Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Black.
Hi Sophia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, where I was constantly surrounded by music. My mom is a music composer and my dad is a musician as well, so we were always singing and making up songs in our house. I grew up going to a French school in LA, where I was always in choir and singing in our band. I definitely thought I was the main character in my life and from a young age, I knew I was born to perform. When I was about 12 years old, I decided that I wanted to record my first song, so with the help of my parents I recorded a cover of an Aretha Franklin song. That demo got passed around throughout my family, and somehow it landed me a development deal with Sony Japan where I recorded my first two original songs. I don’t think anyone will ever hear those ever because I wrote them when I was 12 and I cringe when I hear them now, haha… but they must of been good I guess because those two songs eventually got the attention of Dr. Luke and he signed me to his label with RCA records.
At the time, I was still a freshman in high school, so finishing high school was a huge priority for me. I would somehow balance going to school from 8AM-3pm and drive straight to a recording session until about midnight and be back at home to do my homework. I honestly don’t know how I managed but somehow I did. When I graduated high school, I released my first self-titled EP, which now has about 15million plays on Spotify alone…which is insane to think about. Since then, I’ve gotten the opportunity to collab with someone of my favorite artists such as Kyle, 2 Chainz, Vic Mensa, and Shawn Wasabi. It really feels like a dream come true to live this life, and I don’t know if I would’ve wanted to experience this in any other city. One EP, three singles, and a handful of features later, I made the difficult decision of leaving Luke’s label at the top of 2020 and am starting over from square one. It’s been very challenging trying to navigate this new start without any sort of team and the pandemic definitely threw a wrench in my plans, but there’s something that’s very empowering about having a fresh start again. I’ve been writing songs for almost ten years, and it’s crazy to think that this is still just the very beginning of what’s to come. I’m both excited and nervous of what the future may bring, but If I’ve learned anything these past ten years, it’s that no matter how much time has passed, I’ll never lose that passion and love I have for music.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I don’t know if being in the music industry or the entertainment industry for that matter could ever be considered a smooth road haha. You’re very lucky if it is. The first time I mentioned an interest in having a career in music, my dad made me learn a song called “Smiling Faces” by the Undisputed Truth. If you listen to that song, it talks about how people will smile at your face and then stab you in the back the moment you turn around. Ever since then, I’ve run into so many situations in my career where that has deemed true. But for every difficult situation I’ve encountered, there has been an abundance of wins as well. You can learn a lot from your experiences, and these past ten years have been a textbook of lessons. However, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to always stick by what you believe in. So many people will try to tell you how to drive your career, but at the end of the day only you have the keys.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an LA-native recording artist currently signed to LA-based publishing company RX Songs. I learned how to write music through some of the biggest pop songwriters growing up while listening to Björk and Stevie Wonder. I think that’s pretty prominent in my music though haha. I love trying to see if I can stylize the classic pop structure into something unique and more personal to myself. It’s a fun little challenge to balance both the pop and indie sounds. I love telling stories through my music. Creative writing was my favorite part of school, and I love trying to fit stories into such a short form of writing. I want to transport my listeners into different worlds and help them express themselves through listening to my music. When I can, I try to mix in the languages I speak, like French and Japanese. I’ll mix in some words from both of those languages even when I’m having a conversation in English, so it just feels natural to incorporate them into my music. A lot of my fans know me from my collabs with artists like Kyle and Shawn Wasabi, but a lot of my day one fan have been here with me from the day I dropped my song “Kissing” on Soundcloud…but I think my most popular song would probably be “Anchor”. I have the most patient fans in the world, and I’m so thankful they’re still here by my side after all these years. I never thought Frank Ocean would drop his album before mine, but here we are. I don’t know what I would do without them. Hopefully, I don’t keep them waiting for too much longer though, as I am currently working on a new project as an independent artist.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Honesty and passion.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bio.to/sophiablack
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/sophartso
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophartso
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/sophijaaa
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/sophiablack
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sophartso?lang=en
