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Mara Sophie: A diary in music
(Courtesy of Rayzorsharp)Music is a portrait of the human condition - the bitter, the sweet and everything in between, posits Dutch jazz singer Mara Sophie
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(Courtesy of Rayzorsharp) (Courtesy of Rayzorsharp)
(Courtesy of Rayzorsharp)
Music is a portrait of the human condition - the bitter, the sweet and everything in between, posits Dutch jazz singer Mara Sophie.
For this reason, Sophie is loath to be pigeonholed into one music genre, although her deep, silken vocals lend themselves harmonically to the soothing lull of jazz.
Her new album, Great Day, released in April 2013, chronicles the quotidian struggle of graduating from music school and confronting the coming-of-age conundrum: Now what? Self-awareness and finding oneself musically are not overnight achievements, either.
To tell a story and convey the full spectrum of emotions requires the chameleon capabilities Sophie demonstrates on Great Day, with tracks ranging from the mournful 'Blissful Ignorance', to the positive-thinking mantra of first single 'Great Day', to a jazzy cover of Aerosmith's 'Pink'.
For Sophie, the conceptualization of each album begins with a wish.
'For my second album, Great Day, I expressed a wish to be happy. The first album was called Splendidly Imperfect and actually it was also a wish. It was to love myself as I was, as I am. Because we're all trying to be perfect these days, but I think perfection is in the imperfection. I think people are beautiful because of their differences,' Sophie told The Jakarta Post in an interview at a café in Kemang, South Jakarta.
While studying classical music and then jazz at a conservatory in Amsterdam, Sophie self-produced Splendidly Imperfect, featuring covers of songs that had touched her growing up ' but Sophie's everyday reality didn't quite tally with the album's mission statement of self-respect.
Forty kilos heavier and grappling with her grandfather's recent passing, her father critically ill, Sophie was riding a tram in Amsterdam when she glimpsed her reflection in the window and did not recognize herself.
'I thought, 'who is that person?' Then I realized it was me. And it wasn't all about being overweight, it was the sadness that was inside me,' Sophie shares, not shy about retelling this ugly 'turning point' in her life.
'Everybody goes through terrible things, but what you do with those things, how you handle them, is what counts. So I decided that even though it was a very hard time at that time, I expressed my wish for every day to be a great day.'
So began the trial of overhauling her lifestyle, a journey that would become the muse for her album. Sophie's self-prescribed healing method began with the smallest of tweaks, starting with sleeping habits.
'It started out with stupid things; very small things like drinking enough water every day. Sleeping enough ' I learned that if I don't sleep enough, I become very sad,' says the 30-year-old.
Next on her list was a spring-cleaning of her spiritual closet, eliminating the unhealthy friendships she touches on in 'Blissful Ignorance', featuring the lyrics: 'Blissful ignorance was mine, floating on a cloud of trust and faith, blissful ignorance was mine, but I let it slip away'.
'I said goodbye to quite a lot a lot of people and then sometimes I was sad about that and I thought to myself, am I really becoming happier? I mean, I'm saying goodbye to so many people ' wouldn't it have been better to just be blissfully ignorant and not know what I know now?' she says, referring to the unmasking of a candied reality that forms part of growing up. 'I started to look at the world through different glasses, through a different filter.'
Sophie gradually built songwriting into her self-improvement routine, which proved not only cathartic but self-affirming.
'It took me some time before I had the courage to start writing because you're very vulnerable, you know? There's nothing to hide behind. You can't say 'Oh well, that's his song'. Everything is you.'
'Let you out' was the first song she wrote, depicting the onset of winter snowfall, the tumbling snowflakes a symbol of re-evaluating one's future with a lover with the lyrics: 'I breathe out and I remember the taste of your mouth. Taking care of breakfast while you're sleeping in the bed. Snowflakes make do that.
The song portrays the vacillations in her resolve to end the relationship, until the song's closing verse concludes: 'Underneath the soft white sky, I feel the tears run down. I see my icy breath form cold, dark clouds. I throw my hand up to the sky and shout yes, I will let you out'.
'It was all about letting go of the fear of not being good enough. Just let go and see what comes. And sometimes you can surprise yourself,' says the singer.
In 'Soundtrack Of My Life', Sophie questions the authenticity of the people around her, comparing them to 'actors in disguise' and her life being in the hands of a director who decides 'what is wrong and what is right'.
Sophie was discovered the 'traditional' way, when renowned bass player and producer Ruud Jacobs saw her perform on the Dutch television show Business Class and, having traced her number through a mutual friend, called her half an hour later with an offer to sign her with the record label Wedgeview Music.
'He said it was a long time since he'd seen a singer with a voice like that ['¦] at that time I couldn't believe that someone saw that in me,' says Sophie, who confesses she still marvels at her luck.
On the day of the interview, Sophie had just been announced as the brand endorser for cosmetics giant Martha Tilaar's Caring Colours mineral makeup line, a collaboration that was struck up informally when Sophie was last in Jakarta in March to perform at the Java Jazz Festival 2013.
The brand's tagline, 'Caring, Colourful and Confident', Sophie says, resonated with the values she aimed to put forward with her record, Great Day.
'I'm so passionate about these beliefs, and I find it amazing that I found a brand that believes the same thing,' she says.
'It's so easy to think, oh it's commercial, but I'm really passionate about this. I feel that in my soul. So it touches my heart to see what they're doing and I think if you join hands you can be so much stronger.'
Indeed, the smile that is always audible in the honeyed vocals on her record ' exempting the soul-searching ballads ' is no fabrication: during her performance before the interview, in which she performed the hits 'I Just Sing', 'Soundtrack of My Life' and a cover of Sting's 'Fields of Gold' from her first record, Sophie's dimpled beam stretched from ear to ear.
'Every time you write a song, or every time I'm onstage, it doesn't matter if I sing the same songs; the people are different, the atmosphere is different so every time it's a new story,' says Sophie.
Three weeks into a tour around Indonesia, featuring performances in Yogyakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Bandung and Jakarta ' and an upcoming performance at the YSPCA Awards, Sophie is excited about the potential for her to grow as a vocalist in Indonesia, and hinted that she may even release a record here. 'I want to get to know the Indonesian people and I hope they can get to know my music so I can perform much more, inspire women and give some motivational speeches, because that is also really a passion of mine.'
She has already begun writing songs for her new album, which will chart what she calls 'the next phase', her ongoing pilgrimage through the world of music, finding happiness and discovering herself. What is this next phase about? 'Living my happiness,' she says.
