SOHN: “Music is like a magnification of your personality; it's the most natural outlet I've ever had."

“It could all be over tomorrow; not just your career, everything. That interaction with death keeps me relaxed.” SOHN says calmly down the phone. “I guess I’m being slightly macabre with it, but that freedom of realising death is coming” he laughs, “somehow, when I interact with it, it makes things a bit easier.” Speaking to the Vienna-based artist in the days surrounding the release of his wonderful debut album Tremors and an extensive international tour, including his sell-out Village Underground show in London, he does seem remarkably relaxed.

​The smattering of tracks we were offered leading-up to the April release of his full-length hinted at the intensity that was to come, but the sound SOHN is creating was born out of a seemingly unlikely character trait: “Music is like a magnification of your personality; when I wrote “The Wheel” I remember specifically being about to write a long melody, stopping myself and saying, ‘No, no, do half of it,’ mainly because as a person I said too much. I was hyperactive, jumping up and down in front of people trying to get attention. I was forcing myself to be more confident and calm and that got reinforced through the public eye; I’m forcing myself to chill out basically. It’s the most natural outlet I’ve ever had.”

Undoubtedly, listening to Tremors there is something of an outpour of emotion. As SOHN explains, “The album’s reflective and philosophical. It’s about being aware of your surroundings, the planet. Everything is so massive and we’re tiny. The mind is so tiny in context to time and the Universe, writing it [the album] was kind of a relief and I felt like we can never be that far off the path because the path is enormous.”

One just has to look at his stark, symmetrical cover - “A person at the end of the road, blocked by nature” - to appreciate this inspiration for the natural world; a world that pulled from the constant aggression of living in our Capital to the cooling atmosphere of Vienna. “Mountains, rivers, lakes, tremors” all appear in the record, which feels, indeed like the world around us, beautifully bucolic at times and dark and destitute at others.

And it turns out this contrast was a conscious decision, with the most haunting and pathetic track on Tremors serving as its turning-point. ““Paralysed” is placed at the most succinct moment; it becomes inverted at this lowest, sharpest trough with how stripped-back it is; it felt absolutely right to get as dark as possible in that place.” “Nobody can slit my throat / Nobody can leave me lying by the side of the ride like you can” SOHN pines in this dreadful moment of pain, born out of a real relationship. “It is both positive and negative though,” he assures me, “it is the most honest outpour - saying, ‘If you wanted to, you could absolutely destroy me’. But that’s what love is: you give yourself over, but they can tear you apart if they wanted to.”

Despite many of the lyrics possessing this intense, chilling quality, SOHN explains that they are born organically out of an obvious love for rhythm, as we discuss the pathetically relatable recurring line in the gorgeous title track - “If you’re thinking of letting me go then it’s time that you do”. “That just came out and flowed off the tongue. I didn’t really know where it was coming from but then it was like, ‘well that obviously stays’. I keep it [lyric-writing] very lose. I don’t really know what songs mean until later on because I work phonetically with the flow of the words, rather that what I want to say. It’s difficult to make the words fit the flow; I’d rather compromise the meaning and keep the flow.” This is brilliantly obvious from the very opening of Tremors, as “Tempest” embraces a hypnotic vocal sample and “The Wheel” is driven along through this technique.

SOHN’s rise from something of a ‘Hype Machine’ sensation to his new-found home at the ever-brilliant and perfectly suitable 4AD has been punctuated with some attention-grabbing collaborations; production work for Banks and Kwabs is something he clearly feels proud of: “It comes down to whether it excites me or not. If the music’s good then I’m massively optimistic about it. When I first heard Banks’ “Before I Ever Met You” I thought, ‘She’s really great, I’ve got to do something with this’ and that was before any of her music had really been released. If I can hear it as a producer then I’m halfway there; you can then just sculpt it and allow if to flourish. It was the same with Kwabs; when I first heard his voice I thought, ‘he can be a superstar - if he’s up for doing something with me, then I’m well up for it.”

Similarly, remixes for the likes of Disclosure and Rhye have projected his name further into the limelight - something SOHN compares to a “micro version of the Phil Spector thing without any of the murder going on” - and, despite hinting that he would relish some more time working on his own new material, the hard-working artist reveals that he still has “five productions to finish” before he set off on tour; we’ll keep eyes peeled for these with some excitement.

There was obviously major interest in the signing of such a reputable producer and songwriter but 4AD feels like home for SOHN: “There were a lot of different types of labels interested at the time we went for 4AD - but they were the only was that felt like humans in some way, they felt like music listeners. The guy who signed me, I don’t know how old he is,” he admits with a laugh, “but to me he just seems like an 18 year old kid you see at a gig with a record bag like, ‘This is amazing!’ That’s an incredible thing to have in a modern record label because a lot of the time, you know, it is a business, more so now than any other time. I feel very good about the fact that with 4AD, of course they’d love to sell a lot of records, but I feel like that’s my choice. If I decide I’m not bothered about selling a lot of records, they also wouldn’t be bothered.”

“And if I said I want to be like Madonna they’d back me all the way. It’s a lucky thing to have because I’ve seen the way it works from the production side, what it’s like to be on a major label with other artists, and there is a lot more discussion, ‘When’s this gonna have the most impact? Let’s put them in with this artist because they’re doing really well,’ when actually it’s the music that makes the impact. You can have the best connection, this artist with this artist and the right plan, but if the song’s not good, the song’s not good.”

Luckily for SOHN, the songs are good; very good.

The brilliant Tremors is out now on 4AD. SOHN is set to play this year’s Field Day festival, with tickets still available here. Portrait by Amelia Troubridge.