Sophie Allison, best known by the musical moniker Soccer Mommy, released her latest album, Evergreen, in October 2024. While on tour in support of the album, Soccer Mommy visited The Current to play solo versions of songs from the new record as well as a selection from her 2018 debut album, Clean.

Afterwards, Allison stuck around to chat with The Current’s Zach McCormick about the making of the album, including how she was able to capture and use a lot of what seems to be ambient nature sounds.

Watch and listen to the performances above, and watch and listen to the interview below. Beneath the interview video, you’ll find a full transcript of Zach’s chat with Soccer Mommy.

Interview Transcript

Zach McCormick: Hi, Zach McCormick from The Current welcoming Sophie Allison, Soccer Mommy, to The Current studios. Thank you so much for joining us here.

Sophie Allison: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Zach McCormick: Your new album, Evergreen, is out now, and it's kind of appropriate that you decided to do a solo session for us today, because you just recently released a new solo — I think you're calling it kind of a stripped-down version — of that song, "Driver." You played that version of it for us today, and you also did this kind of run of, like, intimate, solo shows last year as well. Have you been finding something like more creatively energizing about performing solo? I know that's kind of how you got your start back in the day.

Sophie Allison: Yeah. Yeah. It is how I got my start. And I think with this album in particular, writing the songs, they just felt really full and exciting, even just in their most stripped-back form. And I kind of wanted to, when I did The Lost Shows, you know, that previewed that, I wanted to kind of share it with people in that intimate way again, even though, obviously, the record has more production than that. But it is a little bit more like stripped compared to my last record.

Zach McCormick: So there's more organic instrumentation, acoustic instruments, on the record, that kind of stuff. And there's this kind of music-biz cliche — I've heard it credited to Rick Rubin; I'm not exactly sure who originated it — but the idea is that a truly great song needs to be able to be performed solo, or will sound just as good being performed solo as it would with more production, more instrumentation. Is that something that you subscribe to? Like, a song is only as good as it sounds solo? Or, you know, you're a great producer yourself, so I imagine there's some conflict there.

Sophie Allison: I mean, yeah, I love, I love production, I love doing things on records, but, and I think, I think it's different for everyone, because I think there's a lot of music that comes to life through doing production. You know, a lot of people write in that process rather than sitting down at an instrument, and that's great, too. But I think for myself, if I couldn't play a song, just me and my guitar, I would feel like there was something missing from it. Because I do think that there's something to be said about this, like, core to the song that is the smallest version of it that still has power. If you have that, you can build off of that and create something, you know, in any different direction with production that you want to go and have something that's great.

Zach McCormick: Is that how you mostly originate your songs, writing just with the guitar, by yourself, acoustic or electric?

Sophie Allison: Always, pretty much. Usually acoustic, just because it's easier to sit with an acoustic and write and sing, then, you know, have to have an amp and all that. But, yeah, I always write just guitar and me, and then kind of take everything once you get into the studio, because it leaves you so much opportunity, if you know you have something special, that you can just go and kind of experiment and have fun and get crazy with things.

Zach McCormick: It's like a house needs to have good foundations in order to be sturdy. And it's kind of the same thing with the song, I would imagine. So when you're, you know, building this house, your album, Evergreen, I read that you were trying to focus on these sort of more organic, maybe acoustic, or just like, more instrumentation, to try to put the lyrics and the messages of the song front and center. Were there ever points when you were developing the songs for the record that you were like, "Oh, you know what? That's one piece too many. Let me dial that back. Or I started that with something that sounded more production oriented, and I actually want to switch it to something more instrumentation oriented" ? Were there ever moments like that while working on Evergreen?

Sophie Allison: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it was. It's a struggle, because, again, I love doing all that kind of stuff, and I love experimenting in the studio. But also, I really wanted to make sure that we had a clear vision — me and the producer, Ben [Allen] — like, we wanted this specific vision, and to find a lot of sounds and ideas that we could pull from that were different than what I usually pull from. Because it's so easy for me to get excited about a synth or a drum machine and start, you know, messing around, and I will always love doing that, but I wanted to have a different kind of group of things to pull from, so it puts you in a new box where you have to kind of look to other places to do something exciting. You can still be exciting and experiment, but you can't just go to the usual things that you are used to pulling from.

Zach McCormick: Right. Like, "Maybe I would have previously done this with a electric guitar and a pedal, but now I'm doing it with a flute," or something like that.

Sophie Allison: Yeah, or, I mean, there's moments, like, "Anchor," on the record, where there's all these weird sounds, and it's like an acoustic guitar with like strange effect on it, and like organ or violin or things that are different, but they still create really weird sounds, you can still do a lot with it, just you have to kind of pull from from different ideas. 

Zach McCormick: And kind of retraining your brain to be open to those new ideas too, I would imagine.

Sophie Allison: Exactly, yeah.

Zach McCormick: Working with your producer, a guy named Ben Allen. How did your choice of producer, how did you come to find and work with him? And then, what did he bring to this record, as far as, like, creative direction or ideas, what did he help you channel?

Sophie Allison: He was amazing to work with, honestly. The way that I kind of got connected with him: I was familiar with some stuff he had done, and talking about the record, we were just kind of throwing a lot of producer ideas out, and I did a lot of phone calls, and I just really liked the conversations that we had. It seemed like he understood what I was saying I wanted it to sound like, and he had his own set of ideas that he was getting inspired by that matched what I wanted to do. So that was kind of how that came about. And then we did, like, pre-production together, and it was great and really exciting. He was very good at helping keep it focused on this, like, central goal, and tying everything together. And that was really important to me.

Zach McCormick: That's awesome. You come from a studio town. You're from Nashville originally, but you didn't work on it in Nashville, right? Was it? Was it elsewhere?

Sophie Allison: It was Atlanta.

Zach McCormick: Atlanta, OK, gotcha. Was that a little, like, is there a little music-biz rivalry between Atlanta and Nashville at all?

Sophie Allison: I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, maybe with some people, but I don't think so. Yeah.

Zach McCormick: Zach McCormick from The Current joined by Sophie Allison, Soccer Mommy. We're talking about her new album, Evergreen, out now. This album opens with this lovely song, and you played it today, called "Lost," that really sounds like — it's got these natural sounds on it: There's birdsong, there's like, these nature sounds. But then I read that you actually recorded almost all of these yourself, utilizing this piece of technology. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

Sophie Allison: Yeah, I used a pedal. It's called the Microcosm from Hologram, is the company. And I've actually, I used it on my last record, too, to do similar things. But you can have a lot of fun with that pedal, using a microphone and making sounds with your mouth. Like all the bird-sounding stuff is me whistling or, like, blowing, like it's wind and stuff. And so you can make some really cool soundscape type stuff in there. And that was really fun.

Zach McCormick: Just kind of layering layer after layer of it until, yeah, it sounds like kind of...

Sophie Allison: Yes, it just kind of loops. And it there's, like, pitch factors in it, so it kind of warps stuff and changes it a little bit. But you can make some really cool sounds.

Zach McCormick: There's this real kind of natural world element to some of the visual aesthetic of Evergreen and some of the songs. And you did this really cool thing when you put the album out, where your team built this tool that allowed fans to preview the album if they were able to listen to it within a park, right? And so how did that come together? And where was the last natural location that you visited that you thought, "Wow, this is so beautiful, this is inspiring," or this was something that was really meaningful to you?

Sophie Allison: So, I mean, I can't take any credit for it. It's my marketing team, every time. They come up with a lot of really great ideas. And, yeah, that was really cool, because I think it feels like such a outdoorsy sounding record to me. The last place I visited ... actually just on this tour, I took a little side quest and I went to Wyoming and kind of drove through Sybille Canyon, and that was really beautiful. 

Zach McCormick: Sounds awesome! Yeah, I've heard Wyoming is gorgeous. Never been. That's awesome. Evergreen, a record that deals with some really heavy topics, but there's also some moments of sunshine, too. The song, "Abigail," I've read, is inspired by a video game called Stardew Valley. What's the story there?

Sophie Allison: I'm a huge Stardew Valley fan, like massive. I don't play a lot of video games, but that is one that I do play a lot. And I was kind of having a bit of writer's block, I guess; I just was a little bit burnt out, ideas wise, at a certain point in writing this record. And I had this guitar part and kind of melody in my head a little bit that I was playing with, but I just didn't have any inspiration, really, for lyrics or anything like that. And I decided to make it kind of a writing exercise and use my wife from Stardew Valley. And there it is.

Zach McCormick: Her name is Abigail. I've read that she has purple hair.

Sophie Allison: She does, yeah.

Zach McCormick: Awesome. Could we see Abigail returning as a character in future Soccer Mommy works, or is this a one and done? 

Sophie Allison: Maybe. I feel like it'd be hard to milk much more out of it. But I do love Stardew, and I will continue to be playing it, so.

Zach McCormick: That's awesome. One more question for you here. I wanted to ask you about your opener. At this point that we're chatting with you, you're just about done with your tour of the U.S., for Evergreen, and one of the openers that you brought along with you is, I believe her name is Hana Vu. Can you tell us a little bit about how you two got connected? I think she's maybe opened for you in the past before too.

Sophie Allison: Yeah, she opened an L.A. show, like, years and years and years ago. And I was like, "Wow, this is really cool. This is really awesome." And coming around for this tour, it was, you know, something that kind of came through as a submission idea. And I thought it sounded really cool. And it's been really great having them on tour. They're all, like, really nice people. The music's really great. It sounds great every night. The merch is great. I actually, I have — that is a Hana Vu hoodie right there.

Zach McCormick: Oh, cool!

Sophie Allison: Sitting right there. It's very comfortable. But, yeah, it's been really awesome. The music's great. It's kind of like shoegazey, like dreamy pop-rock type thing, and I love it. It sounds awesome every single night, so.

Zach McCormick: We'll check them out. Maybe they'll be headlining in First Ave next time.

Sophie Allison: Maybe.

Zach McCormick: Awesome. Well, Sophie Allison, Soccer Mommy, thank you so much for coming and tell us about your new album, Evergreen. I hope the rest of the tour goes well. Thanks so much for joining us at The Current.

Sophie Allison: Yeah. Thank you.

Songs Performed

00:00:00 Driver
00:04:10 Lost
00:07:23 Still Clean

Songs 1 and 2 are from Soccer Mommy’s 2024 album, Evergreen, available on Loma Vista Recordings. Song 3 is from Soccer Mommy’s 2018 album, Clean, released on Fat Possum Records.

Musician

Sophia Allison – guitar, vocals

Credits

Guest – Soccer Mommy
Host – Zach McCormick
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Audio – Evan Clark
Video – Ruben Schneiderman
Camera Operators – Ruben Schneiderman, Eric Xu Romani
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

Soccer Mommy – official site