Soccer Mommy, Thuy and Ichiko Aoba from the line-up of the female-led music festival, The Alex Blake Charlie Sessions, to talk about all things creative, heartfelt, and music.
The recent revival of the female-led music festival, The Alex Blake Charlie Sessions, brought together a delightful bevvy of female acts that celebrated the strength and spirit of feminine artistry, expressed in myriad ways that shine with their kind of light from the witty rock tunes of Soccer Mommy, Thuy’s swaying rhythm and blues, to the quiet contemplation of Ichiko Aoba’s magical compositions.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, we catch up with the three artists in an exclusive interview to learn more about their art-making process, where they look for inspiration, and what it means to lovingly overshare universally.
Hello Ichiko, what made you turn to music?
Ichiko Aoba: People recommended me, and my mentor told me to “give it a try”.
What inspires your music?
I am inspired by all of nature. The sea, forest — basically everything. But I am always guided by voice. For as long as I can use my voice, I want to make music.
How do you approach writing and arranging for your minimalist instrumentations?
I start with the piano, followed by the guitar, vocals after, layer more vocals, and then add on beats. But I am not limited to working with just musical instruments; I also listen to music in nature. When the birds sing, I sketch their melody.
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How do your fans play a part in your creative process?
When I improvise live on Instagram or in the moments before I properly start my songs during live performances, I explore what I made on the spot later if the response from the fans or audience is good.
Do you have an ideal state of mind to make music?
I create the best kind of music when I am in a “sleepy” state because I’m awake; things seem “real”. I tend to have a lot more ideas when I am in between being asleep and awake. Half of my songs are written from dreams.
What about you, Thuy? What is your music origin story like?
Thuy: I only started making music after college. When I was eight years old, I looked up to Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Mariah Carey, the pop queens of the early 2000s and late 90s. Oh, my God, I mean the 90s. You get what I’m talking about (laughs). I would watch them and be in the back room with the lights off in my little boombox, playing their music over and over and just pretending to envision I was on stage.
But growing up in an Asian household meant my parents didn’t even know that was my dream. It was just going to school, getting a degree, take care of your family back home and in Vietnam. That was kind of the priority. And so, of course, I wanted to make my parents proud. So I went to college, but I was still singing here and there. I was very shy and not very confident at all.
After college, I met Charlie, who kind of introduced me to the studio. One day, I followed him into the studio and made an absolutely terrible first song. But then the second song I made, I was like, Oh, I’m actually not bad at this. And so I started going to school, work, then sneaking off to the studio after that, and my parents wouldn’t know where I was going. I felt like I was living a double life, but that was how I worked at it until people actually started to listen.
How did you end up following through with music as your career?
I missed my healthcare application date by a day, which made me think about moving to Los Angeles to take that risk. To actually pursue something that I’ve always loved to do as a little girl. So yes. It’s been a crazy journey.
How do you know where to look to find what to write about in your songs?
I don’t think about the source of inspiration when creating because I feel you don’t want limitations in that sacred process. I just write what makes me feel good, what is therapeutic to me at the time.
But I am very intentional about the visuals that come with my songs. I love showing parts of my culture. In the music video, for i hope you see this, I had my 11-year-old immigrant cousin play the younger version of me. My parents were in the video as well. Showing that these faces can be in media, even though I don’t actually talk about being Asian, is how I like to showcase where I come from. At the end of the day, it should be about the music, but it’s fulfilling and purposeful to have that visual aspect of spreading a cool message. It’s just a double whammy. I can’t believe I just said a double whammy. I’ve never used that. I’ve never actually even said that in real life.
So what’s been the biggest challenge making music at the moment?
When I did the first two projects, I could already envision what the music video would look like from start to finish. But lately, I feel like my challenge has been being unable to see that. I want to think outside of the box and not just do something that’s comfortable, but at the same time, with my focus on touring and performing, I can’t get into that “locked-in” headspace, so when I listen to songs I don’t see anything. So yes, that’s my biggest challenge now (laughs).
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What exactly is that ideal creative headspace for you?
To be honest with you, I feel like there’s never an ideal state of mind. Because when I made girls like me don’t cry, I was not in a good place. I was definitely going through some stuff. I didn’t want to go to the studio at all. I remember going to the studio, and I asked who set up the session? I just wanted to be in my feelings all day.
But I also understand that music is so therapeutic for me. I always find that I make the best stuff when I go to the studio when I don’t want to go. I tap into this vulnerability, and my feelings just get pushed to the surface, and then I just want to put it all on a song. So I just need to create the right habits to navigate through this old creating process. Then, when you get that song that just makes you want to cry because it’s so good, and you’re driving back home delirious, playing the song over and over — it’ll be like damn. I’m glad I did that.
What about you, Sophie (Soccer Mommy) — how did your relationship with music begin?
Sophie Allison: I’ve loved music since I was a little kid. I started playing the guitar when I was five or six. It was mostly to write songs, so it’s just always been a passion of mine. I instantly just fell in love with it. There’s just nothing that captures my attention more, I think, than playing music.
Honestly, I just really love listening to music. When I was really young, my dad would play classic rock and stuff when he was driving around, and loving that, singing along, and this idea of playing the guitar was why I started playing it and never wanted to stop.
Do all those memories still influence your music today?
I still love a lot of it, honestly; artists like Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell — my dad played them for me before anyone else. And I think great songwriting has always just really excited and inspired me. And that’s something I see there.
But also early 2000s pop from when I was a kid — it’s like, I’ll always love that. And I’ll always like love the catchy hooks and things like that. There’s always gonna be part of me.
What inspires you?
There’s a lot of green in Nashville, so just seeing trees and beautiful nature inspires me a lot. But the songs I write are mostly about my life. Every once in a while, I write stuff that’s completely unrelated to me. But it’s mostly about me, and I think you have to have a good balance of vagueness in everything you put out. Like, where you can say something and only know what it means, but nobody else necessarily does. Then it’s kind of still this secret within yourself. It can also mean, you know, different things to different people. So I don’t feel bothered to put all of myself in there.
So which aspect of you is the strongest or most often in your music?
My internal monologue comes off in my lyrics a lot. The spiralling, going from deep thoughts to being distracted by something instantly. The really emotional side of me too. Every once in a while, I feel like I get to throw in something a little sarcastic or funny into a lyric so that’ll come out sometimes, but I think the lighter, goofier side of me often is not right there in the music.
When people listen to your music, they don’t see every side of you. So that’s why I think live shows can be so great. You see a little bit more of someone’s personality. And you know, even interacting with the fans, they see a more natural side of you that isn’t just you spilling your guts.
Which of your songs has had the most interesting creative process?
Yellow Is The Colour Of Her Eyes, off of my previous record (colour theory) — I felt so grandiose making it. When I first came up with the idea, I had been writing this guitar part that was basically the end of the song we know now. I had just been working on that and didn’t really know where it would end up going. But I kept working on this guitar part.
Then I remembered we were in the UK, about to take a ferry to this little ferry town. And it was just so quaint and beautiful. We’re walking around by the water, and then I remember thinking of the lines to go for the verse. So back in the hotel room, I started working on that idea, but it took forever to piece all of these parts together. There was the beginning part with these lyrics and more like a verse-chorus-type structure; then I had this ending thing that I didn’t know where to put. It could have potentially been the chorus too. So this made the end product really exciting and fulfilling to complete.
I really live for the moments like this when creative things just click and fall into place. This was a particularly memorable one.
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You’ve mostly been using the guitar to create works. If you could choose any other instrument to master for songwriting, which would that be?
The piano. I’ve tried it before, but I can’t play it. I think it’s just because I started playing the guitar when I was really young, so my hands work like that. I tried taking like piano classes in college, and every time it got to the point where you’re like doing the different fingers, I dropped the class. I couldn’t do it.
I have keyboards, and I can play chords and simple stuff for things I’m doing. But it’s hard. It’s always hard for me to tell if something is good when I have to imagine beyond the guitar, into a band, for instance. Then, when I’m trying to play something on the piano and singing, everything just kind of sounds pleasant. So it’s hard to like hear the ideas, and I’ll need to really learn the piano like it is a new language to fluently create with it.
And finally to all of you, if you could collaborate with anyone in the world, who would it be?
Ichiko Aoba: Kids.
Thuy: Doja Cat, SZA, Kehlani. I’m not gonna pick one. I like them all. I love them all.
Soccer Mommy: Joni Mitchell.
Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our March 2023 issue.
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