Sophie Allison began releasing music as Soccer Mommy at the tail end of 2015. Without any label backing or promo campaign, Soccer Mommy’s Bandcamp page soon became a source of great intrigue, culminating in the official release and distribution of the mini-LP, Collection, in August 2017.

Issued via indie rock stable Fat Possum, Collection found admirers at such high-profile publications as Pitchfork, Stereogum, NPR and the New York Times, and nabbed Allison support slots with Mitski, Jay Som and The Drums.

It’s a rapid rise, especially considering Allison is still just 20 years old, but she’s not inclined to slink back and lap up the adulation. Rather, she’s been busy working on Soccer Mommy’s debut full length, Clean.

Preceded by the instantly memorable indie rock gems ‘Dog’ and ‘Cool’, the album’s characterised by Allison’s emotive lyrics and thoughtful full band arrangements. It’s also awash with catchy melodies, the inclusion of which is no mere accident.

“I think that’s the first part [of a song] that grabs you,” says Allison. “Lyrics obviously grab you; if you have a great lyric, that can just be like, ‘Woah’. But I think definitely when people listen to your album, the first thing they hear is the melodies. That’s the first thing that gets you, and then you can come to enjoy the intricacies that are below all that.

“I can have a great lyric and then be like, ‘I’m going to put it in a different song because I don’t like this melody. It isn’t catchy enough.’”

Allison’s lyrics command attention throughout Clean. Typically personal in nature, they often focus on romantic relationships and associated mistreatment, as well the narrator’s aspirations to become someone more desirable and cooler.

And despite the inclusion of several detailed, fact-heavy narratives, listeners will surely see echoes of their own life experience. This aspect of the lyrics’ appeal, however, wasn’t especially premeditated.

I try to paint pictures that capture a moment; a feeling that I’ve felt a billion times that has crushed me.

“I just kind of write it for me,” says Allison. “I try to paint pictures that capture a moment; a feeling that I’ve felt a billion times that has crushed me. I take little pieces of my life or little moments that I remember that just perfectly capture that feeling for me – that perfectly capture a time in my life or a feeling – and I try to piece those together to try to make the song feel like what all of that felt like.

“That way it just ends up getting people because of the feeling. Even if the words are personal and the lyrics are specific, the feeling is still there and it’s something a lot of people have experienced, usually.”

This kind of empathetic transfer is something Allison has cherished in the artists she admires. “When a lyric is so insanely specific and fits the exact thing I’m feeling, it can be very cathartic listening to it,” she says. “I just apply it to moments of my life and feel like it’s something I’ve written.

“I look up to Joni Mitchell a lot, definitely. Her songwriting is so insanely beautiful and crushing and captures every feeling I could ever want to capture. And Mitski is an amazing songwriter too. I think she’s one of the best around right now. Those are definitely two big ones for me.”

Produced by Gabe Wax, the album is a much more hi-fi production than Soccer Mommy’s earlier bedroom recordings. Along with enhanced studio production, a bigger sound is enabled by the presence of a full band. That said, Allison has yet to solidify the Soccer Mommy live lineup, which meant most of the arrangements took shape as the album was recorded.

Some [songs] just totally changed once I got in the studio.

“Some of them I was like, ‘I know what we want here, I know what we need to go about doing.’ And then some of them just totally changed once I got in the studio; it was totally different to what I thought it was going to be.”

Wax has previously engineered records by Cass McCombs and Speedy Ortiz, as well as co-producing Beirut’s latest, No, No, No. The strength of Clean, in terms of songwriting, performance and production, speaks volumes to the close partnership formed by Allison and Wax.

“He was super invested. He did more work than me,” Allison laughs. “We had to do [the recording] with months in between. We did a week in September and then we did a week in November. So a couple of the songs we recorded the basic tracking and then he sent me the finished song with full production on it.

“There was two on there that he did pretty much everything besides the basic guitar, drums, vocals and bass. But other ones it was a total group effort. He did an amazing job, but it was great to work as a team on it and make this thing that was kind of both of our creations.”

Guitarist Julian Powell is the only other musician on the album who’s also part of the Soccer Mommy live set-up. “He was very involved with the whole process as well. But the drummer [Nick Brown] and the piano player were just hired people.”

The move from intimate solo recordings to dynamic band arrangements coincides with a sharpening of Allison’s songwriting skills. But make no mistake, fleshing out the arrangements doesn’t mean Soccer Mommy’s likely to become a group-oriented project.

“I want a steady band, for sure, and I’d be happy to have them on the record, but the songs will always be mine. The ideas, the vision of it will always be mine.”

Clean is out through Inertia / Fat Possum on Friday March 2. Click here to read an interview with the ever-sweet, Melbourne pop act Totally Mild. 

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