Classic violin, boiler room beats and indie synths-does that go together? Sofie Royer explains how.
Sofie Royer masters the game of opposites: The pop artist from Austria studied the violin at the Vienna Conservatory, built the international music platform Boiler Room in Los Angeles, is DJ and writes synth pop. We met her for an interview at the Spotify Radar event in Berlin. 1,000 radar artists and 5 years of radar were celebrated there, and Sofie Royer has also been part of the program since 2024. A conversation about the importance of classical music, German -speaking indie and Austrian icons.
ME: You studied classic violin and played in the young Philharmonic Vienna. You also write pop music, you are DJ and were involved in building the Boiler Room, the international platform for the transfer of DJ sets and live music. How does it all fit together?
Sofie Royer: I have been making music since I was very young and therefore had a lot of time to try different things. I’m now 34 and I had a lot of opportunities for different projects, and of course everything was not always at the same time.
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Where does your love come for classic sounds on the one hand, on the other hand for synth pop that your current music is assigned?
If you like music, you like it in all its facets. I don’t discriminate against it and I’m basically a fan of the total work of art. This is also reflected in my music. It was the same with the Boiler Room: we really tried to be a wide -ranging, diverse music station. The formats there comprise rap, pop, indie, techno and more. Michael Stangl in Berlin was more responsible for the techno electronics direction. And yes, I personally love classical music. But you can find them in different places, for example in rap, pop or indie. In hip-hop you also come across many jazz samples. I love rock and indie. And the motifs from the classical music can be found everywhere, be it Serge Gainsbourg or Chopin. You will find your way to all genres.
Sofie Royer: Classic can be found everywhere
How did you find your own style, your own sound?
I would currently describe my sound as an indie rock pop. And the way there is less covered than one would think. I just do songs that I would like to hear. I also hear my own songs extremely often, especially before they are published. My claim is that I can listen to my own songs myself. I work a lot with synths, analog synths, and have a very specific sound in my head. This is exactly how the result should sound, only then is it satisfactory for me. I want drums, I want a snare that hits you into your soul. This is less stylized – what comes out of it comes out. The end product is then concentrated from all the things I celebrate and try to combine in a song. I wish I could better describe my style, but the most exciting are the moments that go beyond the unimaginable. What you can’t imagine is what it makes interesting.
What emotions, experiences, memories and stories do you want to express through your music? Does she contain a certain message?
Yes, although she is not really a prescriptive message. I want people to use my songs as a projection surface to tempt them to inspire. I would find boring and chewing that a song had any explicit message. Regarding the songs that I like to hear, you can imagine something yourself, whether this is a moment of crush or a moment of despair. My songs are projection surfaces so that listeners can let their imagination run wild.
Traveled to the world at home in Vienna
You were born as the daughter of an Austrian and an Iranian in the American Palo Alto, studied in Vienna and worked in Los Angeles, New York and London. Where are you at home, personal and musical?
In Vienna. I already feel at home in Vienna. I grew up as a teenager and love the city.
Does Vienna also get through in your music?
Yes, I love Falco, Georg Danzer, Wolfgang Ambros, André Heller and such. There are already some Viennese icons that I celebrate extremely.
In view of your international audience, this is not quite common.
Yes, I also thought it was funny that my song “Auto” was the only non-English-language song to make it onto a Spotify-Indie playlist. For me, this is cool that an Austrian song-plus a German-language song-is on an English-language indie playlist above.
What makes the German-language indie scene so interesting at the moment?
That people are entitled to make timeless music. Music that can still be heard with enthusiasm in ten years.
Following your first US tour in summer, you will go on tour across Germany and Switzerland for the first time in the fall with your album Young-Girl Forever. What are your hopes and fears before the tour?
I always have this irrational fear that nobody will come. Which is absolute nonsense in view of the ticket sales and has never happened before. (laughs) But I know that I can play. My band has a good time, my manager is satisfied – and with the performance I know that I can do it well. The rest will work somehow.