Sophie Jamieson has always had a passion for words. As a songwriter, she understands the innate musicality of language, and how it can act as a mirror for her feelings. A lens to view the world through, language is also a place of shelter, and a point of inspiration.

The London-based songwriter’s new album ‘I still want to share’ is out now, and it’s a potent, absorbing, and reflective piece of work. Co-produced in London by Sophie Jamieson with the Grammy Award-winning Guy Massey, it’s a record of maturity, a place for the vocalist to work with real intent.

Completing a run of in-store dates, Sophie is now plotting a full UK tour, including a night at the Lexington in London on February 12th.

Ahead of this, CLASH sat down with Sophie Jamieson for Their Library – a regular feature in which we explore a musician’s passion for literature, and the way it impacts on their own work.

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What is your favourite book and why?

I don’t know how I would decide that. I read a lot and I read slowly, I choose carefully what I read and therefore most books I read affect me deeply. But for now I’m going to name Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk because I found it particularly enchanting, hypnotic, eerie, hilarious and deep all at once. I only read this summer – Levy uses language in such a playful and powerful and delicious way. I felt like a cat with word-cat-nip. She wove this magical web of patterns and tensions I felt like I was rolling around in. It made me want to figure out how to do that within song. 

What other authors do you like?

This year I’ve dug deep into Deborah Levy, Jeannette Winterson, Raymond Carver, Terry Tempest Williams, Rachel Cusk… and some others that I hold close to me are David Whyte, John O’Donnohue, Rebecca Solnit, Sheila Heti, Kiese Laymon, Vivian Gornick, Caroline Knapp, Octavia Butler. 

What draws you to certain books?

I frequently find myself choosing books that explore mother-daughter relationships in various ways. I find the subject endless and kind of the source of everything in some way. I can’t really read about it enough. I also come time and time again to books about silence, in one way or another. Over the last 2 years I’ve been exploring the subject loosely in relation to an album I’m working on, which has meant actively choosing to read some books but also often finding out that the book I chose for a different reason actually explores the topic in an even more interesting way. I’ve become a magnet for books on silence. A couple of months ago I picked up When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempset Williams, which is about both mother-daughter relationship and silence. What are the chances.

Have you ever discovered a real lost classic? What is it and why?

I think the closest I can get here is Raymond Carver’s What we talk about when we talk about love. Although I have no idea if it’s a classic or if it was lost. I bought it in my favourite bookshop just off Brick Lane, Libreria. There was a little shelf of books that had been curated by Natasha Brown who wrote Assembly.

I’d heard of Ray Carver from reading Olivia Laing’s The Trip to Echo Spring which explores writers and alcoholism. I bought this little book of short stories edited down to their bare bones and I was obsessed. His stories are like outline drawings of reality in its grittiest, most mundane and also most tender. He highlighted a particular streak of beauty within the ugliness of the human condition that I realised I deeply love and hadn’t quite heard expressed as explicitly as this before.

Do your literary influences have a direct impact on your songwriting?

That is very hard to say. I guess they have a direct and an indirect impact. I did write some songs this year in the light of some books I obsessed over, although I’d probably say that was kind of rare. A lot of what I’ve read over these past two to three years has made me want to be more playful and minimal with my language, explore its possibilities more. I think I am doing that slowly and quietly. 

What are you reading at the moment?

I’m close to finishing The Making of the Modern Middle East by Jeremy Bowen. It’s not an easy read. The past year has had me determined to better understand the context of the war on Palestine and also the role of my heritage which is Iranian. My dad got me the book, I actually asked him if he knew of any books on the topic not by white/western writers and… he bought me a book by a white male BBC journalist. But it is a very good book. 

What is the first book you remember reading as a child?

Horrid Henry. I read them all.

Have you ever found a book that you simply couldn’t finish?

Yes, loads. The first book I ever couldn’t finish was The Hobbit when I was 11. There are many books I simply couldn’t get past a few pages with too. Sometimes you get so far and you realise that everything has kind of already been said and the remaining pages aren’t necessary to you. I think it’s as ok to not finish a book as it is to not finish a film or a tv show or an album. Not all art is for everyone. 

Would you ever re-read the same book?

Absolutely, though it’s very rare. There are many books I intend to re-read but I just don’t. Because there are so many more books that need reading for the first time. 

Have you ever identified with a character in a book? Which one and why?

I’ve probably identified with most characters in most books!

Is there an author / poet you would like to collaborate with?

No… that sounds terrifying. I wouldn’t consider myself worthy of such a thing with any of the writers I love. They don’t need my words or my music. I would rather allow their language to penetrate my own and to try to write more exploratively myself. In past months I’ve tried this with Raymond Carver and Terry Tempest Williams, using some of their imagery and turns of phrase… that is as close as I think I’d like to come to collaboration.

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Catch Sophie Jamieson at the following shows:

February
7 Manchester Low Four
8 Belfast The Duncairn
11 Brighton Folklore Rooms
12 London The Lexington
16 Nottingham Peggy’s Skylight
20 Frome HydeAway

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Photo Credit: Tatjana Rüegsegger