Whether running or rushing, Sofia Neal’s music could best be described as liquid drum and bass complemented by Billie Eilish-style vocals. Her unique sound has brought over 450k monthly listeners on Spotify, and she’s worked on projects with artists such as Mozey, Goddard, Mish and more. Her ethereal vocals in ‘Run’ have been streamed 5.5 million times, and she’s played at every Out There and Weekender for the past three years. She’s released songs both with labels and independently, having recently gone out on her own with her newest release ‘Rush’.
Whilst she’s only 23, Sofia began experimenting with electronic music way back when she was 13. Having little to no interest in any other subjects but music, Sofia lived for music tech classes during her time at Beautlieu. “It was literally the one class I loved going to”, Sofia said, “I ended up airdropping the music software to my laptop to learn it a year before we were meant to start using it. I was in full on teacher’s pet mode without even realising. Music was the only subject I really ended up excelling in, because I enjoyed it. With me, I like learning anything and everything about something that interests me, so with music I absorb everything happily. Anything else I just ignored”.
“During A Levels I didn’t even bother turning up to school half the time, so they literally made me the first part-time student ever. They were like, we know you don’t want to be here, but we want you to come in for your actual lessons, so we’ll make you a part-time student. It meant I got to miss church every week. I loved missing that”.
Sofia dabbled with many different genres of electronic music before she finally settled on drum and bass. Before she was aware of the genre, she experimented with all sorts of sounds trying to satisfy her need for a quick pace. “I’m really ADHD, so I love a fast tempo”, Sofia said, “before making drum and bass, I just sped up other songs that I made to be faster”. Looking back on it, she laughed, “it definitely wasn’t hitting”. After finding her niche and experimenting with different styles, she eventually stumbled across liquid and grew into her sound.
It all started kicking off once Sofia started putting herself out there on TikTok. She was aware that she needed to put her music on social media to gain traction, but wasn’t really sure where to start. “I ended up being lucky really”, Sofia said, “one of my first videos was duetting Bou, a drum and bass artist, putting my vocals over it. It was really good because it got lots of views and kicked off my TikTok page. I was like, thank God, I’ve got a boost from the beginning. Then I started posting all the time”.
She found herself getting hit up by labels, but it wasn’t until her track ‘Run’ with Mozey that all of the pieces started coming together. “I’d been asked by labels before to basically give them my songs to be performed by their artists, which I wasn’t keen for. Then a label reached out to me saying, we have a song for this artist, and a song for this artist, could you make anything for it? That was more fun, so I did it, and from that the track with Mozey came along”. After a video of him playing it before the release went viral, everyone knew the song. “That’s what really pushed me into the realm of around 400k monthly listeners”, Sofia said, “before that I was mostly sticking around 200k, and then as soon as ‘Run’ came out, it basically doubled”.
Whilst Sofia owes a portion of her success to TikTok, this isn’t to say that the platform doesn’t come with its downfalls. In an oversaturated pool of media, it’s hard to create sounds that stick, especially beyond the lifespan of the average trend. “Everything’s a trend these days”, Sofia said, “one song will be trending and then the next minute another song is there and the one before is forgotten about. Everyone’s attention span’s really short, and often you can make something that’s the next big hit, and it’s literally a hit for a week. Of course you want to try and make a hit, and with drum and bass, you’ve got to think about integrating a bit of house if you want to reach a wider audience. But you don’t want to risk losing your sound just to get noticed”.
Recently, she’s released her first independently recorded track, a collaboration with another Jersey-based DnB artist, Mish. “The process of making ‘Rush’ really made me realise how much a label does, that you don’t really think about otherwise. With ‘Run’, it was so seamless. As soon as it was finished it was like wham, bam, done, it’s out”. With ‘Rush’, it was a lot more difficult. She explained that “there’s always an element of questioning whether you go with a label or not. Obviously they help, pushing your music to the right people, but signing with them means handing over all the rights to your own music. I’m just so stubborn, I want to own my own music. Even if it does worse, I’d rather own it myself”.
Sofia’s first independent release comes alongside a locally filmed music video, shot across different spots in Jersey. Featuring locations such as Grosnez and St Ouens Bay, Sofia and her team clambered over rocks and sat in shopping trolleys in the middle of the sea to get the best shots for the track. She admitted that whilst they nearly fell off a cliff five times, and spent three days getting progressively more sunburnt, the whole experience was worth it. “It was really fun”, she said, “we were exhausted by the end, but the video turned out great”.
Outside of everything with ‘Run’ and ‘Rush’, Sofia’s working on a 5 track EP which she aims to release at the beginning of 2025. She’s also growing her TikTok presence, pushing her tracks out to a new audience who are quickly becoming monthly listeners. However, whilst she loves seeing people appreciate her music, she admits that she’s “not really concentrating on getting big numbers at the moment”. She told me, “I want to get these tracks out, then do performances, then concentrate on getting bigger numbers. As long as I have songs to sing and performances, that’s all I want right now”.
@sofianeal
