News Class Of 2014: SOHN

In SOHN’s relative ‘I was eating weird, next-to nothing stuff…’ downtime, if you could call it that, he works with a select few solo artists. There’s a proverbial queue from Vienna to London of aspiring musicians wanting to collaborate, but ‘Toph’ has stood tough. Up to now, he’s only recorded with BANKS and Kwabs. It’s arguably the thing that gets him most excited. “You realise, actually, that you’re a part of something really special,” he says of the studio sessions. “There are things which have come out in the last two years which you’d consider in your head massive and untouchable, and you realise; ‘Shit, that’s what we’re doing right now!’ - You have a little double-take.”

SOHN’s past twelve months have been a series of these: double-takes. Ever since he put out the chopped-up dance number ‘Oscillate’, things took off. He landed a deal on 4AD (“I didn’t even really believe it until I was in the office and they poured me a glass of champagne”), came back from SXSW as the festival’s most talked-about name. Everything went his way. If this is a trajectory, it’s one he’s keeping track of.

In order to do this, he uses intense routines, even if they end up in frankfurter-strewn tears. “It’s about an hour walk home from the studio to where I live in Vienna,” he says, running off his studio habits. “I was working overnight to make sure I didn’t leave. When it’s 1 o’clock, there’s no public transport; there’s no point.” It takes an intense kind of discipline - and indeed character - to get this far. SOHN’s only halfway there, but nothing’s going to cross his path. The guy ought to take the occasional nap, though.

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