Sophie

Sophie Xeon (17 September 198630 January 2021), known mononymously as SOPHIE, was a Scottish music producer, songwriter, and DJ.

Sophie's work is known for its Brash take on pop music and is distinguished by experimental sound design, "sugary" synthesized textures, and incorporation of influences from underground dance styles.

Sophie was born on 17 September 1986 and raised in Glasgow, Scotland.

Sophie's father would play cassettes of electronic music in the car and take Sophie to raves as a very young child, and Sophie quickly became enamoured with the music.

In an interview published by Lenny Letter, Sophie stated that in childhood: "I spent all my time listening to those cassette tapes. I'd steal them from the car."

After receiving a keyboard as a birthday gift, Sophie then became interested in creating new music.

At the age of approximately nine or ten, Sophie expressed the desire to drop out of school to become an electronic music producer (although Sophie's parents did not allow this).

Sophie continued to create music throughout adolescence, regularly announcing "I'm just going to lock myself in my room until I've made an album."

A half-sister asked Sophie to DJ her wedding; later Sophie admitted that the half-sister "didn't know what I was doing in my room on my own" and had assumed Sophie was a DJ.

Around this time, Sophie learned to DJ in addition to production.

Sophie's music career began in a band named Motherland, formed with bandmates Sabine Gottfried, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, and Marcella Dvsi.

Sophie played live shows in Berlin and the UK during 2008–2009.

Sophie later collaborated with bandmate Matthew Lutz-Kinoy on a series of performance works.

It would help pioneer the 2010s hyperpop microgenre.

In October 2010, Sophie remixed the Light Asylum single, "A Certain Person", creating the Motherland Radio version, uploaded to Light Asylum's SoundCloud page the following month.

"Bipp" in particular, featuring vocals from Sophie's former Motherland bandmate Marcella Dvsi, received considerable attention from music critics, topping XLR8Rs year-end list and placing 17 on Pitchforks. Pitchfork later ranked "Bipp" 56 on its list of the best tracks from 2010 to 2014.

In 2011, this remix was included on Light Asylum's In Tension EP as a bonus track for the CD release.

In 2011, Sophie scored the short film Dear Mr/Mrs by Dutch team Freudenthal/Verhagen.

The single, featuring vocals from UK singer Jaide Green, consisted of two mixes of the titular track (titled the "Dub" and "Vox"), as well as the B-side, "Eeehhh", which was initially posted on (and later deleted from) Sophie's SoundCloud in 2011.

Its follow-up, "Bipp"/"Elle"—which had been released on SoundCloud as previews in the previous year along with a third track "OOH"—was released on Numbers later that year.

In 2012, this track was given a 300-copy release for club deejays on 12-inch, 45 rpm clear vinyl by independent label Mexican Summer.

Sophie, who initially remained anonymous and later came out as a transgender woman, came to prominence with the breakthrough singles "Bipp" (2013) and "Lemonade" (2014), which were compiled on the singles collection Product (2015).

Detroit deejay Jeffrey Sfire met Sophie in Berlin in 2013; the two formed the duo Sfire, releasing a 12-inch vinyl disc Sfire on the CockTail D'Amore label.

Sophie's debut single "Nothing More to Say" was released in February 2013 via the London-based Glaswegian label Huntleys + Palmers.

The eight tracks listed were the four Numbers singles from 2013 and 2014, as well as four new tracks: "MSMSMSM", "Vyzee", "L.O.V.E.", and "Just Like We Never Said Goodbye".

In mid-2014, Sophie collaborated with Japanese pop singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.

Also in 2014, Sophie collaborated with A. G. Cook and the US-based artist Hayden Dunham for the project QT, co-producing her debut single "Hey QT" with Cook.

The project included a fictional energy drink called the QT Energy Elixir.

At Sophie's request, "Hey QT" repeats the drink's name for product placement.

Sophie's next single, "Lemonade"/"Hard", was released in August 2014, with vocal contributions on the former from fellow musician Nabihah Iqbal and model Tess Yopp and vocal contributions on the latter from PC Music artist GFOTY.

Numbers released "Lemonade"/"Hard" as a 12" single. Both tracks appeared on the Billboard Twitter Real-Time charts. "Lemonade" and "Hard" placed 68th and 91st respectively on the 2014 Pazz & Jop critics poll, and the single was included in the top ten of year-end singles lists by The Washington Post, Resident Advisor, Complex, and Pitchfork; "Hard" was included in the top ten on lists by Dazed and Dummy. "Lemonade" appeared in a 2015 commercial for McDonald's.

In March 2015, Charli XCX announced a collaboration with Sophie.

It was later revealed that the pair had worked on multiple songs for XCX's upcoming studio album.

In September 2015, Sophie's debut album Product was made available for preorder.

Sophie vocalized on one song "Sfire 3", which was later remixed by John Talabot in 2016.

Sophie became involved with artists affiliated with the PC Music label after encountering Dux Kidz, a project between A. G. Cook and Danny L Harle.

Sophie's only studio album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides followed in 2018, earning a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

Sophie worked closely with artists from the PC Music label, including A. G. Cook and GFOTY, and also produced for acts such as Charli XCX, Vince Staples, Kim Petras, Madonna, Let's Eat Grandma, and Namie Amuro.

Sophie died in January 2021 after an accidental fall in Athens.

The Fader eulogized Sophie as a "pioneering Scottish artist whose vibrant electronic productions expanded modern pop music's scope," while Pitchfork credited Sophie's influential work with "mold[ing] electronic music into bracingly original avant-garde pop".