By: Angela Smith
Grammy Nominated duo Sofi Tukker performed at SnowGlobe Music Festival in South Lake Tahoe just before the new year. Comprised of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern, Sofi Tukker is known for their funky jungle pop sound. With over 150 million Spotify streams on their music, it’s safe to say that the duo is one of pop music’s most promising new acts. I had the chance to chat with them about SnowGlobe set, their incredible 2018, and what they have in store for 2019.
Femme Riot: I figure this is probably one of the coldest festivals you’ve ever played, what’s the hottest?
Sophie Hawley-Weld: Ooh, good question, Lollapalooza!
Tucker Halpern: Coachella! Coachella was so hot.
I was going to say Lollapalooza Brazil.
TH: I still think Coachella.
You guys were at Life Is Beautiful right?
TH: Oh Vegas is super hot, but we played at night.
SHW: That’s why I would say Lollapalooza Brazil because it was outside. Coachella we were in a tent.
So you guys started that Animal Talk Collective this year, which I think is really cool. Can You tell me a little bit more about the process of making that happen and what inspired it?
TH: Basically, what inspired it was, we were meeting these really talented, awesome people all over the place because we’re touring all the time. I would get into these sort of friendships where I’m helping them with music or I’m sort of saying “come on, you can do this” or going back and forth on songs and we were basically like, let’s just start a collective and give a little platform to these artists that we believe in. All we needed was for someone to tell us, “hey this is pretty good, you should go for it,” so we want to do that to other artists and Animal Talk is sort of just an extension of the Sofi Tukker world and its super inclusive and super fun place. We started the parties that have really been so fucking cool and they’ve been going so well. We’re gonna have a lot more of those next year.
How was the afterparty last night?
SHW: It was really good. We got to do it with LP Giobbi and Crush Club who are in the family.
How do you guys prep for festival versus headline sets? Is there a difference in how you guys prep, what you do, and how you treat them?
TH: Not really, I mean always an hour before we get focused and warm up and do sort of work-outs and focus in on what we need to focus in on. I think, it’s a little different performing. It depends, if its a lot bigger stage, we run around more. If everyone knows all the songs and knows all the words or if its a festival where a lot of the people won’t know us, it’s a lot different. Just different sort of mental preparation. Today, we’re doing a DJ set with vocals type thing cause our live show stuff did not make it to Tahoe, but we’re psyched about it we love doing that too. That’s a bit of a different preparation than our live show.
You guys did like a whole world tour for most of this year, was there anywhere you wish you had gone and didn’t, or anywhere you want to go back to, even if you aren’t playing a show?
SHW: Um, yes. Tallinn, Estonia is so special.
TH: It was the best place ever, we couldn’t believe it
SHW: So I would definitely do that again. We really went all over the place.
TH: We didn’t go to China I’d like to go there. I’d like to go to Fiji.
SHW: I’d also like to go to Latin America.
TH: Yeah! We didn’t get to a lot of Latin American countries. Hopefully we’ll get to this year
So you guys have an Eastern European tour and a Mexico tour coming up, what else is in store for you guys next year?
SHW: We’ve got a lot more Animal Talk parties, and we’ve also got a lot of music coming. We’ve been writing non-stop, so we’re gonna just start releasing music.
TH: Yeah, new music videos that we’re making in the next couple weeks. There’s a lot of new stuff.
The duo have a ton of tour dates this year and will be playing Coachella and Hangout Festival. You can stay up to date with Sofi Tukker by following them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Check out their funky music below!
FEMME RIOT 