In The Spotlight: Electronic Pop Singer-Songwriter Sofi Vonn

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London-based New York-born electronic pop singer-songwriter Sofi Vonn recently released her debut EP That Was A Close Call. Sofi’s deep lyrics and light melodies create a set of contradictions that somehow fit together perfectly to tell a relatable narrative of youth. With her distinctive voice, she expresses emotions and opinions on society, love, sexuality, and all the other things that everyone goes through. Vonn’s music draws from her personal experiences which have taken her across the world and back several times. In the build-up to the release of her debut EP, Sofi premiered a handful of singles off the EP with outlets like Hollywood Life, Queerty, Wonderland Magazine, and more! Born and raised in New York City to German parents, she grew up in the artistic-driven West Village neighborhood drawing musical influence from a variety of different backgrounds which has given her the freedom to come up with an artistic style that is uniquely her own.

When asked about the recent release of her debut EP she said, “I’m so excited to finally release my first EP. I was in the same headspace when writing all of these songs (other than Next To Me, which was for a project for my current course at Goldsmiths University). I decided to call it THAT WAS A CLOSE CALL because not only is it a lyric from ‘Stranger,’ but it also represents the closing of a chapter in my life. The photo also conveniently had me pretending to be on a call. So much has changed for me in the last year in terms of my career. I’m excited for this EP to be out in the world so that I can keep making music but with a different mindset.”

Following High School in Zürich, Switzerland Sofi felt confused as she considered what to do post-graduation. “I liked music, but I didn’t know how to get into it, because when I was applying to college for anything musical, they wanted me to be a Steinway Fellow already, basically,” she says. Therefore,
Sofi took a break from music and attended Tulane University in New Orleans where she earned a degree in psychology (with a German minor), but as fate would have it, she was brought back to music when she studied abroad in Berlin, Germany for a year. “I loved Berlin, so I moved back there after I graduated from college – and that’s how I got into techno and DJing.” Besides DJing at a festival, she also studied sound engineering for a bit before finally landing a full-time job with the BMG record label, which brought Vonn back to her hometown of New York City. Her work at the label taught her marketing skills that she then used to help her advance her DJ career at night. She became an in-demand house and techno DJ, booking numerous shows around the city for the next two years.

With all the knowledge she’d gained as a performer and at the record label, Vonn realized that she finally had both the skill and the experience that music schools wanted. She was accepted into several Master’s degree programs and chose to study popular music at the highly prestigious Goldsmiths, University of London. Sofi’s time in London has already paid off for her: as a school project, she wrote the emotive song “Is It A Crime.” Unlike many pop singers, Vonn writes all of her material. A vibrant storyteller, her depth of feeling and love for her craft is evident in every track. Her warm and powerful voice is the perfect means for conveying her lyrics, which are at once introspective yet universal. Concurrent with her formal music education, Vonn continues to learn about the business aspect of things whenever she can. She found an especially powerful ally when she met renowned music executive Charlie Walk (who helped launch the careers of Lorde, Ariana Grande, and The Weeknd, among many others). Impressed with Vonn’s voice and writing, Walk immediately offered to mentor her, bringing her into his prestigious Music Mastery program last year. With everything in place, Sofi Vonn was ready to release her debut EP That Was A Close Call at the tail end of 2021, stay tuned to Sofi’s socials below for updates from Sofi including new music set for release at the top of 2022.
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