat with Sofi Tukker after their exhilarating set at Panorama Music Festival last weekend.

That set was amazing, how do you both feel?
Tucker: Yeah we’re really happy with how it went, it was so much fun.
Sophie: We just had a really fun set, great crowd!

Who are you most keen to see for the rest of the festival?
Tucker: I’m going to try and see Tame Impala and maybe Alt J.
Sophie: Yeah I would love to see Tame Impala.

Your EP Soft Animals came out last year, how do you think the reception of that has been going so far?
Tucker: The EP went better than we could have ever expected really, and we’re just psyched to be putting out new music that we’ve been working on.

You guys have a really interesting, unique sound, what inspired that?
Tucker: We didn’t intentionally try to be different, we were just like, let’s make this because we want to make it and then it turned out to be different and we were like oh that’s good!
Sophie: I mean we both come from such different places so it came pretty naturally, it was just what we both wanted to hear so I guess that’s unique.

Your hit single, Drinkee was derived from a Brazilian poem, what about the poem made you want to build a song around it?
Tucker: Sophie was studying Brazilian poetry at school, and she was working with this poet that came to visit Brown. They did a workshop type thing focused on sort of interpreting his poetry into music. Then we were writing this song like six months later and she was like, ‘wait, we should use his poetry for this’, and I was like ‘hell yeah!’
Sophie: Yeah I was thinking I have the perfect thing!

Have you guys played at many festivals, how does Panorama compare?
Tucker: We’ve played at a lot; we played at Coachella, which was amazing! We’re doing Osheaga and Lollapalooza next weekend; we’re basically doing festivals for the next couple of months, like every weekend. It’s great I love it!
Sophie: Yeah we’re doing a lot, but we love it, it’s always a lot of fun. We haven’t played a show for the past couple of weeks, so it’s really nice to get back into it.

Random question, but what does your typical Wednesday night look like in New York?
Tucker: We’re probably not in New York on a Wednesday, we’re only here a couple of days a month because we’re touring all the time. But if we were here we’d probably go out, see some friends, maybe get some brunch…
Sophie: You don’t get brunch at night though! I’d probably take a yoga class, if I could find any that were running at night-time.

sofitukker.com