SOPHIE

The electro pop producer and singer Sophie was born Samuel Long in Glasgow on September 17, 1986 and was influenced during her early years by her father's enthusiasm for electronic music and the rave culture. Her initial involvement with music was as a member of the band Motherland where she met Matthew Lutz-Kinoy with whom she later collaborated on a series of performance works. In 2011 Long was involved in writing the score for a short film created by the Dutch team Freundenthal and Verhagen and shortly after became affiliated with the London-based PC Music, a label run by the influential producer A.G. Cook. The link with PC Music was an important stepping stone in Long's career and she has had a number of successful collaborations with various label mates including A.G. Cook and GFOTY. Long's breakthrough came with the release of “Bipp” in 2013, the distinctively hypnotic track catching the attention of electro pop enthusiasts and the music press. The next single, “Lemonade”, was also successful and subsequently went on to be adopted by fast food chain McDonald's for one of its ad campaigns. These and other early singles were compiled on the 2015 release Product. She collaborated closely with Charli XCX, producing and co-writing many tracks for the 2016 album Vroom Vroom. She released three singes in 2017 and 1018, “It’s Okay to Cry”, “Ponyboy”, and “Faceshopping”. All of them would appear on her 2018 album Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, a work that would appear on many best-of-the-decade lists and top multiple year-end critics lists. She would appear on “1, 2, 3 Dayz Up”, a top 40 electronic dance track in the United States in 2019. Her 2020 output included collaborations with ITZY, Banoffee, and Shygirl. Sophie died on January 30, 2021 in Athens, Greece after a fall from the rooftop of a building.