Sophie Allison, better known as Soccer Mommy, says being a rock star was nothing more than a dream until a couple of years ago.
While Allison has been playing and writing music since age 5, she decided it was better to get a degree and pursue a real job.
“When I was in high school, it definitely became something like, ‘Yeah, obviously, that’s a dream,’” Allison says. “I’m never going to stop playing music, but that’s not a realistic life path, you know. How would I do that?”
Luckily, it all worked out.
However, in her earlier days, she didn’t receive a lot of advice and she didn’t agree with branding.
“I think when you’re first starting to make music, to record it, the best thing you can do is not try to act like you’re having this album drop and you’ve got to hype it up—but just to throw music out constantly,” she says.
“Keep just putting out as much stuff as you can and seeing what people like and seeing who gets drawn to what you’re doing.”
Soccer Mommy will see when she plays The Van Buren on Wednesday, December 14, to showcase her new album “Sometimes, Forever.”
This show marks Soccer Mommy’s second time at The Van Buren. It’s her first headlining gig. Previously, in 2019, she opened for Kacey Musgraves.
“Sometimes, Forever” is a more personal album with a core idea that no emotion, good or bad, is permanent, which can be both freeing and terrifying.
Key songs exemplify this idea like “Darkness Forever” and “Still,” which are much darker and ominous, and walk the audience through Allison’s psyche and battle with depression and anxiety.
While these songs are certainly laden with grief, they also provide Allison relief as a therapeutic way to get her feelings in order.
“I think that writing is a helpful way to just kind of get to the bottom of what you’re thinking,” Allison says. “When you’ve got so much swirling around in your head, it’s a good way to feel some sense of closure. I guess it’s some sense of like decisiveness on how to pinpoint what you’re feeling and how to describe it.”
While “Sometimes, Forever” has eerie and intimate moments, Allison says these are few and far between when it comes to live shows.
“I like to think the show is fun all the way through, while also (having) moments where it’s more intimate and stuff, but a lot of it is pretty upbeat and fun,” Allison says. “Honestly, we’re going to be playing most of the new album. Pretty much all of it. And then probably like four songs off of ‘Color Theory’ and ‘Clean.’”
Allison is an indie rockstar. Through three studio albums, 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify and seven years as Soccer Mommy, she has hopefully made her 5-year-old self proud.
She owes all of that to her environment. The visuals that surround her every day, growing up or currently living in Nashville or trying to make it as a rockstar in New York, are what she says makes Soccer Mommy, Soccer Mommy.
“I think that, for me, nature and visually the things around me inspire…,” Allison says. “I connect feelings and experiences and emotions with the visuals that surround me with the things that remind me of this place that also is connected to this time in my life.
“So, for me, that kind of stuff is always very connected. I mean, I can even hear differences in the stuff that I wrote when I was in New York. I think that nature, like you can get so much out of it for writing. I think that whatever city I’m in, whatever landscape I’m seeing, whether it’s winter or summer, all this kind of stuff can definitely inspire a lot of different things for me.”
Soccer Mommy w/TOPS
WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday, December 14
WHERE: The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren Street, Phoenix
COST: Tickets start at $25
INFO: thevanburenphx.com
