From ‘silly beats’ to millions of streams: The rise of Mother Soki
August 13, 2025
“Can I take a picture of your shirt?” someone asks Annie Tammearu. She’s in line at the south Minneapolis coffee and record shop Disco Death Records. The T-shirt in question is red and features the words “I BELIEVE IN TELEPATHY” printed in yellow. Tammearu happily agrees to the photo and soon discovers that the shirt’s designer is this person’s friend.
Based in Minneapolis, Tammearu recently signed to the New York-based label Mom + Pop Music (Courtney Barnett, Caamp, MGMT) under the artist moniker Mother Soki.
Even without signs of telepathic messages detected during a recent interview, the way she speaks about her music gives off a clear interest in the supernatural. “It's less luck,” she says about the recent attention she’s received for her ambient-infused pop dreamscapes. “I think it's more divine timing.”
It took a bit of adolescent experimentation for Tammearu to commit to music. “The ‘undiagnosed child ADHD’ in me was like, ‘Let me learn piano, let me learn guitar, let me learn voice lessons,’” she says. “And then I quit that, and I quit that, and I did almost every sport, like I do everything — same with art in general.”
The singer’s earliest musical memories include a folk phase in middle school, and later the Cocteau Twins and the Sundays. “I remember leaving high school in my car, listening to Heaven or Las Vegas, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. This is crazy.’”
Tammearu began making original music in 2021 while attending college in Chicago. While suddenly surrounded by people who played and produced music, she decided to give [Apple music app] GarageBand a shot. Eventually, peers helped her learn Ableton [production software], and she sent “silly little beats” to people for feedback. She laughs, looking back at the version of herself who responded to suggestions with, “I don’t really care.”
Because she didn’t study music theory or have professional guitar training, Tammearu has felt a little behind, but she’s quick to acknowledge the value of looking at songs holistically. “I always feel like I have less knowledge than [other] people,” she says. “But it's also a gift and a skill because I'm gonna have a different perspective than the person who's thinking about every little detail.”
Growing up in Minneapolis’ western suburbs, her social life was adjacent to other musicians, but not intertwined. After a few years in Chicago, she moved back to Minnesota, and connections came full circle. Former acquaintances are now friends and collaborators — including Elijah Herchert, who plays guitar on recent Mother Soki releases and joins her on stage.
We’re sitting at a table outside Disco Death Records in 90-degree heat. The day before, Tammearu spent 14 hours filming a music video for an upcoming single, “Sliver,” at a speakeasy in Minneapolis’ Uptown neighborhood. The song follows her breakout single “Rivet Gun.”
For the past few months, Tammearu has been brainstorming in the studio, teasing the upcoming single on TikTok, and simultaneously riding the high of “Rivet Gun.” The song gained attention on TikTok in April and has since racked up more than six million streams on Spotify alone. “I've never written a song more quickly, and I think that's how I knew it was a good song,” she says. “The words came out like vomit, and the melody did as well.”
For as fickle and mysterious as algorithms that make music go viral can be, Tammearu is grateful that “Rivet Gun” caught on. “From an outside perspective, it's like, ‘This was sort of handed to this person,’” she says. “But I’ve been working for it for my whole life — just creating, and doing more, and wanting more, and feeling like I was built to have a creative life.”
When discussing the song’s blend of literal and metaphorical lyrics — like how a rivet gun can symbolize people’s power dynamics and codependence — she pulls a journal out of her bag. She flips through pages to find original brainstorming notes for “Rivet Gun.” Words and phrases include “salient,” “persuasive,” “pneumatic,” and “can’t look away.”
On the recording, these lyrical ideas are accompanied by hand-clap noise loops, shoegaze guitars, and a harmony tilting between serenity and suspicion. Another single released this year, “Honey, I’m—,” includes ambient tones with drums vibrating calmly with reverb. “stinkbug (Over and Over)” features Tammearu’s producer and partner Jack Pfeffer and incorporates snarling guitars and an overarching characteristic of Mother Soki’s sound: dreamy melancholy.
But “melancholic” isn’t how Tammearu perceives her music. Rather, a more nuanced “dark” quality contrasts the simple, softer vocals. “I have a little bit of a gift in finding unique melodies, and I can tell when a melody is too simple or too predictable,” she says.
What Tammearu couldn’t predict was “Rivet Gun” popping up on a wider audience’s “For You” pages. “You can't really have high hopes for using social media, especially because the algorithm is just so picky,” she says, reflecting on when her TikToks got 100 likes and 400 views. Not only did people start sharing the song, but using it as background music for makeup, cooking, weightlifting, and self-hype videos.
Some may call it luck, but Tammearu sees it differently: “I hate using the word ‘luck,’ because I know that I've been wanting to do this, and I feel like I've always been made for more, for people to hear more,” she says. “I like to call it ‘divine timing.’”
As for what’s next, the singer calls herself a homebody. In discussions with record labels, people asked if she was going to move to Los Angeles. Her answer: “F*** no.” The super fast-paced environment of New York City isn’t an option either, but she can see herself moving back to Chicago eventually. For now, the Twin Cities scene feels abundant with opportunities for artistic development.
In late July, Tammearu performed on a bill with Dad Bod and Henry James at Art House North, a church-turned-event-venue in St. Paul, and the line extended down the block. Her first show in Minneapolis was in February at 7th St. Entry alongside other local up-and-coming acts, Lana Leone, Berzica, and Filthy Kittens.
This increasing visibility is beneficial career-wise, but there’s an underlying pressure to write another popular song. Tammearu admits she has had writer's block and moments of “nothing is exiting my brain right now” in the studio. “I gotta remind myself to not try and make it like ‘Rivet Gun’ or anything else,” she says. “I'm giving myself a lot of grace and patience.”
There are talks of a Mother Soki EP for the fall, but no release date yet. Tammearu is following her intuition to create a cohesive sound while writing distinct songs. “All my songs are gonna be different, and I don't think that it means it's less captivating or interesting,” she concludes with quiet confidence.
“Sliver” is out via Mom + Pop Music on Thursday, Aug. 14. Mother Soki opens for she’s green at Fine Line on Friday, Aug. 15. Tickets here.
