Q&A: The Vulnerability of “Never Write a Love Song Again” Fuels Sophia James’ Next Chapter
WRITTEN BY ANTHONY RATCHKOV
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When a radar detects something nearby, it quickly makes a sound. It doesn’t process the object further to try to understand what it is before quickly reporting it. When Sophia James wrote “Never Write a Love Song Again,” it came right after a breakup, while she was also promoting a love song for that same relationship. She wrote the feelings while they were still looming large on her radar, and the result is one of her most raw and vulnerable releases.
Speaking of radars, if Sophia James isn’t on yours, you might want to lend a closer ear to one of the most exciting independent acts in the business. With her new EP Sleepwalking at 65MPH coming November 6, “Never Write a Love Song Again” will find its signal matched with a collection of songs that are just as emotionally honest and unfiltered. However, a radar only picks up what is nearby, and right now this song is the closest thing in range for listeners to pay attention to. The single is the first blip on the radar, with a bigger wave of new music coming into range soon.
Life on Jupiter had the pleasure of sitting down with Sophia James to discuss “Never Write a Love Song Again”, the 30-day songwriting challenge, and everything in between. Read our full discussion below.
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LIFE ON JUPITER: If you were a therapist in a therapy session with this song as the patient, what would you say to it?
SOPHIA JAMES: I’d probably say something along the lines of, “The world isn’t black and white. You are drawing a macro resolution based on a single experience. Try leaving some room for nuance and accepting that life is one big grey area.”
The lyrics in this song reference this specific situation very directly. Was it challenging or incredibly freeing to be that vulnerable?
JAMES: I wrote this song earlier this year after a sort of world-changing, life-rearranging breakup. I was going through a 30-day songwriting challenge with some songwriter friends of mine. The premise of it is we each have to submit a fully written and produced song to the group chat every day by midnight for 30 days. The week after the breakup, I had to promote a song that I had written at the beginning of the relationship about how in love I was with this person and how happy this person made me. I had to hear this happy, electric love song I wasn’t resonating with anymore every day and I had to sing it at shows. This 30-day songwriting challenge coincided with the release of that love song, and it did feel very freeing to write about it at the time. I think one of the common denominators of this upcoming EP is that it is far more vulnerable than my previous stuff.
Were there other songs about reflecting on losing someone after immortalizing them in your music that you would listen to for inspiration?
JAMES: I always come back to Joni Mitchell’s song “Blue,” in which she says, “songs are like tattoos / you know I’ve been to sea before / crown and anchor me, or let me sail away.” She says it in a far more eloquent way, and it’s kind of a different sentiment, but I always come back to that line, “songs are like tattoos.” I love watching interviews of other songwriters, and their advice is to be careful who you immortalize because you never know what song you’re going to have to sing night after night on stage. You have to live with this song as if it were a tattoo on your body for the rest of your life.
Was the creative process for this song more of a slow, still trying to process everything type of dynamic, or more of a quick, there is a lot to be said right now type of dynamic?
JAMES: Far more the latter. I keep talking about this 30-day songwriting challenge in each interview, but it’s truly so fantastic. One of the wonderful things about it is that it really forces you to get everything out because you’re obviously on a time crunch; you have one day to start and finish a song. With this one, Alex [Bilowitz] stepped in later to help with the production to make it fully realized. When I was writing this song top to bottom, I really was just sitting with that emotion and expelling it like I was throwing up in the toilet after drinking. This song in particular is a little immature because of that. It’s very spur of the moment without any sort of filtering; it’s super raw.
This song is also a commentary on your previous single “You Make Me So Happy I Wanna Die.” Do you also think that, in a way, all the new music you put out is kind of the sequel of thought to your previous music or is everything more of its own entity?
JAMES: Some of my music is a little interconnected. “Never Write a Love Song Again” is the first one that is very explicitly connected to another song. This is some lore across the discography, like where a song would not exist without another song. Generally, I write my songs pretty independently from one another, but that is something I’m interested in exploring going forward.
The first half of your artist name is your real first name. Do you think you’ve filled that name with new meaning over time?
JAMES: I think keeping my real first name helps me remind myself of my human experience in this world in a subconscious way. I’m not stepping into another artist’s identity fully when I’m approaching my songwriting or performance. I know a lot of people have an alter ego; Beyoncé has Sasha Fierce and Tate McRae has Tatiana. I don’t really have that. When I’m writing and performing, I’m almost stepping into a little bit of a caricature of myself, like dramatizing the most minute emotions, making that a whole character of sorts.
You announced your new EP Sleepwalking at 65MPH shortly after releasing “Never Write a Love Song Again,” but how does the arrival of this new song already announce the EP without you having to say anything?
JAMES: That’s a good question. There is sort of an attitude with “Never Write a Love Song Again” that is completely different from my past projects that sort of helps usher in a new process, project, and philosophy. It’s a little brash and introspective, whereas my last project was very loud and joyful. I took a lot more care with the lyricism on this EP than I did the last one. “Never Write a Love Song Again” represents that growth, so in that way it foreshadows the new EP.
What else can your fans expect from you next?
JAMES: Well, there is the new EP coming, Sleepwalking at 65MPH, and “Never Write a Love Song Again” is included in it. It’s very raw in terms of emotion and production; the subject matter is a little broader than just a love song or breakup song. There’s a slightly political song on it and there’s a song of remorse and regret about a bad thing I did to a friend once. It goes a little beyond the boundaries of romantic love or the absence of it.
