The first time Sophia Stel came to London, she slept outside in the freezing cold. The Vancouver songwriter had finished a live set last autumn, then gone out until 3am with her then crush, but when they returned to their Airbnb, they found that Stel’s manager had dead-bolted the door and fallen asleep. Stel plus crush looked for a hotel but ultimately had no choice but to kip on the doorstep.
She opened her business bank account as an artist, and that crush is now her girlfriend. Stel started gaining attention last summer when her swaggering, lonely-dancefloor banger I’ll Take It exploded on TikTok, then honed her sound – AutoTuned vocals merging with hazy electropop – over two EPs. She recorded the second, How to Win at Solitaire, in the basement of the Vancouver club where she worked, and it seemed to absorb a bittersweet afterparty energy through the walls.
She soon signed with chic film production company A24’s record label, and Lorde invited her to support her live. So having ticked off so many achievements so quickly, why shouldn’t she call her debut LP The Greatest Album of all Time? The title comes from an interview in which Stel joked that, like everyone else, she wanted to make the greatest album of all time.
It’s nice to try and have a louder voice. It’s something I’m working on in my life.” Becoming a pop star has been a lesson in overcoming imposter syndrome. This past year, Stel has balanced performing with odd jobs painting houses and bartending.
On the skittering, bratty anthem Bitches Talk Shit, she protests: “’Cause you’re a rockstar you should have a lot of money / Course I am a pop star but I’m still very up and coming,” while the narcotised drawl of On My Dick reflects the whiplash experience of her meteoric year: “Scarlet told me no new friends / Cause all they want is dividends.” Unsurprisingly, Stel keeps her circle close. She lives with two of her younger brothers and her best friend in a Vancouver apartment, paying an enviable 650CA$ (£300) each. For most of her life, Stel has lived with a lot of people.
She grew up as one of 11 in an ultra-religious family, and describes her upbringing as “overstimulating” and “very extreme”. She found organised religion “really damaging” and has long since parted ways with it. The brutal casting process contributed to the bluster in her lyrics.
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