Sophie hardy, formally well known as the backing singer the zeros. Now well known as one the biggest upcoming singers of 2011. She’s already bagged herself two EMA’s including the best push and best new act awards. So she’s back on our screens and back on our iPods. So why is she still so insecure and apprehensive about her new album?
She first came into our lives at bestival 2009 singing as one of three backing vocals to the band zeros (which is roughly the position they hit in the charts!) to our surprise she released a single at the end of 2010 and ever since she has been a big part of our iTunes library. So to fully understand the phenomenon that is Sophie hardy we take a look back to her roots. She was the middle of five girls growing up on a council estate in Willesden northwest London, she never was the star of the show. Even as a child she had a rebellious streak, she drifted from school to school always getting kicked out for misbehaving. Even though she was a troubled young girl who always got in with the wrong crowd, she always made the time for attend church on a Sunday where all of her sisters sang in the choir. She adds, “I’m glad I went, I never moaned about going. Secretly I rather enjoyed seeing my sisters sing with so much confidence and ease”. Unlike her sisters she never sung in the choir she says, she did and still does have a very low opinion of her own vocal skills “ I hated singing, the thought of everyone looking at me. It sounds so strange to say but its true”.
It was coming to the end of her school life and she still did not know what to do. ”I just drifted through school, I wasn’t exactly the smartest” by the end of her final year she managed to get herself the grades she needed to do. It is at this point that Sophie’s story took a twist that was straight out of a Hollywood film, she had been recently helping her friend Kate with learn her lines for the school musical. Kate was the lead role in the well-known west side story. It was Sophie who had practiced the lines and lyrics for months. A week leading up to the play Kate got very ill. This is when Sophie hardy became the knight and shining amour, “at first I was reluctant not to do it, but the school promised me that It was only for the first night till Kate got better so in the end I had to agree” the school gave her a few singing lessons and this was the night that dreams where made of. “ I thought I was going to be sick I know it’s a cliché but my hands where sweating and knees where shaking” the production was held in a near-by town theatre. In the crowd that night there was a fellow pupil father Chris Morris, an executive at Menillium Records… pure Hollywood.
Chris had taken a complete shine to this young and wonderful Sophie and found her backstage shaking like mad and fanning herself. He assured Sophie that she was amazing and that one day she could be massive “still to this day I though he was joking, I thought someone had put him up to it”. He told Sophie to record herself singing and as soon as she did to send the tape to him, he gave her a his card and with one more look back at her strode away. The next few months where a complete haze she recorded her tape and sent it, “I didn’t hear back from them for ages, I thought they clearly listened to it and hated it. So that was that, I never was going to be a famous singer anyway” .
Next thing she knows she’s got a call asking her to come into the studio and do a couple of tracks to see her full potential. This was the glorias day Sophie had found a new love for singing and realized how much she wanted it. The next couple of months was a complete whirlwind she had produced a tape that showed her full potential, Sophie still had a slight confidence problem and was still so anxious about the musical world. Chris had seen this side to her and said that there was room for another backing vocalist in a new band called the Zeros. Immediately Sophie took this chance and knew that all eyes would not be on her. They did small Friday night gigs in pubs and became bigger and bigger they then had the grand chance to play on a small stage at bestival 2009. Unluckily this proved to be there biggest but last performance. The group later that year had decided to take some time off because there newfound “fame” was just too much. “I’m a really loyal person, to be honest if they hadn’t pulled the plug I would probably still be with them” a couple of months later Sophie had decide that’s she’s got to stop moping over the fact the band was a complete failure so she had booked a long holiday, where she spent most of her time lying on the hot sandy beach’s and drinking rather too much. She got a call from Chris one morning asking how she is and what she’s been up to “I didn’t understand why he was calling me just to have a chat but as soon as he said that he wanted to meet as soon as I got back to London. I was not going to miss an opportunity like this, I took the next flight home!”
She met Chris, full of hope. Chris, who always had a soft spot for Sophie looked her in the eye and said, “I’ve got an idea”……..
So where does this leave us?... with her new album “under the tree”… we already know this is heading straight to number one. Lets forget the “backstory” and look at the sound, its exactly what Sophie would want. From two well known singles to this epic album. The album is dripping in laid-back caj attitude, where as Sophie herself is so nervous about her new release. God knows why. The album is full drum solos, heavenly harps and a choir that sounds like its sent from God himself. With every lyric sung you will be in an ultimate trance. Sophie hardy is really riding the waves to success.
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