French singer-songwriter, actress, director and artist Soko (nee Stephanie Sokolinski) likes to keep busy. Just in March, she and her song “We Might Be Dead By Tomorrow” rose to fame in America via the viral video “First Kiss.” Soko has built an extensive career — she has acted in several movies, collaborated with Spike Jonze and toured with indie superstars Ariel Pink, Daniel Johnston and Pete Doherty. Now, she’s on tour with Foster the People, promoting her soon-to-be-released second album, My Dreams Dictate My Reality. The Daily Californian communicated with Soko in an email about her tour, her upcoming album and future projects.
The Daily Californian: How would you describe your experience touring with Foster the People?
Soko: I’ve known Mark Foster for a while now, but I had never even seen (Foster the People) live. He invited me to open for them, and I had no idea they were that big, and didn’t realize we would be playing such huge venues (and) arenas. On the first show we played together I wasn’t sure if I was gonna throw up or faint on stage. It ended up going great and being an amazing tour and definitely gave me a bit more confidence in my playing. And on our (days off) with Foster we booked a lot of DIY intimate shows in clubs, art spaces, garages and even people’s living rooms. And going from one to another was actually really amazing. It kept us on our toes the whole time. It keeps it interesting, surprising, fun.
DC: How do you think your second album, My Dreams Dictate My Reality, differs from I Thought I Was An Alien?
S: Well, it’s just less intimate … songs, and more raw, punk, gothy, dreamy band songs. On some songs, I played every single thing, and with others I recorded live with my whole band. There’s a lot more arrangements. It’s a lot more upbeat, (though) still very dark in the lyrics and it talks a lot about (the) weird issues (I’ve had) since I was born!
DC: You have an incredibly diverse creative career. Over the course of it so far, what have some of your favorite projects been?
S: I like to keep myself busy doing a lot of different things because I love learning new skills and discovering new stuff, going on adventures. So any chance I get to create stuff that I’ve never done before, I run (with) it. My favorite thing I’ve done so far is probably this movie “Augustine,” where I played a French hysterical patient in a hospital in 1880. I love directing my music videos too. My favorite one to date was called “Monster Love.” And I’m making my artwork for the album now and love doing that too.
DC: On that note, what do you envision yourself doing in the future?
S: Making more music, directing more videos and movies in time. I have a bunch of acting projects coming up next year. I wanna keep traveling and discover the world. And have babies and kitties and all that!
Soko is opening for Foster the People at the Fox Theater in Oakland on Saturday.
