Sophie Colette – How Self-Care, & A Sleeping Nephew Inspired Her ‘Kisses’

When singer-songwriter and pianist Sophie Colette releases her upcoming EP, it will be sealed with a kiss.

Titled Kisses From Clay Street, and due out in May, she says the EP is “a passion project of a bigger level than what I’ve put out before.”

That passion was generated from a number of places, as over the past few years she’s moved from Brooklyn, NY down to Richmond, VA, reconnected with family, and taken a deep dive into her own emotions. All of these things played a role in the creation of the EP’s first single, “Don’t Worry,” which was released in February. It was the first of four songs that will be rolled out on a monthly basis leading up to the release of the EP.

I caught up with Sophie to find out more about Kisses From Clay Street, as well as her big move – including how getting her piano from Brooklyn to Virginia was nothing like a Vanessa Carlton video – and the roles self-care, and her four year old nephew have played in her music.

When we met you were based in Brooklyn, but I know you moved down to Virginia during the pandemic to be closer to family. What’s inspired you to continue to make VA home? 

For now I think the space.

The sense of physical space led to creative space, and mental space, and I didn’t realize that I was so wound up in Brooklyn in the way that I was, so once I had more breathing room it felt right to continue, and see where that could take me.

So far I’m loving it. It suits me.

I still go back to New York for recordings, and hanging out, but I think lifestyle-wise right now this is fitting the bill. I feel happier, and I think that’s the most important (thing). Whatever comes from that hopefully will also be conducive to a different creativity.

When you originally moved down there did you have a timeline of how long you were going to stay, or did you move back and just say hey, I’ll see how this goes? 

More the latter. I was going to see how it went.

Something about Brooklyn … I think I was feeling stagnant, if that was even possible, so with the pandemic, as everything was sort of uprooted, I was already kind of questioning, and thinking if there was something else that I could do outside of Brooklyn. Not that I don’t like Brooklyn, don’t get me wrong, (but) it felt like a chapter in my life, and I felt ready to move on to something different.

I stayed with my brother during the pandemic, musing all these ideas. He actually suggested Richmond to try out because of its creative energy – maybe it would be something of a spark, at the very least.

Upon moving here, so far it stuck. I’ve met some great people. It’s a lot more manageable in very realistic terms.

I’m guessing you get to sleep a little more because things close earlier there. 

I DO!

That’s probably still a little bit of a pet peeve of mine. Restaurants close at 10pm. There’s only a handful of bars that probably stay open past midnight. On the weekends it’s a little different.

A lot of the city is closed on Monday, so if you’re out of groceries, or booze, or any kind of regular accoutrements that you’re like, “Oh I can go to the bodega” for, no you can’t, so that’s been an adjustment.

If I recall correctly, didn’t you have to transport a pretty nice piano from Brooklyn to Virginia? 

Oh wow. Yeah, are we gonna talk about that? {laughs}

Yeah, because I need to know how it happened. I have visions of that Vanessa Carlton video, and you just playing your piano as it goes down the street. 

I wish it was that glamorous. I wish I could’ve taken that opportunity, and been like yeah, let’s channel Vanessa, but no, (it was) pretty traumatic, but it’s been two years already, so I think I can talk about it without breaking down.

It was a beast. If anyone is trying to move a piano out of town, get a piano mover. I kinda took a shortcut, and was thinking it would be possible not to have a proper, professional piano mover, but I learned my lesson the hard way.

It didn’t have the proper space, it was dinged up, and then there were only two people allotted for the move when I arrived here, and I have a flight of stairs going up to my apartment. So these two people, one much more strong than the other, attempted a couple times to bring it up the stairwell, and I was in pain listening to them being in pain trying to do it. Of course they didn’t have the proper piano gear either, so it became this couple of hours-long traumatic process that I had to witness, and unfortunately it didn’t make it up my stairs.

This was moving day, so I’m scrambling in my mind – what do I do with it? Can I keep it here? Luckily there was a storage space available for me to temporarily store it, but right now I still haven’t found a home for it. It’s sitting lonely in a storage unit.

But it made it. 

Technically, yeah.

It’s still in one piece. 

It’s still in one piece. It’s on its side. It’s still wrapped up. Don’t know what the tuning is. Don’t know anything about it. I feel like I’ve been a terrible piano parent, but hopefully there’s a light after this, because I’m moving out in May, so hopefully with the next place I will be smart enough to handle it properly. {laughs}

Where was it in Brooklyn? Were on you the first floor somewhere? 

I was on the third floor.

I bought it from the Steinway factory in Astoria, and I think they contracted out their own movers. That must have been it. They had people with serious muscles to be able to move it. It was still a struggle, but somehow the pivoting around the angles of the stairwell was OK, and it came perfectly fine.

They had Ross Geller helping, yelling PIVOT! 

Ross Geller! Where were Ross, and Vanessa when I needed them!!!

PIVOT! PIVOT! And then I would be playing as it pivoted, and just being graceful, like doing a show, playing covers, and welcome to my apartment!

Speaking of playing, you have a new EP due out in May titled Kisses From Clay Street. While you’ve released singles in the past, this is technically your debut EP. First off – what took so long??? 

It was always in the works, but I think life, the pandemic, and just sorting everything out took so long, but I had been writing through that. I actually had a full album written, and then I worked with my producer, Ben Rice at Degraw Sound, and kind of whittled away – if we were to start somewhere, let’s take a cluster of songs that are my absolute favorites. Then we went from there.

Once I settled into Richmond I was like – OK, how am I gonna record it? What are the logistics gonna be? Am I gonna co-produce it?

This is the first time that I’m co-producing part of the album, which is so exciting.

That’s how it started.

Is Clay Street the street you lived on in Brooklyn? 

Actually, that title has been revised progressively as I’ve lived here. Clay Street is my current street that I live on.

When I was coming up with the album title, and again I’m not knocking Brooklyn, I love Brooklyn, but I felt that with all that had changed at the time of this release, I feel different, so my resonance with Brooklyn has transitioned with a resonance with Richmond, and this street. A lot of the sentiments that I had at the time of recording, which was after I had moved to Richmond, have also come into play.

So Kisses From Clay Street is more associated with how I’m feeling now, and where I’m at now. Also, Clay Street, I like that metaphor, Ben Rice put it really well – the clay is still wet, so it’s still moldable. Who knows where life will take me?

The lead single was the self-love anthem “Don’t Worry.” What was going on in your life, or the lives of your loved ones, that inspired you to write this song? 

During the pandemic, because I was living with my family, I have a nephew who’s four, and I would tuck him in. He has a security blanket, as young kids do, and it was just one of those moments, you look at something, somebody, and they’re at such peace, and they can’t live without this security blanket, no matter what. I saw that as a reflection of comfort, and how important it was for me to feel that way, too, especially in dark times.

That was the initial inspiration of the song. That was the initial spark … and, I don’t know if you talk to yourself, but I do …

I’m an only child. Sometimes that’s the only person who listens. 

Yeah, so whatever coping mechanism there is, that’s kind of the third character that’s part of this song. It’s like myself talking to myself in a comforting way, because it felt like no one was around a lot of times two years ago.

It kind of comes from that place – how we can just talk to ourselves in a very kind way, and be compassionate, and help ourselves through something. In my mind it’s being your own cheerleader, and taking care of yourself, really, if no one else is gonna do it.

Is self-care something we tend to neglect, and if so, how can we refocus on it? 

I’m not an expert, but I do think it’s something that we neglect, and I think it takes a level of self-awareness to want that, or feel like it’s missing.

For me, I journal a lot, and I think that helps me be more introspective, and that allows me to nurture things that I don’t have in my life. I think it’s scary, too, to admit to yourself that you need this level of care, because even though I think it’s more talked about nowadays, it’s so personal, and everyone’s needs are different, so to kind of confess that to yourself is probably the best starting point.

For anyone who is currently feeling lonely, or down, or can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, which happens to me a lot, I think it’s more of that practice of reminding, and telling yourself it’s gonna be OK, I’m here for you, talking to your inner child, as they call it.

Finding your security blanket. 

Yeah, whatever form that is. Do it for yourself. Only you know what you need.

For more Sophie Colette, check out sophiecolettemusic.com.