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Sophie Powers Opens Up About Collaborating with Kellin Quinn for Sophomore Single “1 Thing” (Exclusive)

Having been described as the unfiltered voice of the generation, Sophie Powers shares about angst, mental health, teenage friendships, relationships, and what it feels to live in a world where honesty is so rare. 

Today, the 16-year-old releases her sophomore single “1 Thing” — a collaboration with Sleeping with Sirens’ lead vocalist Kellin Quinn — that continues Sophie’s conversation around mental health, which was the centre of her debut track “Lonely Army.”

The rock-laced single tackled the feeling of widespread loneliness that so many experienced during 2020’s seemingly endless lockdown, featuring powerful vocals that seem much more mature than Powers’ mere 16-years-old. “Sometimes you just need 1 thing or person to get through everything else,” she said of the release. 

“As someone with mental health struggles, my mom was that one person and music was that one thing for me. The song has a fast-paced rhythm and is meant to portray melodically, and lyrically how I feel during a panic/anxiety attack. It’s not until the chorus when my mom or my favorite playlist is there, that I feel comfortable. The chord change in the middle of the chorus symbolizes a change in the state of my emotions. That one real thing is really all I, and I’m sure many kids my age need in a time where a lot is unreal online, with friends, social media, etc,” she continues. 

Celeb Secrets sat down (virtually) with Sophie to learn more about the song, her musical journey and inspirations, mental health, and what’s to come from her for the rest of 2021.

Check out the full Q&A below and don’t forget to let us know what you think of “1 Thing” by either reacting at the bottom of the post or tweeting us at @celebsecrets.

Celeb Secrets: Can you take us through your production process for “1 Thing”? What did drafting, writing, and producing, look like for this project, and how is it similar or different to your past works (such as “Lonely Army”)?

Sophie Powers: “This song “1 Thing” itself is made off of a sample, actually. My producer and I took apart the sample and almost made it sound like a fake guitar. “Lonely Army” was not constructed off of a sample and, instead, we used a real guitar ourselves. The initial sample that my producer and I started with for “1 Thing” is what led to the song being the fast-paced, more punk-style song that it is. After the beat was constructed, we top-lined melodies over it, and filled in those melodies with lyrics, just like we did for ‘Lonely Army.’ “

CS: In terms of style, messaging, and audience- how would you describe your music? What/who do you want to address through your music?  

SP: “Style-wise and messaging-wise, my songs have a lot to do with emotions and topics such as angst, mental health, teenage friendships and relationships, and I do a fair-bit of boy-bashing with my lyrics. I think kids my age appreciate my brutally-honest lyrics and the fact that I don’t try to sugar coat things and I just say how I feel, because being honest is relatable in a world where honesty feels rare with social media and so much fakeness around us. I really want to raise awareness with my songs about mental health issues and I’m also very passionate about broadening my audience’s perspective towards those issues. I want my music to help people express their own emotions or honesty through the honesty within my own lyrics. Society today often teaches us not to express our emotions – that is looked down upon – and especially as a teenager, that is seen as being dramatic so our emotions get shelved. I think that other girls like that I am expressing a lot of the things that they are experiencing and can relate to.”

CS: Where did your passion for music begin? Did you perform from a young age? Is it something you recently discovered? What is your story?

SP: “I have been singing as long as I can remember. My parents told me that I begged them to do singing lessons when I was two, and so they put me in lessons and I built my musical skills from there. I did a lot of musical theatre in elementary school and would go to music camp every summer to play guitar and perform all summer long. I wrote my first song when I was eight and I have been writing songs since then, until grade ten when I said to my parents that I just wanted to make music every day. They supported me and let me start online school to pursue music. I wrote songs, made demos and sent them out to Toronto music managers hoping someone would see my potential. Aside from singing, I also play the guitar and a bit of the ukulele. My dad himself was a bass violinist in the Toronto North York symphony so he was adamant that I learn music from a young age because he loved it so much. My mom and dad are both very into rock music, and my dad is also into jazz music. My dad’s whole family is musical and my uncle would take me to the symphony every weekend from age six to eight. Music was a given in my childhood. My first concert was Bruce Springsteen when I was eight. I also grew up in the 2000s when pop, dance, and punk music was very popular, so artists Avril Lavigne, Green Day, and Miley Cyrus (my idol Hannah Montana at the time) all influenced my sound early on.” 

CS: Much of your content focuses on the conversation of mental health, and more specifically the widespread loneliness that came with this year’s pandemic lockdown. How does this message manifest outside of the COVID world, and how do you aim to talk about it with your audiences.

SP: “With or without COVID, loneliness is a very universal feeling and I think everyone at some point has felt genuinely lonely. I think COVID amplified that loneliness, although even without being locked down, people are still more connected through their phones than in person. I think people are also still striving to learn more about mental health with it becoming a more and more popular, important topic. I want to be a pillar for that topic and I’ll continue to speak upon issues regarding it.” 

CS: On your new release you explained that “sometimes you just need 1 thing or person to get through everything else. As someone with mental health struggles, [your] mom was that 1 person and music was that 1 thing for [you].” How have these two things shaped you into who you are today, and how does it manifest in your music?

SP: “My mom is one person who helped keep me mentally stable when it felt like a lot of people were turning their backs on me. I think music was one thing that helped keep me mentally stable when a lot of chaos was going on around me. Emotionally and physically, those two things have manifested into my music as I use my emotions to narrate the actual sounds of my songs. For example, in “1 Thing,” the beat feels extremely fast and chaotic, which resembles the personal feeling of having a panic attack. The chorus, where there is a chord change and I say “One thing in the middle of it all” is a slower moment throughout the song and resembles the feeling, for me, of being slowed down by someone and stopped from having a panic attack. That someone happened to be my mom which translated into the actual production of the song.”

CS: What was your experience like teaming up with Kellin Quinn? How did it feel to work with someone who has had years of experience in this industry?  

SP: “It was pretty insane knowing that someone with years of experience in the industry took an interest in what I had to say as such a new person in the industry. It definitely made me feel confident that I must be doing something right. I also have friends who introduced me to Sleeping with Sirens (Kellin’s band) so I had a lot of fun making them jealous that I was collaborating with Kellin! His sound and voice are so unique and I’m really glad that he’s on this track.” 

CS: Your success is so impressive, especially at your age. How does it feel being a 16 year old and a working musician? What challenges does this present to you?

SP: “It feels normal to me to have a full on career at the age of 16, but obviously that’s not typical. I am very passionate about what I do and feel a lot older than 16, so it’s not a challenge in that sense. Where it is a challenge having a full-time career at such a young age is where it comes to maintaining friendships. I find I don’t have as much in common with my friends as I used to as I’m not really interested in a lot of the typical teenage activities – I don’t really use Snapchat and because I am so busy with music, I don’t prioritize parties. Parties are fun, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather sit at home playing my guitar than go see a group of drunk people that I don’t like.” 

CS: What challenges (if any) did you face writing “1 Thing”? 

SP: “’1 Thing’ took a while to write because there was a lot going on in the production and constructing melodies to meet the sme energy level as the beat with over or under-powering it was difficult. The lyrics weren’t extremely hard because my co-writers and I wanted them to feel out of place in the verses and more in place after the chorus chord-change. For that reason I had a lot of fun writing the first verse which starts “Runnin’ ‘round in circles and I’m losing track of time, time. I can see the future but I hate driving at night, night.” The lyrics make so much sense but absolutely no sense. It was comical to write.”

CS: What are your plans after releasing “1 Thing”? Do you plan on releasing any other songs this year? Or even an EP?

SP: “I have an entire EP worth of unreleased songs, so after this release, I’m planning on releasing a few more singles and hopefully recording more music to release an EP at the end of 2021. I have a lot of things in the works and I’m super excited to release my other songs.” 

CS: Since we’re Celeb Secrets, do you have any secrets (fun facts) about yourself or your song “1 Thing” that people wouldn’t know?

SP: “Something about myself is that I’m very obsessed with Anime, manga, comic books, super heroes, and Minecraft creative mode. I’m not sure if that makes me a “weeb” or “geek” but I get made fun of by my friends a lot, let’s just say that. Something about “1 Thing” is that I produced, directed, set designed, wardrobe styled, and co-edited the music video myself, along with performing in it. That’s something I’ll be bragging about until the day I die (I literally thought I was going to die after filming it because I was so exhausted) but it was really fun to take on all those roles.” 

Author

  • Gabriella Anifantis

    Gabriella is an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California. Her interests in film, television, and pop culture have brought her to Celeb Secrets; She hopes to create and distribute content that will engage others in her interests.

Gabriella is an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California. Her interests in film, television, and pop culture have brought her to Celeb Secrets; She hopes to create and distribute content that will engage others in her interests.

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