Sophie Woodhouse
Songs to HaUNT tO
Words and Interview by Emma Speicher
I first met Sophie at a Summerween house show, she was dressed head to toe in white with black Mary Janes - dressed as an angel - backlit by the setting fall sun. Surprisingly, even after gushing over our shared love of movies, FKA Fingers and 60’s surf rock for the better part of an hour, I still had no idea Sophie was a musician.
It wasn’t until I heard her song, “Coquette Habit” in a TikTok edit, that it clicked: Sophie Woodhouse doesn’t just write songs, she conjures a reverberating, echoing, haunt that reflects an eternal yearning for the romanticization of life’s most beautiful and destructive moments.
Sophie Woodhouse is re-defining bedroom pop with her beautifully haunting voice that blurs the line between lullaby and lament. Originally based in Reno, Nevada, the singing-songwriting multi-instrumentalist weaves emotionally raw lyrics into weeping instrumentals, carrying listeners listlessly deeper into an ethereal otherworld of her own design.
It was a no-brainer that Sophie would become a musician. Inspired by her parents and her early love of Debbie Harry and Blondie, Sophie found belonging in being unabashedly herself:
“Blondie was the perfect singer-songwriter that I was introduced to when I was really young and it showed me that I could do that too. [Debbie Harry] is so no-nonsense and says what she wants, I always found that so inspiring.”
Sophie has been self-releasing music since early 2021, carving out a space that blends achingly specific and intimate lyrics with the soft-focus aesthetics of dark academia. The result is a sound that is uniquely and unwaveringly Sophie Woodhouse.
“I really love storytelling - especially in songwriting - it’s a beautiful way to tell a story. I love the fact that it’s poetry - picking apart something painful and scary and changing it into something beautiful.”
Her songwriting process is organic and fluid, beginning first thing in the morning and evolving throughout the day.
“I’ll break out the voice equipment and voice record something, then kinda go off the bat on my computer. Then I’ll jam on guitar first or my keyboard and work around the melody. Then it will just come together - it’s literally all just on my laptop.”
To keep her creativity flowing, Sophie emphasizes the importance of rest to refill the well:
“I feel like burning out is so easy. If I’m getting close, I give myself a day to just listen to other music or watch movies, anything to refresh myself. I feel like I’m always inspired by someone.”
Sophie’s music blends emotionally driven poetry with lo-fi, creating diaristic reverberating vocal fragments that almost feels personal. Sophie isn’t playing for you. We, as listeners, are simply eavesdropping.
She was working at a crystal store when her music started taking off, a weird experience that she had to quickly learn to accept. In the background of edits, moodboards, and coquette aesthetic reels, Sophie’s music has quietly surged - with 300,000 TikTok videos using her tracks and a growing Spotify audience of 360,000 monthly listeners. Online recognition feels like a fresh and unexpected detour in her creative path:
“It makes me a little bit more nervous to put out more stuff because I hope that people like it, but I also only want to put out stuff that I like. I don’t want to make it because it’ll be ‘trendy’ because I don’t care about that you know? The self pressure is a bit more strong, but I just try to make it go quiet.”
Sophie urges younger listeners to jump into music without hesitation:
“There’s literally nothing to be afraid of, it’s so good for all of the reasons. It’s a good form of release, a perfect form of getting in touch with your future being. It takes confidence to allow yourself to create art in any form, I think it is so important.”
She champions experimentation and authenticity over perfection:
“Young people should step away from looking at the perfect Instagram vibe - don’t look at that, ironically. Sit down and listen to the music you have, set out to make something that makes you feel that way. “
With her upcoming album, Natural Blonde, set for release in late August, and a newly assembled full backing band behind her, Sophie is stepping into a bold new chapter - creatively, confidently, and entirely on her own terms.
