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Shoutout to all the bands out there: the groups of friends who dive into each others processes, creating love potions, relationship potions and more. Once a hallmark of arena-level billing, bands are becoming rarer and rarer, and it takes a very special group of creatives to persevere as one in an internet era of raw individualism. The Sophs are just that, a remarkable collection of friends and in-the-scene musicians who decided the challenge of a group's friction is the very substance of great art, and the results in their most recent single ‘DEATH IN THE FAMILY’ speak for themselves. It's an oddly insightful sing-along alt rock gem that holds up with peak Weezer. Ever so curious about such a uniquely committed and complementary group, so early in their careers, we snuck the group into our nice executive conference room for a proper deep dive, try to keep up with the awesomeness here:

OnesToWatch: My first question is, who is the most important person in the band? 

The Sophs: I think it's a six way tie. That's our answer for everything. 

Each individually, could you tell me why you are an artist and why you are in this band? 

Sam: I'm Sam, and this is my first band I've ever been a part of. I'm in this band specifically because I love to write and I feel this is the greatest place where I could contribute and have fun doing it. 

Ethan: My name's Ethan. I sing in the band and I'm in the band because I started it. And the songs feel, in the essence of what Sam said, like the best outlet for me to feel creatively stretched, et cetera. 

Quick aside, why did you start a band? 

Ethan: Well, I don't have the means or the technical skill to do anything but what I do. And I didn’t want to pay these guys as session instrumentalists.

Great answer. Okay, continue. 

Cole: My name is Cole. I'm in this band because Ethan started it, as well.
It's a culmination of great friendship and great craftsmanship. I think that's rare, and I think it's special. 


Devon: My name is Devon. I play drums. I am in the band because a mutual friend of ours recommended me to Ethan and Sam. I thought the music was very cool, and I really respect everyone here as musicians. 

Austin: I'm Austin and I'm an artist because I'm legitimately probably not good at anything else. And I am in this band because, as Cole said, there's a very rare bond and understanding with everybody. Speaking to the process too, it's always just one big long conversation and I really enjoy that, so we're always weighing in on everything together. Ethan's a great writer and we just have a lot of fun making the stuff we make. 


Seth: I'm Seth. I'm an artist because I can't do anything else. I also echo that the whole band is very democratic and Ethan has set that up as a very central point, that the culture has to remain where we hear everyone out. 
And to me, that's super enticing and makes me want to share more ideas. 

So, question for the group, how do you guys write music? 

Ethan:  We're not wed to a certain process. Austin and Sam and I have written together for years, but as a group, we're still pretty green in the writing process. We have a massive cachet of songs, but that being said, I think we're still open to starting songs from scratch or bringing a song in. Recently, Sam and I, because we live together, start songs on acoustic guitar, flesh it out and bring it to the band. Then, if they give it the go ahead, we expand it, add more instruments, add a larger arrangement. But, we’re not close minded about anything. We’ve started songs on the spot. 

Seth: Yes, going back to the democracy of it, I think there's been one time that I remember asking Ethan if he could rewrite a line. I didn't tell him what to write. I was just like, "Can you make that more interesting?” Ethan’s great at listening and finding the right words.
And with songwriting, Sam is so good at setting up the chords, so if you tell him to make it feel like something, he’ll always try it out and give you an honest opinion. And the majority of us produce music, so if someone's driving, we all have ideas. 
The group always feels out every idea too, and if it’s awesome we run with it. It’s great, because on my own, I never know if an idea is good, but with them, I trust that they know. 

Cole: We also all come from different musical backgrounds, it’s actually rare that we all unanimously like something. But what we do agree on is what sounds best for The Sophs. We have the vision in our heads and we stick to it. 

Ethan: It’s easy to write songs when you’ve got the greatest musicians in the world. 

Humble brag. I like asking this question to bands, and it relates to the generational divide between my time of bands dominating the scene, and the current influx of solo artists. Why do you think that there are less bands nowadays? 

Ethan: I think Los Angeles especially is very focused on the individual because the individual is easier to market. You don't have any competing egos or aesthetics. So it’s a marketability-first sort of mindset. I had the privilege of going to London for the first time and checking out their music scene last year, and I was surprised by the number of bands out there. I was at the venue that we're going to be playing in September, right off of Electric Avenue, the Windmill. I was watching band after band of these teenagers, basically, and they were playing songs that just lapped anything I had ever heard from Los Angeles artists. I was just in awe. 


Austin: I would add to that, that genre has a lot to do with it. Over the years, there's just been a lot less guitar based music, you know? That is a big reason, in combination with how easy it is to start and then carry out a solo artistic project. If you have one person and maybe a team, you can kind of pivot with that pretty quickly, whereas if you have a group of people, you have to come to some kind of consensus, something we've been lucky to be able to do together. 
And I honestly think that in these next couple years, bands are going to really flare back up as the younger generations get excited about it again. Generations just get excited in different ways and in this next batch of years, I think we're going to see people knocking on their friend's door with their guitar and stuff again. 

Devon: Also, it's easy just to sit in your room and start on the song, and if you can finish in one sitting, then you have a song and you don't need anybody else for it. 

How did you guys come to agreement on the name of the band? Is there an origin story? 

Ethan: I thought of it because I always wanted to be in a band that started with “The” and then something. 
Sophs is kind of an arbitrary word, I guess if it had to mean anything, it would be the shortened version of Sophia, but it doesn't mean anything, really. 

What can we look out for in the future of The Sophs? 

Ethan: So we just released our first single, “Sweat,” along with a music video, and a seven-inch on our label Rough Trade’s website that features a B side that's not going to be anywhere online. And then we have a Los Angeles residency. We've got a show the 27th at Gold Diggers, and then a show the following month in Los Angeles, then we're off to the East Coast in late August and then off to do a festival and show run in Europe. 

Lovely. Okay, we're going to shift gears here a little bit. Starting with Sam, who is your biggest musical inspiration? 


Sam: So I come from a classical background.
I was going to be an opera singer before Ethan started this band. So my alltime biggest inspiration for writing is Amy Bush, who was this 19th or 20th century American composer. I think she is the absolute pinnacle of being able to write melodies in a really emotional way, like finding peaks and valleys of melodic writing. She also uses that melody that she writes to create different harmonies that feel really emotionally resonant, while having some sort of chromatic independence from everything that comes before and after it. it in a way that still feels really emotionally resonant while having some sort of chromatic independence from everything that comes before and after it. 


Wow. I was not expecting that answer. 

Ethan: I like Tom Waits.

I can already see the diversity in this band. 


Cole: I like the Motown records a lot. I like '70s Stevie Wonder, there's like that run of like five albums in the 70s, and I think that’s some of the best music ever written. 
And I love Steely Dan. 

Devon: I think something that affects me the most emotionally would be a selective few Alan Holdsworth records. I think he's my favorite guitarist of all time. I know I don't play guitar in the band, but he does play with a lot of really incredible drummers, and jazz fusion in general is really inspirational. 

Austin: Okay, the Beatles are mine… 
No, I legitimately think I have really bad ADD and I really like to enjoy a variety of music. 
If I have to pick one artist that scratches all the itches for me, it would be the Beatles. And also emo music. I grew up an emo kid and I’d still look to Jimmy Eat World, My Chemical Romance, and Paramore for a bunch of juice. 

Seth: Sonny Moore, Skrillex. He has a choke hold on music, and I think he is just fascinating. 


Okay, let’s get even more context. Each of you give me your favorite things. Anything. 

Devon: One of my favorite things is a movie that unsettles me. 

Austin: I really like sushi a whole lot. 

Seth: Food is the most consistent thing I adore. 

Cole: Laying in my bed. 

Ethan: I like dining at a big table full of my friends and eating and drinking in abundance. I like a nice glass of basil hayden and whiskey as well. 

Sam: I think my favorite thing is I like making lists for fun. I can do it all day long. 

If you could perform with anyone, dead or alive, any place, anytime. Who would it be? 


Sam: This might sound silly, but Wilco in 2000. I just feel like they had such beauty and richness to the way they write and the way that they come across. And I feel like to be a part of that would have been so special. 


Ethan: Sinead O'Connor on SNL. 
And while she was ripping up a picture of the Pope, I'd stand right next to her and I'd rip up a picture of Ronald Reagan. 

Cole: I would like to play bass in the Stone Temple Pilots in, like 1998, probably, when they were really cooking. Because I watch those shows all the time and I'm like, it doesn't even seem real. 

Devon: My childhood favorite band with my dad Coheed and Cambria. 
So if I could be their drummer, that would be awesome. 

Austin: I would be in Slipknot in 2001. I have their live DVD Disasterpieces, and I would have been in that with my own mask, jumping around. Insane answer. 

Seth: I’m imagining that the singer of The Used, Matt Bellamy, would either leave the band or had fallen ill and couldn't perform anymore, and I'd be like, I got you, man. So, I want to front Muse. 

That's awesome. If this works, what does that end up looking like? To you, the individual within the self. 

Seth: It looks like I'll be able to buy a house. 

Austin: I think people will have our songs in their lives. The way that I grew up and found music and it was in my freakin' life, you know, that is what is what I see for us.

Devon: I’d love to not have to live in LA. It's great, I love it, but don't need to stay forever, you know? 

Cole: I don't want to have to have another job.
I don't care if I have to rent an apartment for the rest of my life, I just don't want to have another job.

Ethan: I think the one thing I want to do is to continue to make art and do just that for the rest of my life and you know, there are different types of currency. There's attention, there's money, and love, and if all of those are in a place where they're never depleting because of the music that I make, then I think I've done a pretty good job. 

Sam: I honestly agree with Austin, success to me is when our music is in a lot of people's lives and the songs that we write impact people in a way where it extends beyond just being something you find on Spotify, but rather something you follow the artist with and you're excited for releases and things like that. 

Love it. I’d love to hear some advice you’d give your younger self, maybe some things you’ve learned from being in a band. 

Sam: Have patience. When I was 20, 19, I just felt so behind on everything, but I think that everything takes time. Within the margins of building yourself, ultimately you're gonna piece together everything you’ve experienced to create who you are. Looking back now, I can see those foundational blocks, but when I was younger I couldn’t. 

Ethan: I'd say, and this is something I still work on, but don't dedicate so much of your time and energy to worrying about if the world is going to accept you with open arms and just trust that you're the kind of person who, as long as they're being themselves to the fullest, as tried as it may sound, the world will mold around them. 

Cole: I would give myself two pieces of advice. Don't be afraid to start over. Don't be embarrassed by it. And sometimes you just have to do it. 
Don't be ashamed to put your money where your mouth is and go for it. Don't be embarrassed to tell people that you're going for it. I remember always being timid about it, assuming that someone would think less of me because I was trying to be an artist. But I would say to have confidence in yourself and who cares what they think? Don't be embarrassed to pursue a passion.

Devon: My advice would be to have a deeper understanding that everything happens for a reason and that even though you're not seeing the results that you may have expected, you’re still setting stones for what is supposed to happen. And be okay with working towards something slowly and getting deterred by not seeing immediate success or results. It's a process. 

Austin:
My advice to myself would be that you got to have something to say. So if you don't have anything to say, then don't copy other people who look like they have something to say. Figure out what you have to say, even if what you have to say is just a vibe and not necessarily a militant statement. It can just be something you intend. And the other thing I would tell myself is you have to have fun, because nobody wants to watch someone who's not having fun. You gotta get in your bag and feel some kind of purpose or meaning from what you're saying or by what you're doing, even if what you're doing is just playing an instrument. 

Seth: It's kind of the opposite of what Sam said. I would tell myself to start producing today. When I was a kid, I was watching my friends get into music production, and I just rejected it so much until I needed to do it for the job. 
And I wish I just started at 12 instead of 20 something. 

Okay, now I’d love to hear about your OnesToWatch, some artists or bands on the rise that deserve some more love. 

Seth: Oklou. She just dropped an album called Choke Hold. I think it's a perfect album. 

Austin: I'm going to shout out Garbage Barbie, our LA homies that are in a really cool alternative, energetic band. 

Devon: I'm going to say, this band called Invalids. I think they're from New Jersey. They're a math rock band. They're so sick. They used to just be one guy, and he's a genius, and now he's got a bunch of people with him and they're all super, super talented, but they're like super underrated. 


Cole: I'm going to shout out to Casey Ferraro and Free Use. They rock. 

Ethan: I'd like to shout out Malice K. I think he's making some really cool stuff. I really liked his record that he dropped last year.

Sam: I would like to shout out this opera composer Nico Muli, because I've been listening to this opera called Marnie a ton and it is just so, so incredible. And I feel like not a lot of people listen to opera right now, and it's a wonderful art form.

Thank you guys so much!