Artist You Need to Know: Soko

Picture Credit: By Georges Biard, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY SA 3.0)   

Chloe Steinig

Soko is a French singer, songwriter, and actress. Born on Oct. 26, 1985 in Bordeaux, France as Stéphanie Sokolinski, she has gone by the nickname Soko since she was little. Dropping out of school at 16, she moved to Paris to start acting and began writing songs during her downtime.

After appearing in numerous French films, in 2007 her first hit single “I’ll Kill Her” was released. Reaching number one in countries across Europe, the hit scored her an opening spot on M.I.A.’s tour the same year. However, coming off this sudden break, she said she was quitting music for good on a post on MySpace. Six months later, she took back the remarks, claiming she was “reborn” and released her first full length “I Thought I Was an Alien” in 2013 on her own record label Babycat Records. Then the music video she directed herself for the song “First Kiss” on the album went viral on YouTube, and once again her career took off, reaching number two on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Soko’s second full length “My Dreams Dictate My Reality” was released in 2015. The album was produced by Ross Robinson, who has worked with Soko’s favorite The Cure. Her ‘80s dream pop sound was further developed on this album, especially with the collaboration with Ariel Pink on “Lovetrap.”

With over 35 credits on imdb, Soko continues her acting career alongside music. She voiced Isabella in “Her” and starred alongside Lily-Rose Depp in “The Dancer,” which was well received at film festivals including Cannes in 2016.

Soko is unique and a gem amongst the never ending pool of alt pop girls. With her Bright Eyes meets Morrissey synth sound along with her honest, sometimes kooky lyrics, her music gets at the root of what it feels like to be human. She isn’t afraid to experiment with her music or the videos she directs to go along with them. The definition of creative, Soko doesn’t play by the rules.

“I just want to be creative and do whatever I can to be creative,” Soko tells afterellen.com. “We should just explore, and be ecstatic and fun, and just do it! Do it all!”

There is no doubt that Soko will continue to do it all, and do it well.