SOFIA Camille - Final Spins
SOFIA CAMILLE IS AN ORLANDO BASED SINGER-SONGWRITER WRITING FROM CENTRAL FLORIDA’S DIY SCENE, MOVING FLUID BETWEEN R&B, SOUL, AND POP ROCK. LAST YEAR’S NOW I SEE A LITTLE CLEARER FOUND HER FOOTING, AND WITH “ISCRES” JUST OUT AND THE BOYS EP ON THE WAY, SHE’S NOT SLOWING DOWN.
SOFIA’S FINAL SPINS START HERE:
1. What’s the first song you remember hearing — the one that first caught your ear as a kid?
“This is going to sound so crazy, but my first favorite song was Drift Away by Uncle Kraker. I had a Barbie boombox and that song was really popular at the time so I had the ‘No Stranger To Shame’ CD. I still know every word to the whole album.”
2. Who was the artist or band that defined your teenage years — the one you were absolutely obsessed with, posters and deep dives included?
“Justin Bieber. Immediately. My World 2.0 is still one of my favorite albums (an r&b album mind you!). If I HAD to choose one, right now it would be “U Smile.” (Oh oh oh OH OH oh oh oh ohohoh) In middle school I changed my mom’s contact name in my phone to ‘Justin Bieber’ so it would feel like JB was calling me all the time…. anyways.”
3. What was the first album you bought with your own money?
“I don’t think I ever did until I had streaming HAHA. Growing up it was just me, my mom, and my brother so I had a lot of hand me down CDs. I burned A LOT of my own CDs from whatever I could get online LOL. At one point I did have an ipod that I would download my cousin’s music onto whenever I went to her house. But no, I don’t think I ever bought my own album growing up. (Most important song I ever pirated - Primadonna Girl by Marina and the Diamonds & the album “Feel” by Sleeping With Sirens)”
4. What’s the song or artist that made you realize music would always be a central part of your life — the turning point that changed how you saw it?
“I got my first smartphone and laptop right before I went to college, so my music taste was pretty limited up until then. When I was 18 I got Spotify for the first time and the song “Easily” by Bruno Major came up in my Discover Weekly. I loved it immediately and became OBSESSED with BM’s first album “A Song For Every Moon” that had just come out. At the time, I had just gone through my first huge heartbreak, I had moved far away from home and was really starting to discover myself for the first time. This album completely changed my life and the trajectory of that time. I was super pessimistic about love and trust and people, and this album wrestled with heartbreak and love in a way that made everything beautiful. Love is at the center of everything that I do now and I really owe it to that album to have pulled me out of a super dark spot. It was also the first time I felt inspired to create myself. I was in music school to be conductor and I had never taken songwriting super seriously. I’ve probably wrote 100 songs inspired by that album, and I owe a lot of who I am as an artist to it. “A Song For Every Moon” was and is still like a big mantra for me - it really changed my whole life. My goal with music has always been to create things that transform people the way that album transformed me. (“Home” by Bruno Major - my favorite song of all time)”
5. What song or album makes you cry the most or hits the hardest emotionally?
“… For Good from Wicked. Self explanatory.”
6. What’s a song by an artist you love that deserved to be their biggest hit — the one that’s better than the song everyone knows them for?
“Benson Hedges by fun. (Aim and Ignite is one of my favorite albums of all time - probably 2nd or 3rd) This is my go to pick me up song.“
7. What was your first big musical love — the early-era artist or song that shaped you long before your teenage obsessions kicked in?
“Conteo Regresivo - Salsa Version by Gilberto Santa Rosa (My grandma lived with us for a few years and solely played salsa music - love. This one’s my favorite). I think about this song on a weekly basis. It's so good and the lyrics are so clever. It uses numbers as a paranomasia. "Conteo Regresivo" basically means "Countdown" or "Regressive Count" and so my 7 year old brain found it's use of numbers soooooo cool. Definitely influenced the way I try to be clever in my writing.”
8. Which artist do you think is criminally underrated or doesn’t get the attention they deserve right now?
“Oceanic. They're definitely popping off now more than ever, but they deserve to be the biggest band in the whole world. Every single song they have out is a banger, and they've been huge inspirations for me over the last few years.”
9. What song, album, or artist means the most to you — not because it’s your favorite, but because of the memory around it?
“Wanderlust by Eloise. Made me realize I was in love with my wife when we first started dating. Walked down the aisle to this song :)”
10. What song never fails to give you chills?
“superstar by moony & Silvie”
11. What song or album do you relate to most — the one that feels written with you in mind?
“Every single Bruno Major album ever. (Trajectories by Bruno Major)”
12. What song or album could you listen to forever without getting tired of it?
“ :) by The Japanese House”
13. What’s a song or album you wish you could experience again for the first time?
“Album Gloria Duplex by Henry Jamison [4th favorite album ever]”
14. Are you a holiday-music person? If so, what’s your Mount Rushmore of holiday songs?
“CeeLo’s Magic Moment is one of my favorite albums of all time let alone Christmas album.”
15. What do you think is objectively the greatest song or album ever made?
“Oh god. OBJECTIVELY. Human Nature by Michael Jackson.”
16. We don’t like to be negative, but we all have a song we wish we could erase from history or just hope to never have to hear again— what’s yours?
“Sailor Song by Gigi Perez. Don’t even get me started. It’s so good but I hate it. Horrible memories LMAO”
17. Whose voice hits you so hard it makes you feel like the Tex Avery Wolf — eyes wide, jaw dropped, completely hypnotized, ready to run away with them forever?
“Nobody Loves You Like Your Mother (Live in Amsterdam) by Theo Katzman. Theo Katzman is one of the best to do it ever. He’s soundtracked the past 3 years of my life.”
18. And finally — what album are you taking to the afterlife?
“Columbo by Bruno Major (A Strange Kind Of Beautiful)”
