SOHN: One to Watch for 2014

“There’s always been that absolute drive to just do the right thing, in terms of the music. It’s a difficult one. If you’re like that, it loses you a lot of friends over time because you won’t let anything get in the way.” There is drive, then there is SOHN.

“Either you want to do it, or you don’t. You can’t let any democratic nonsense get in the way of doing the best stuff. You get loads of bands who want to get somewhere and just don’t do it because they’re just too busy saying to each other “Ooh, well we’ll let you keep that drum fill in – even though we all sort of think it’s rubbish – but we’ll let you keep it because, you know, 25% each.” I’m not like that. I’m like “not only is that drum fill not going in there, but also, you’re out of the band!” There is artistic vision, then there is SOHN.

Speaking in soft, dulcet tones before the second of his sold out London shows back in November, SOHN’s brutally honest words seem at odds with the warm, friendly man on the couch in front of us. Without context they sound pretty ruthless too, but as he’s speaking his voice lingers on the word “difficult” as a look of regret flashes across his face. Ultimately the recent 4AD signing is just someone who knows what he wants, and not in terms of success or recognition, we’re talking about the music.

Something about him reassures us that it always will be about the music too, perhaps because it always has been, and I do mean always…“I just found a tape actually of me singing at about 1 and a half years old” he exclaims, a smile spreading across his face. “I was singing “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” over and over and over again. I had this thing, which I think is probably the early formation of me being a singer, because at the end every single time I finished I would clap myself. There’s a recording of me and my sister singing it, and at one point nobody clapped and I just went “clap?!”

Thankfully, he no longer has to personally demand the applause, his music does that for him. Informed by the loneliness of empty late night London streets and the rich landscapes of Vienna early creations like “The Wheel” and “Warnings” swell with warm organic sounds and restrained emotions – the minimal musical accompaniment heightening the impact of his maudlin yearnings. There is a harder, colder electronic edge to SOHN as well, the understated, delicate and ghostly glitches on tracks like “Oscillate” and a newer number “Lights” showcasing the levels of complexity he is capable of. Trust us, by the time 2014 is out, you’ll all be clapping.