FEATURE: Spotlight: Sophia Stel — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Keeler for NME

Sophia Stel

__________

BACK in September…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ryley Paskal

Range spoke with Sophia Stel. They chatted with “The effortlessly undone electronic darling on surrendering to imperfection and her new EP, How to Win At Solitaire”. Raised in this large religious family and born on Vancouver Island, it is fascinating reading about the upbringing and background of Sophia Stel. Her music and sound is unlike anything I have heard. An amazing artist that you need to know about:

“Stel doesn’t so much lead these songs as she drifts through them, her voice occasionally submerged, stretched, or barely there at all. “All Seven Seasons” is a highlight—looped guitar, skittering drums, everything slightly off-axis. Like the rest of How to Win At Solitaire, it’s less about polish than sensation: clipped, isolated, anti-expressive in a way that still lands.

Stel’s rough-around-the-edges approach isn’t carelessness—it’s a commitment to grit over finish. “I’m not much of a perfectionist, I just want it to be listenable,” she says, as if that were ever really in question. “I think sometimes it’s just a matter of convincing myself that it’s good enough to let it go. It’s less about feeling like ‘this is totally perfect,’” she says. That straightforward pragmatism cuts through the usual artist anxieties around perfection, a testament to Stel’s ability to balance vulnerability with resolve.

While most emerging artists present calculated visions of control, Stel’s path is defined by uncertainty. “I keep trying to make a plan, but it’s kind of proven to be impossible because things are just changing constantly,” she says. There’s no meticulous strategy—just a commitment to keep creating amid the flux. “The only clear-cut plan I have is just making as much music as possible… this year, I probably need to learn to be okay with not knowing what’s going to happen.” Her perspective rejects tidy identities and linear stories, embracing the friction inherent in transformation.

Solitaire isn’t about mastery—it’s a game of endurance, an exercise in sitting with uncertainty and learning to be okay with what you can’t control. That ethos runs through Stel’s music and her process: a restless, ongoing disruption. This is the sound of an artist fully aware that the only constant is change—and that’s where the real potential lives. If How to Win At Solitaire stakes a claim in electronic pop’s fringes, Stel’s next move will be less about winning and more about what it means to keep playing”.

Wonderland. named Sophia Stel as one of their artists to watch this year. It is clear that she is turning a lot of heads: “Breaking through the ice of Vancouver’s quietly thriving independent scene, Sophia Stel’s murky ethereality is striking a chord between glacial experimentation and heated pop iridescence. September’s EP “How to Win at Solitaire” took her haunted warmth to new depths – gorgeously performed and produced. Finding fans among both social media zeitgeisters and dorkish music fans, Stel’s elegantly trailer-trash aesthetic could be synonymous with 2026”. Before getting to some interviews from this year, this office interview from last year is worth highlighting:

“How has being Canadian shaped your path as an artist?

In Vancouver, the scene is pretty small and there are very few female producers. I didn’t really understand how the music industry worked when I first started out. At times it felt isolating. But now, I feel really proud to be from here. Canadian artists are so creative and hardworking, and I think that kind of underdog energy makes you push even harder to be seen internationally.

Were you always artistic and drawn to music?

I used to walk around and sing and make up songs. That’s what my mom always said. I took some music lessons and started writing songs, and honestly, once I started, I found it pretty hard to stop.

What did you use when you first started making music?

I bought a 2013 MacBook when I was young, and honestly, I used that until last year. I’ve always worked with pretty minimal gear: a $300 mic, a $100 interface, and before that, just a USB mic and GarageBand. My guitar was a gift from a friend. It’s not fancy, but it works. I’ve always believed if you want to make something, you’ll find a way.

Have you found your sound as an artist or is it still evolving?

It’s definitely still evolving. I was saying before, hookiness or a catchyness is really important to me when I am making music. But it's more than that, it's a certain feeling and it's hard to explain–more of an emotional connection to what I'm making. I’m always chasing a feeling, something emotional, honest, intimate. I’ve never had a moment where I’ve gone, “This is it, this is my sound forever.”

Outside of making music, what are your passions?

I’ve really gotten into videography, just random moments mostly, anything that catches my eye. It feels like this natural extension of making music, like I’m building little visual worlds. Also, I have always loved to skateboard.

What’s next for you?

I want to score a film. I want to produce for other artists. And honestly, I want to make the best album of all time”.

Actually, there is just the one interview from 2026 I will spotlight THE FACE, and their interview. From self-producing incredible Electropop songs in the same place she tended bar, Sophia Stel then moved to “walked the runway in Paris and inked a deal with A24 Music. Now, she’s connecting with diehard lovesick fans across the world”. If you have not heard the music of Sophia Stel then do go and check her out:

“Finding herself mentally conjuring lyrics to the thumping beats – all while pouring shots – Sophia would go home and scribble them down. Eventually, her boss let her use the club’s green room on weekdays to record. It was an incubating space that was special to her. “I made all of How to Win At Solitaire down there. That’s why there’s so much electronic guitar on the record, because I could play it super loud. It was,” she laments, “the perfect space for me,” not least because “you could smoke inside”.

You don’t need to read the EP’s liner notes to gauge that the songs on How to Win At Solitaire were written out of the peculiar longing of heartbreak – when life moves on, but you haven’t. On Taste – a melancholic anthem she began writing with a synth that had been left behind at Paradise – she sings: “Heard you’re on a new thing now /Yeah, that’s just what it takes /And for you it’s slowing down /And I wonder how it tastes”. As she puts it: “My music has always been very personal in a way that, a lot of the time, I think: ‘Oh, I wish it wasn’t quite so personal.’ But it’s like I have no choice. It’s vulnerable just to sing, or to make something. So if the lyrics are too, I guess maybe that’s fitting.”

Even over Zoom, Sophia’s long, fine hair, rakish frame and elfin vibe are striking; she could cameo in a photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron or Bill Henson. Unsurprisingly, the fashion world has taken note. In September, she walked in Ann Demeulemeester’s SS26 show, for which she wore cascading white feathers in her hair.

“It was my first time in Paris and I had pretty much the best week of my life,” Sophia remembers. “I was extremely nervous, but everyone was really nice and helped me understand. I kept the feathers in my hair for days.” Sophia’s hair is her Samson signature. In fact, her friends won’t let her cut it off. “About a year ago I actually Photoshopped a photo of Angelina Jolie’s pixie cut onto myself. I thought it looked quite fire. But my friends were like: ‘No, definitely don’t do that!’ Then, within a month, I was like: ‘Oh, this is my favourite thing about myself.’ Now I’m trying to grow it to have the longest hair in the world.”

PHOTO CREDIT: David Sims

If Sophia has caught the attention of casting directors, it’s as much about that vibe as her literal styling, and it derives from her close creative partnership with her longstanding visual collaborators. In the video for I’ll Take It, she rocks up to a 10th-floor gym after hours, wired headphones in and purple adidas hoodie zipped, mouthing her lyrics as she lifts weights and spins about. In the sunrise opening of the rooftop-set Everyone Falls Asleep In Their Own Time, she lights a cig and not-quite-winks at the camera. By the end, she’s veered into parkour, the city skyline behind her, the moves and views a callback to her and Aaron’s youthful passion for skating. “With street skating, you’re always looking. You view things with a creative mind. Spots where you could do a trick. [Our] favourite thing was just to smoke weed and edit a skating video. It’s so fun.” A few months back, Sophia’s skating connection and fashion credentials synced up rather nicely when she modelled for Palace’s holiday lookbook.

Beyond the shifts at Paradise, Sophia has always made music while bopping around different forms of work, from gardening to painting houses. “It’s been good to do these jobs that don’t steal a lot of focus or mental energy, in some ways,” she says. “Even if that meant being a bit broke, it was always about having more time to make music.” But now, as her music career ramps up, she’s gone full-time. Capitalising on her rising profile, the deluxe edition of How to Win At Solitaire was recently released with features from Mura Masa, Tommy Genesis and SOPHIE collaborator Cecile Believe.

Now, with the backing of A24 Music, Sophia plans to maintain her autonomous spirit. “They completely support my creative vision,” she says of the record label outpost of the film company. “It’s been amazing to work with them.” In practice, this means she’ll still be self-producing all the music for her as-yet-untitled debut album from home – or, increasingly, while on the road as her real life as a touring musician begins”.

It is exciting that Sophia Stel is coming to the U.K. and will play London on 23rd April. Go and get a ticket if you can, as she is an amazing artist and I can only imagine how powerful her live sets are. Following the release of How to Win At Solitaire last year, I am curious what is next for her. In terms of another E.P. or an album. This is a simply outstanding songwriter that you…