Grammy-nominated artist and producer Sophie Xeon, known professionally as SOPHIE, passed away at the age of 34 following a freak accident at the artist’s home in Athens, Greece on Jan. 30.
“True to her spirituality, she had climbed up to watch the full moon and accidentally slipped and fell. She will always be here with us. The family thank everyone for their love and support and request privacy at this devastating time,” SOPHIE’s family said in a statement.
The Scottish producer was a profoundly vivid LGBTQ+ icon and avid trans rights activist who radically defied the boundaries of both electro-pop music and gender identity. A pioneer of the now-burgeoning genre of hyperpop, SOPHIE was a key catalyst of contemporary pop music that landed somewhere between bright, buoyant synth lines, intensely-granulated shrills and club-core hysteria. Guided by ecstatic energy and synthesized sounds, SOPHIE’s music reinvigorates the world of electronic pop music.
SOPHIE first found public recognition with the double-sided single “BIPP/ELLE” (2013), the former a bassy, glassy bubblegum beat, while the latter is a mishmash of pitch-bent vocal sounds, choppy percussive beats and sharp synth bits that move like liquid. “LEMONADE/HARD” (2014), however, became most notable after being used in a 2015 McDonald’s commercial. Like the namesake beverage itself, “LEMONADE” bubbles and clinks like ice cubes shaken in a glass –– a refreshingly cool listen. “HARD,” too, honors its name as harsh, shrill synth sounds scatter the soundscape. Both “BIPP/ELLE” and “LEMONADE/HARD” made their way onto SOPHIE’s debut compilation album “PRODUCT” (2015), a smorgasbord of eclectic singles released in tandem with a dizzying variety of merchandise, which consisted of puffy jackets, platform shoes, sunglasses and a suggestively-shaped “silicon product”.
In October of 2017, SOPHIE released “It’s Okay To Cry,” the lead single off the artist’s soon-to-be debut album. The track floats alongside an airy, light SOPHIE lead vocal before a sudden atmospheric exhale of synthesized sounds. The track’s music video and associated visual material –– revealing an elegantly sensual SOPHIE serenading the camera against a soaring sky backdrop –– marked the first of SOPHIE’s appearances. Up until the release of the song, SOPHIE had managed to remain anonymous. Despite following suit in public appearances and interviews, SOPHIE decidedly kept a low profile throughout most of the artist’s career.
Subsequent to the release of “It’s Okay To Cry,” SOPHIE officially came out as a transgender woman and since then had actively engaged in conversations of femininity and eschewing gender binaries. According to one of SOPHIE’s representatives, SOPHIE preferred not to use gendered or non-binary pronouns, although publications continue to use ‘she/her’ pronouns.
A year later found the release of SOPHIE’s first (and only) studio album, “OIL OF EVERY PEARL’s UN-INSIDES” (2018) –– a dazzling disarray of ambient soundscapes, industrial glitch and pastel-pink glitz. Despite being a debut album, the work earned SOPHIE a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album.
Tracks like “Ponyboy,” “Faceshopping,” and “Immaterial” dazzle and defy expectations, while “Is It Cold In The Water?” and “Infatuation” are equal parts ecstatic and refrained.
SOPHIE’s production process reimagines the sonic spectrum of electronic and pop music. Inspired by every-day objects and textures, SOPHIE’s music jettisons listeners to a physical realm –– all parts rubbery, silky and squeaky-clean.
An expansive producer with a penchant for the avant-garde, SOPHIE was seemingly involved with every corner of the music world, having collaborated with the likes of Madonna, Vince Staples, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, Charli XCX and Flume, among others. Similarly, SOPHIE became extensively involved with UK record label and art collective PC Music over the course of the artist’s career, having worked with label head A.G. Cook on a slew of side-projects and one-off productions.
In all respects, SOPHIE embodied the future of hyperpop. At once intensely-hyperactive and soft-spoken, SOPHIE’s production efforts remain unmatched. SOPHIE’s musical and sonic abilities were in seemingly perpetual flux — forever shifting, challenging and reinterpreting notions of electronic, dance and pop music. SOPHIE was uniquely capable of both energizing audiences at full force and sinking into moments of poignant vulnerability in one fell swoop.
The epitome of revolutionary sound, SOPHIE’s work was proven lightyears ahead of its time. Longtime fans of SOPHIE remember the artist as innovative, intelligent and inspiring, while new listeners immediately gravitate to SOPHIE’s extravagant, concise body of work. SOPHIE as a music producer, an LGBTQ+ icon and as an individual left behind a lasting legacy –– and, only days before the producer’s death, even had a wish come true. In 2015, SOPHIE demanded that no remixes be made of the artist’s music unless it was by legendary electronic duo Autechre. Nearly six years later, the two released a remix of SOPHIE’s “BIPP.” Needless to say, SOPHIE would approve.
SOPHIE’s passing will forever tug at the heartstrings of the electronic hyperpop and LGBTQ+ communities for years to come.
Mia Hammett is an Entertainment Intern for the winter 2021 quarter. She can be reached at hammettm@uci.edu.
