Sophie Koh is All Shook Up

The Dwarf grilled Melbourne songstress Sophie Koh for all the essentials, including the making of her latest record, All Shook Up.

The Dwarf: What are your main non-musical influences when it comes to your music?
Sophie Koh: My mood, my personal life, the scenes in front of me when i'm driving in my car. TV and movies also trigger thoughts and pictures in my head and I draw upon that imagery sometimes when i'm writing.

TD: You moved around a fair bit when you were younger; have you put those experiences into your music?

SK: Not directly. I guess from living in all those different places at different times in my childhood, i was exposed to a wide range of musical
sceneries, backgrounds and way of life. The variety of musical involvement I've had when I was younger has given me lot of foundation to build from.
In Singapore, I was pretty much 'forced' to go to piano lessons by my parents from a very young age because every other kid was also learning
piano. It was just a social norm. I learnt to embrace the piano as I matured into the harder grades and now in hindsight, it has given me so much
musical grounding.

When I moved to Wellington, New Zealand, I went to a very musical school and picked up different instruments every year, like the trumpet and the cello. I joined every musical group i could. I also became fascinated with Maori and Samoan folk songs we sang in the choir. I used to sing a few maori songs when I was doing cover gigs in cafes. I just love melodies in general and the different ethnicities it may come from.

Now I'm really interested in old Chinese songs my parents and their friends used to sing on their karaoke machines. I even did an old mandarin cover
called Gan Lan Shu (olive tree) for the new album.

TD: Had you always wanted to be a singer?

Not at all, I still feel funny being called a 'singer'. I think my songs are more about the composition, not the voice. I really enjoyed singing in choirs and school musicals but i never had a real singing lesson in my life. I still don't think i know how to 'sing' properly! I'm pretty sure my technique's all wrong and I breathe poorly! When I started writing songs on the guitar when I was younger, the singing just came along naturally. I figured that if it was heartfelt and emotive, untrained singing can come across still has something enjoyable as long as it's musical.

TD: Who do you like in Australian music today?
SK: Machine Translations, The Devastations and Jen Cloher.

TD: What was the process of making the latest album like?

SK: It was a really exciting and educational experience. My producer J Walker (from Machine Translations) thought me a lot. I would stay at his home studio in country Victoria days at a time, ate lots of yummy home cooked meals by his wife and drank lots of Earl Grey tea. Musically, I went with my gut a lot more because of his openess to trying new ways of doing things. We used quite a few oriental instruments like the chinese Erhu, Chinese zither and lots of gamelan-like bells in the songs.

He was also a big fan of using 'small' sounds and making them somehow layer on top of another and making a big sound from that. For example, with snare sounds, we would use quite a few computer sampled snare sounds and layer it on top of a real snare sound to make the final sound. It gave the illusion of something both synthetic and real. I like that. We recorded this second album over 12 months. It was mainly J Walker and myself playing most of the instruments. I like it when the producer joins in with his musical abilities. It makes the recording process immediate, raw and instinctive.

Sophie Koh plays:

27 Nov- The Troubadour, Brisbane (w/ Howie Day(USA))
28 Nov- The Annandale, Sydney (w/ Howie Day(USA))
29 Nov- Jive Bar, Adelaide (w/ Howie Day(USA))
3 Dec- Karova Lounge, Ballarat (w/ Howie Day(USA)) Ballarat, Victoria
4 Dec- East Brunswick Club, Melbourne (w/ Howie Day(USA))
11 Dec- The Corner Hotel, Melbourne w/ Angie Hart, Fi Claus, The Guild League, Machine Translations

All Shook Up is out now through In-Fidelity And Shock.

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