Pillars of influence: Sophie May’s five key inspirations
No one writes like Sophie May does. It’s hard to even put a finger on what that special quality is, but since her breakout in 2022 with ‘I’m With The Band’, the artist has always had a unique way of songwriting that weaves universal feeling into hyper-specific storytelling.
Several things come into play there. On her most recent EPs, the artist grappled directly with her experience of OCD, singing about the disorder directly on tracks like ‘Tiny Dictator’ and ‘Killing You In My Sleep’. But on the teaser tracks released for her upcoming debut album, the scope has broadened with songs like ‘Dog Body’ taking note from literature to talk about the female experience.
For someone like Sophie, who writes not only for her own project but for other artists too, having recently had a track on the new and award-winning Rosalia record, staying inspired is essential. However, as all great artists know, she’s aware that influence can come from far and wide.
No creative is an island and inspiration never stays in its lane. Just because Sophie is a musician, that doesn’t mean music is the be-all and end-all of her artistic tool kit. Sharing five of the most important influences that help shape her work, it ranges from everything from books to a lazy day.
Sophie May’s five primary influences:
‘My Woman’ – Angel Olsen
Do a quick skip through Sophie’s discography, and the varied influences jump out. Her folkier tracks are undeniably Leonard Cohen-shaped, while some of her latest works look towards doo-wop and 1960s girl groups. Ranging massively from the classics to modern heroes, she especially looks up to Angel Olsen as a key artist who always sparks her intrigue.
In particular, Olsen’s 2016 record stands out as she said it is “particularly inspirational when it comes to creating my own music,” adding, “From the crunchy guitar to the yearning melodies, her openness never fails to move me.”
Influencing her own specificity, she finds encouragement for that here, stating, “The whole album feels so visceral, as if it comes straight from Olsen’s brain and into my ears. That kind of raw honesty can’t be replicated and is the thing that inspires me most in any artist.”
‘Almost Famous’ (Cameron Crowe, 2000)
“You’ll never find what you’re looking for / If you close your eyes to any other thoughts / Taking off your T-shirt in his van / So you let him out, his cigarette out on your hand,” May sang on her debut single. Reminiscing on years of dating musicians, she resolved to be one herself, which is a common experience of any woman who watched Almost Famous, fell in love with Penny Lane, and then realised the reality of it.
“I watched this film for the first time when I was 12 years old, and it’s sunk deep into my psyche. Even now, I’m left with a feeling of heightened inspiration after every re-watch,” she said, adding, “What particularly resonates is the ever-flowing current of romance that runs through the whole story – from the rose-tinted depiction of that golden age of rock and roll, to the feeling of being young and accepted into a glamorous sub-culture.”
From the soundtrack to the story itself, it just moves her, adding, “Everything’s written with care and love for the human experience. I’m a hopeless romantic, and my music will always mirror that part of myself.”
‘Brokeback Mountain’ – Annie Proulx
While Almost Famous is a pretty length movie, the book that inspires Sophie most is incredibly short as she finds herself returning to Annie Proulx’s 70-page queer novella a lot.
“Brokeback Mountain solidly stands as one of my favourite pieces [of] writing, ever. It’s about 70 pages long and works as a good reminder to not overcomplicate things. If Annie Proulx can fit a story like Brokeback Mountain into 70 pages, then I can pull myself together and write a love song to fit into three minutes,” she said.
But it’s not about the time it takes to read it; it’s about the intensity. “It’s not just the length of the story that matters to me, the writing is concentrated and beyond beautiful. Themes of forbidden love always seem to worm a way into my heart,” she said, taking this text as the ultimate inspiration to simply cut the crap and say what you want in its most emotive form.
The Ocean
I mean, come on now, it’s impossible to understate the power of the sea, and Sophie is particularly a devotee. “Sea therapy is real, and I subscribe to it. There is no better pastime than gazing across turbulent seas like Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman,” she said, and for as long as she can remember, the ocean has been a key inspiration.
“I’ve grown up visiting a town called Dartmouth in Devon, and it’s somewhere I go no matter the mood I’m in. The town sits on the English Channel, so it’s extremely cold, deep and filled with life. There’s a view along that coast where you’re able to see the expanse of ocean (you can even see the curvature of the earth),” she said.
What she loves about it is how minuscule she feels in comparison, and how that puts things into perspective: “It really makes me feel small in the best way, allowing me to come out of my head for a second and give in to something bigger than myself”.
Not doing anything
As her fifth and final key inspiration, Sophie offers up something unexpected. While plenty of artists will remind you that creativity is a muscle that needs to be exercised if you want it to work, she’s advocating for the opposite.
“Often the best songs I write come after a few weeks of feeling like the worst songwriter in the world,” she said, “Inspiration seems to hit hardest after ignoring my guitar and just living my life for a week or two.”
While she does generally write everyday, she finds that often there’s nothing as helpful as what she calls a “songwriting cleanse”, where she doesn’t even try to make anything. “I let my surroundings do the work, whether that’s seeing friends, submerging myself in nature, reading or just watching TV for 24 hours,” she said, adding that the necessary break works, “Sometimes keeping quiet lets the well slowly refill and allows me to come back to my desk invigorated and ready to write something new again.”
