Sophie Ellis-Bextor on Music’s Power
Sophie Ellis-Bextor is one of the UK’s best known singer songwriters. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience, and went…
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Sophie Ellis-Bextor is one of the UK’s best known singer songwriters. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience, and went…
From the archive
I can see from people I've lost in my life that the thing you leave behind is love, so I hope I've created a bit of that too… I know I've been lucky to receive a lot.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
Grayson Perry once said that, 'art is our way of creating the narrative to what goes on around us…' and that really stuck with me. As silly as the discos are, they are actually how our family have made a story out of our world being turned upside down.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
It may be an overused phrase, but the only way social media can work is if you are incredibly authentic. If you try and cultivate and curate too much it can be very obvious and transparent.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
To have a career, you have to be able to break out of your ways of thinking about success, otherwise you'll just end up disappointed. Nobody has an upward trajectory all the time- there's undulations that go on.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
Music is something that affects your senses in a way that nothing else really can- it's like a time-travel portal! You can listen to something and it transports back to that place… that bar… that nightclub… that time with your friends….
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
The crucial bit came when I was 20 and we got dropped from our record deal, leaving us high and dry. That was when I thought, 'am I going to be someone who only wants to do music when it's all going well? And only when it's served to me on a plate? Or do I want to do this… no matter what…' For me, there was nothing else, I wanted to make music.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
The only way social media can work is if you are incredibly authentic. If you try and cultivate and curate too much it can be very obvious and transparent.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
To have a career, you have to be able to break out of your ways of thinking about success, otherwise you'll just end up disappointed.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
That was when I thought, 'am I going to be someone who only wants to do music when it's all going well? And only when it's served to me on a plate? Or do I want to do this… no matter what…' For me, there was nothing else, I wanted to make music.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
When we're in this situation, under all these restrictions and lockdowns, our emotions have been dialled down. We can't spend our emotional energy on the things we normally would- like having friends over for dinner. We have to be good citizens, and music gives us a place to put that energy.
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist
Music is something that affects your senses in a way that nothing else really can- it's like a time-travel portal! You can listen to something and it transports back to that place… that bar… that nightclub… that time with your friends….
— Sophie Ellis-BextorBritish Pop Singer & "Murder on the Dancefloor" Artist