A little Q&A with Sophie Carpenter. Sophie plays a little guitar and piano, and writes songs on both. Then she sings them.
She’s in process of putting her own band together, though in the past she’s hired different musicians to play on her CDs. The past 5 years Sophie has recorded 4 CDs of original songs.
Leicester Bangs: Tell us a little about yourself.
Sophie: I have been writing poetry and songs since I learned how to hold a pen in about 2nd grade.
LB: How did you start out making music?
Sophie: I took piano when I was young and really fell in love with music then. Though I can't say my piano teacher inspired much creativity. She was pretty unimaginative and I wasn't great at learning music theory. At least it was an introduction to the keyboard.
LB: Who did you grow up listening to and how do they influence what you’re doing now?
Sophie: I was the 4th of 5 kids. There was all kinds of music in our house. My mother played beautiful classical piano and listened to big band type of standards on the radio. My oldest sister was into country music, my older brother was into the blues and Motown… Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Ray Charles,The Temptations and Mary Wells of course.
The sister I shared a room with was into folk, Bob Dylan, Ian and Sylvia, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul and Mary. I found a 45 of Dion"s "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". It amazed me! I listened to it over and over! I must have been about 5? I heard it all and loved it all. The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Mozart, had a huge crush on Andy Williams.
LB: Tell us about your latest release.
Sophie: "Rebel Soul" is a departure musically for me. Most of my CDs are Americana style, acoustic, lots of guitar, piano. I write ballads. On this new project I worked with an old friend John Novello. He’s a jazz player but he interprets my songs beautifully. We made many of the songs a lot more produced that I usually do. Lots of drums, organ, and electric guitar mixed with mandolin and there's also some sax.
LB: Do you get out and play your music live, and if so, what can an audience expect at one of your shows?
Sophie: At the moment I am band-less but I hope to fix that soon. I’m learning a set that I'll play on my guitar. So when I do start playing gigs again, the audience will get a real variety of feels. It'll be great.
LB: What aspects of playing and recording music do you most enjoy?
Sophie: The reason I got into all of this was to sing in a band, but then I started seriously writing songs and a song wants to be recorded and played. I have really learned a lot about producing and recording the past 5 years so I like it a lot more than I used to. John and Marty (Marty Atkinson: Producer) were very willing to let me co-produce which was brave of them since I knew very little about actually making a record. I was really intimidated at first and there were definitely some creative bumps along the way. But I'm so grateful for how it has all turned out.
LB: Where can people find (and buy) your music?
Sophie: My songs and CDs can be purchased from my online store, CD Baby, iTunes and Amazon. Also, come visit my Facebook page (links below).
www.sophiecarpenter.myiesstore.com
www.sophiecarpenter.com
www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SophieCarpenter
www.facebook.com/pages/Sophie-Carpenter
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