Leicester-Born Songwriter SOFY Releases New Single '50/50' Ahead of Debut Album

Today, Leicester-born, London-based songwriter SOFY shares a final peep of her highly anticipated debut album How To Perform Magic with ‘50/50’. The MGMT-inspired indietronica tune sees SOFY encouraging herself to look on the bright side, and to stay present in the moment. The only song on the record without guitars, the track is led by chopped-up bouncy piano samples, creating a song dripping in euphoric warmth.

On the track, SOFY says, “50/50 is about trying to find silver linings in uncertain circumstances. I wrote it to remind myself to live in the moment and enjoy the process for once in a while.”

“The song has been through so many iterations, we started it in Wales at the end of 2024 and it ended up something completely different (it was a guitar-led love song called ‘Salad Spinner’ at one point). It was probably the hardest song on the record to get right.”

LISTEN TO ‘50/50’ HERE

WATCH THE VISUALISER HERE

SOFY has many tricks up her sleeve, but the alchemy that lies within her debut album How To Perform Magic has darker ties than one might first expect. It turns out, transformation can come at quite a cost.

Written and recorded in Camden with longtime collaborator and bandmate Edward Denholm in total isolation, and later mixed by Mercury Prize-nominated Nathan Boddy (Olivia Dean, Oklou, Nilufer Yanya), How To Perform Magic uses touchstones like Massive Attack, early The xx, and Radiohead, the latter of which she shares a particular kinship with; OK Computer, one of her favourite albums, was released the month she was born, while Thom Yorke was the same age when he wrote it as she is now. “I feel weirdly connected to it,” she confesses.

Any attempt to strongly channel those influences was short-lived, quickly giving way to the deeply personal and introspective nature of the record. “Whenever we tried to go in with an idea and be like ‘we want this song to sound like this’ it always ended up getting scrapped because it didn’t feel right,” she explains. “We were basically just following our instincts completely.” The result is an enchanting blend of trip hop, garage rock, britpop and breakbeats from an artist who refuses to be put in a box, but knows exactly what she wants to say.

That same instinct bleeds into the visual world surrounding How To Perform Magic. A far cry from her previous bubblegum, boldly coloured visuals, SOFY took to an allegedly haunted derelict school to lean into her new-found warped aesthetic. Think gothic-grunge Alice In Wonderland, meets post-apocalyptic fever dream. There’s doll heads in jars, life sized rabbits, horror movie inflections creeping in; it’s a stark shift, one that makes it clear that murkier times have left their mark.

Written in the midst of intensive digital burnout, mounting industry frustrations, and the heavy emotional rollercoaster that comes with your late 20s, the record captures SOFY becoming untethered. From the outside, all appeared bright: a FIFA soundtrack placement, a loyal fanbase (or army of “rats”, as they call themselves), Glastonbury appearances, sold-out shows across the country, opening for Sabrina Carpenter, Liam Gallagher and Kasabian, and praise from Arlo Parks, Sam Fender and Yungblud…not a bad feat considering she has built her career with no major label backing and her management handled by her best friend.

However, beneath the surface was burnout, pressure, and a spiralling mental decline. “It’s a symptom of this fast food culture of music over the past few years,” she notes of virality culture. Stepping back from social media became necessary. “I actually feel like me again.”

The album’s title is drawn from one of the album’s key songs, and SOFY’s favourite track, ‘How To Perform Magic’: “I’m a magician, and for my favourite trick, I’ll ruin everything! It’s quite incredible.” It’s a line about self confidence colliding with self destruction – one that resonated deeply with her reality and inner dialogue.

“I’ve always felt like songwriting is its own kind of magic… but at that time, it genuinely felt like the only thing that could fix everything was waving a magic wand,” she admits.

She was now contemplating if she had been chasing a dream that wasn’t going to fully materialise. How could something she’d been striving towards for years make her so unhappy? “I felt like I couldn’t tell anyone, it felt wrong to complain about a path that I chose myself. Nobody forced me to pursue it, and I quit a perfectly fine job to do this instead because I wanted to.”

The lighthearted, fun music she was known for making had left her feeling totally isolated. The love for that era of sound remained, but it no longer reflected who she was. The world now felt much heavier, as reflected in the grittier sound and themes reverberating throughout the debut.

Catharsis, and a sense of renaissance is a prominent feature in the record. The album traverses themes of dejection, imposter syndrome, disillusion carried by guitar-led melancholy, dusty breakbeats, reverb soaked vocals and low-slung bass lines; in the quintessential SOFY manner, it’s unflinching (and even a touch sardonic) in its honesty, but at the forefront is a distinct willingness, a burning passion, and a refusal to let go of something she loves so dearly.

“For better or worse, music is still the love of my life, and probably always will be.” She remarks.

Through it all, SOFY sees songwriting as a kind of sorcery; a way of turning an overwhelming and chaotic chapter into something tangible on her own terms. How To Perform Magic stands as a tribute to that transformative power, setting the tone for her largest, most personal chapter yet.

HOW TO PERFORM MAGIC IS OUT ON THE 25TH SEPTEMBER. PRE-ORDER HERE.

How To Perform Magic Track Listing:

40 Minute Masterpiece

DooYaa

Wishbone

How To Perform Magic

Cashmere

Headlock

Saturation

Jealousy’s A Fever

Nintendogs

Superfriend