Soccer Mommy is Taking Off—Talks Upcoming Tour, Latest Album, and More

Buckle up, kiddos. Soccer Mommy is taking off.

Dream pop prodigy Soccer Mommy, or legally Sophie Allison, has made a name for herself in just a few short years.

The Nashville, Tennessee native’s 2018 debut, Clean, topped nearly two dozen Best Albums of the Year lists and introduced her as a songwriting powerhouse. Her sophomore album, the 2020 release, color theory, saw the artist explore bigger sounds, and in turn, saw even more impressive critical acclaim. Soccer Mommy’s latest release, Sometimes, Forever, was met with universal acclaim in mere weeks and so much more awaits on the horizon for the 25-year-old.

Dropped back in June, Soccer Mommy’s third album is an eery, distorted descent down a rabbit hole and into a fever dream of haunting vocals, swirling synths, and dripping emotions. The album’s title suggests a duality just as the songs do. Sometimes, Forever is a spellbinding mixture of good and evil, longing and indifference, pleasure and pain. On the record, deeply personal, highly confessional lyrics meet other-worldly soundscapes for a ’90s throwback feel that is, at the same time, futuristic.

“I wondered if there would be any sort of shift,” Allison shares with American Songwriter about her fans’ reaction to her most experimental and most emotionally weighted album yet. “I love that I have a fan base that is excited about me trying new things and is interested to see me mess around a little bit with stuff and isn’t just wanting the same old thing from me.”

She recruited producer Daniel Lopatin to support her on her mission outside of the box.

“There were new things I wanted to try, but I also wanted someone to push me to try even more, to go even more out of my comfort zone,” the artist explains of Lopatin. “Dan helped push things into this place that I had been wanting to go for a long time, but didn’t really know how to get there.”

Sonically, she describes wanting to explore “a different sound just at the very core of everything … I wanted [the album] to just have a different energy to it.” She explains the production process as trial-and-error, involving a lot of “fucking around with a bunch of shit until you like what you’re getting.”

The result is a melting sonic landscape of shoegaze, ethereal wave, indie rock, and bedroom pop all overflowing in a head-swimming cosmic slop of sound, synth, and space.

“Despite the fact that this record, to me, feels so big and vast,” Allison says, “I think to get that vastness it’s actually very sparse at some points.”

“It’s been a fun year,” Allison says of 2022. The year has not only seen chart-climbing music and several accolades, but also performances on several late-night talk shows, a contribution to the Good Music to Ensure Safe Abortion Access to All compilation record, an original score for a Serial Productions podcast, and now a tour in support of Sometimes, Forever.

In the past, Soccer Mommy has toured with seasoned acts, like Vampire Weekend, Mitski, Paramore, Foster the People, and Liz Phair. From them, she has learned a lot just by watching their professionalism, their confidence, and “the way that they own big stages and own big rooms.”

“It’s like a constant learning curve, especially when you’re first starting,” she says. “You get comfortable playing all these clubs, playing all these rooms that are places you can’t imagine selling out in the beginning.”

Opening for acts in amphitheaters and arena-sized venues is a different thing entirely. “You have to figure out how to adjust what you are all doing to fill a larger space,” she explains. “Watching these bands play every night really shows you how to do that and how to do it confidently.”

The world has seen Soccer Mommy transform with each new album, continually building upon the low-energy, bedroom pop sounds with which she found initial fame. Now, fans get to see her newest evolution live and in person when she embarks on her North American tour on Oct. 28. Buckle up, kiddos.

Tour Dates

Oct. 28 – Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi Annex &
Oct. 29 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre &
Oct. 30 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue &
Nov. 1 – Chicago, IL – Metro &
Nov. 4 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom &
Nov. 5 – North Adams, MA – Mass MOCA &
Nov. 6 – Boston, MA – House of Blues &
Nov. 11 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall ^
Nov. 12 – Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club ^
Nov. 14 – Saxapahaw, NC – Haw River Ballroom ^
Nov. 16 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre ^
Nov. 17 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade Heaven Stage ^
Nov. 18 – Birmingham, AL – Saturn ^
Nov. 19 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl ^
Nov. 30 – St. Louis, MO – Pageant #
Dec. 2 – Ft. Collins, CO – Washington’s #
Dec. 3 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre #
Dec. 4 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot #
Dec. 7 – Vancouver, British Columbia – Commodore #
Dec. 8 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom #
Dec. 10 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater #
Dec. 11 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory #
Dec. 13 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern #
Dec. 14 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren #
Dec. 16 – Austin, TX – Emo’s East #
Dec. 17 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues #

& with Lightning Bug
^ with Helena Deland
* with Tops

Photo Credit: Sophie Hur / Grandstand Media