Sofi Tukker on advice to artists, social media and Animal Talk

Raw interview footage incoming! I had the lucky chance to speak with Sofi Tukker ahead of their set for a Beyond Yoga event. We spoke about various things, their advice to artists, treating social media like work and their Animal Talk agency. Honestly some of the most genuine, authentic people I've ever interviewed!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Other other things. Yeah. Is it? No, this isn't it's on brand for your for your wellness. Um so tell me, what how does your relationship with me on yoga like what how did that begin?

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Probably an email.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Yeah, it really it really begun today. I mean we've just had a really nice day talking about all things, you know, wellness and health and joy and color. Right.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

And yeah, it's super aligned with everything that we do and how we live our lives, and um yeah, it's been great.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

How do you stay healthy on tour?

SPEAKER_02 0:50

There's a lot of ways to answer that. I think it's like a it's a lot of pronged answer. I would say we have different answers also. So she's a little more, she's always been a little more regimented and a little more uh, you know, have more routine stuff. So what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

But we you know, I would say both of us definitely try to get as much sleep as we can. Um I'm server. Uh we I I work out, you know, I definitely do weight training three times a week, at least. Our shows are super high energy. We eat really well, we get enough protein and fiber, and try not to eat too many artificial things. Like, I don't think we try to strive for perfection or purity in it, but we definitely do our best with you know living on the road full time.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

And I actually think that's a key to the mental side of it is not being too hard on yourself if you miss a day because you didn't get enough sleep, or if you had to eat something because you're just in the middle of nowhere, yeah. And you're in the middle of the country and there's no good options. And so it I think Sophie used to get down on herself or get really frustrated when she couldn't do exactly the right thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

I used to also think that I had to work out like every day and think that I had to eat perfectly all the time, and it was honestly too much pressure and and actually wasn't good for my health. Yeah. So I'm a lot looser now.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

And like loving what we do is probably the biggest answer of why we're able to stay healthy. Uh it like drives us to act like athletes and try to be able to perform and you know, give our all every day for people because you know we try to always remember that people paid money to come see us, and how cool is that? So we gotta give them our best, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

I also think we really you know, our friendship is a big part of it, and the fact that we we surround ourselves with people that we love and care about and are are also sort of on the same vibe of wanting to think of everything with a glass half full, and we can keep in touch with our friends and our family, and just I think loneliness is probably the the the worst thing for our health. So we try to make sure that we stay close with our people.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, and I love that blessing. So as an extension of that, I have to ask one um unrelated question about animal talk and how that's an extension of your your friendship and wanting to help other people through entrepreneurship. Yeah. Can you just talk about how that's going and how you've expanded?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Yeah, so we just started uh well it's interesting because we actually did start in like 2016 and we were a party and a label, was it 2017?

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Probably, but yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Yeah, we um we found our our friend LP Giobi um and and a couple other friends, but anyway, then for like four years we just didn't have the bandwidth to keep it going, and now we've relaunched it.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

It was like a party, and it was you know a way to sort of it was sort of before artists were having party series, so we didn't we should have kept it going, honestly, but we basically just wanted to throw these celebrations and then put these artists like LP Giobi that we really believed in, that we were sort of helping cultivate and like giving opportunity like we felt we had uh to put them in and play before us and you know start gaining fans and helping them make music, and it just became one of the most fulfilling things I think we ever did, at least for me. And so once we really focused on Soapy Tucker and we got to a point where we felt like okay, now like we have a team, we have a bandwidth to restart this and do it a little more seriously and a little more professionally, we were really, really excited to get it going again, and so we just started a management company. Um, we were calling it Animal Talk, and we partnered with Miles Schear, who started Palm Tree and all that stuff, and we want to have sort of our own ethos and our own sound and our own world, and I think it's gonna be based mostly around sort of like performing dance artists because there's so many DJs, and then there's bands, and then there's this weird middle ground where we've always kind of had to just like forge through the forest on our own because people think, oh, they're not live enough to be on the live band stage, or they're not DJ enough to be at this club, and it's like you know what, there's a lot of actual performing dance artist misfits, and we can kind of help you know bring that as like a real genre and a real thing. Uh so that's sort of the goal and excitement of that, the management company, and uh we've we've had releases on Animal Talk and we've had it through different distributions. Right now we just signed a big deal for Sophie Tucker with Republic Records, so we're really excited focusing on that. And um, at some point we might do a JV with Animal Talk and start releasing records again like that, but right now we're just kind of building, and then we also just started or are in the process of finalizing well that too. There's a publishing arm with it where we can also get through. Uh, other artists, and we did that with some artists like LP Giobi and a friend of ours, Gahate, and they've had awesome success in the sync world getting in shows and movies and stuff, and then there's also the arm that is uh like a holding company. So we're starting to do investments and uh yeah, and and groups that we align with. That's been really fun because we've always I've always wanted to sort of get into more entrepreneurship and stuff, but it I think only a few people like Miles Schear, who we now work with, see an artist and a fan base and think, oh, there's a way to bring this into you know entrepreneurship and and raising money and and starting a like a financial company in it in a different way. And I think that's really exciting to us.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah, and I feel like you're creating community, and that's something that's at the heart of Beyond Yoga as well. So I I think that it's really aligned in that in that respect. Totally. Um, so I mean, in that like offline community. Let's talk about that and how important that is, getting people out on Twitter. Um, I mean, I think a big part of wellness is closing the laptop and you know, getting out of the house and trying to limit my screen time and my scroll time. Um, how do you manage that?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I mean, definitely imperfectly, you know, they do their I think the the the algorithms do their best at keeping us sucked in, but yeah. Luckily our job is very much an you know IRL experience.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

It's both.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

It is both, of course, and and part of our job is is posting and and being online, but I think it's it is really refreshing for our the the majority of our job to be about in-person experiences, and that keeps us doing it. And I think it's essential. I mean it's definitely a huge part of our mental health, and you know, when whenever it's dwindling, I feel like then I have to remember to look away from my phone and computer, and then I'm instantly happier. Um, but yeah, you know, also with touring, like we we're not always around our loved ones in person, and so then we use the phone as a way to to keep in touch with people a lot. So it's a it's something we I I think we are actively navigating it, it's not always easy.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Yeah, I mean when you start a band or a duo, whatever we're called, you know, you don't think you're gonna be like semi-professional social media personalities. That but that just since there's a huge shift in the past ten years of us being Sophie Tucker, that that became so important really fast, probably on the earlier side. Uh and it and it is it's a huge part of it. If you don't do that, you might feel a little healthier mentally, but your career is gonna suffer. And so you have to make these, you know, sacrifices in order to do things you want to do or to get where you want to get in certain ways. And one way I would say I think the internet helped a lot of people was in COVID. Uh, we felt really close to a lot of people because we live streamed every day, and we created this community that felt so important for so many people at a time that was extremely crazy and scary. And we were able to connect on a level that was like pretty intense and pretty close. And the one thing I would say about that is because we were doing live streams and we were talking a lot during the sets, we were able to show our personalities and really connect on like a closer way than if you go to a festival or even a show and we're on stage and we're not actually talking to you or showing our personalities, we're playing music and singing and dancing, and don't get me wrong, the in-person thing is is the most important. But I do think there are ways that it can be utilized really well that can like save people.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah, and can actually create intimacy. Okay, last question.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

So I can keep you guys sorry, I'm long-winded.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

For for all the artists um, you know, with who look up to you today, what is your advice to them? Because I feel like I'm gonna say this as a writer, I can't get a book deal unless I have a following of 100,000 followers, and I think that's we live in really sad times because it's no longer about talent in some ways. So it's like, how do you how do you navigate that internet side of it as an artist where you're just meant to do something, you're meant to do music.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

I'm gonna actually have a really hard think about this one because I'm gonna I probably have to speak to myself too. Okay. I mean, I I think I do think that good work does speak for itself. And I think an undeniable song or an undeniable book is still the ultimate goal, where no matter how many followers you have, people are like drawn to that thing.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

And I think sometimes But in it inevitably it doesn't always have.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Of course, but I think sometimes like this is I grapple with this because sometimes I'm spending my time, you know, on our social media account when I could be writing a song or playing the guitar, and I wonder whether or not that actually does hurt the ultimate goal, and it's actually not a great use of my time. So it's kind of both, where yes, it's important, but not if the sort of actual product itself doesn't have like all of the love and attention that it deserves. I think it would be a shame for culture if the people who are drawn to making art don't do it because they think they have to build their social media following. Like I think it's an and-and, and we're we're all navigating, figuring out how to not get sucked in, but not you know, completely go away from it either. I think it's something that every artist probably struggles with.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

It's so tough. It's so tough. We have so many friends and uh bands that we were like opening for on tours early on in our career, and they just didn't really adopt Instagram early, and they kind of faded away. No one listens, you know, no one knows when their songs come out. Like it's really a difficult thing. I agree with Sophie, like sometimes if something is undeniable and it catches culture in some way, it can rise to the top even without any fame or help or or whatever, but it's tough. I I was just watching a thing that Mark Cuban was saying. Every musical artist is now just an entrepreneur because you're building a brand, you're building a company, and I I almost think luckily for I can speak for myself, but I think Sophie's really good at it, whether she calls herself an entrepreneur or not, is that we kind of get a kick out of that too.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

So like like that flexes a muscle, you know, and you know, we we both have a lot of education and schooling and finished college, and and you know, we it's exciting to sort of think in many ways, and but we did we focused just on the music, I would say, for the first you know, long bit of it. And now it's kind of exciting to to but it's tough.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

It's tough.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

There's no like good answer to that.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

Yeah. I mean I I always ask it to a lot of talents that I that I interview, and I Christina Ricci's told me, don't listen to me, listen to yourselves. So everybody has a different answer for their advice for young artists. I just find the artist in the spotlight attract so much people look up to you, so it's nice to give them a little bit of wisdom.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

I almost think writing a book is it's harder in this case because correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the publisher kind of need to commit ahead of time and so they can give you the money so that you can then spend the time on the book? So if they're not gonna commit before you make an undeniable book because you don't have a lot of social media, how the fuck are you ever gonna have time to make the book? And that's sucks.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Like music at least has gotten cheap enough and easy enough with technology that you don't need a million dollars to go into a fancy studio and a bunch of people to make a record like you used to. So I don't know. Yeah, I I think I wish I had a better answer for you about the writing a book thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Yes. I I think this is the same argument I just read, I can't stop talking about these books that I read, um, The Art of Spending Money and the Psychology of Money. And the the the ultimate takeaway from that book is instead of instead of being let let money be a tool for you rather than you become a tool for money, and I think a lot of people in the pursuit of success end up forgetting why they're doing it in the first place. Um and I think the same is true with social media, in that w we need to use social media as a tool, and like we are the agent, social media is the tool, rather than social media becomes the agent and we're the tool. And I think you you everyone personally knows where that line is for themselves, and I know when I wake up and I'm like, shit, I'm no longer the agent here, like I'm being I'm being social media's bitch, you know, and and I need to switch that around where like it's it is a tool, it's a really useful tool, and I think it's worthwhile, but you have to like be conscious of that turning point where suddenly it's not a tool of yours anymore. You're kind of in service of it.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Okay, sounds good.