SOHN writes about a life on the move
by David Safar
May 15, 2017
Christopher Taylor — who performs under the moniker SOHN — has played 110 shows a year for two years, he's relocated from London (via Vienna) to Los Angeles and he's married and had a baby. "There's no way to sort of do that and stay sane unless you can give yourself up to it," SOHN says. "This record to me was about staying on the move."
It's no wonder, then, that SOHN's latest album is called Rennen, which means "to run" in German. SOHN is touring in support of the new album, and he stopped at The Current to record a session for New Hot with host David Safar.
In talking about the songs on Rennen, SOHN shares stories about a couple of the songs that have great personal significance to him. About "Hard Liquor," SOHN says, "It was actually about someone I had met, who was this incredible girl who didn't care about anything and was just drinking hard liquor the whole time … I ended up marrying that girl."
The title track, "Rennen," was inspired by a friend of SOHN who had been earnestly considering suicide. "It was a song that came to me through conversations with him," SOHN says. "Thankfully, he didn't give up; he's now in a lot better shape. But it became this really beautiful song about giving yourself up to the world."
As he looks at what inspires him as an artist, SOHN is wary of the current conditions in the world, but he maintains a glimmer of hope in individual people. "I feel like what's happening is alliances that have been in place for a long, long time are starting to dissolve, and new alliances are being made in other positions, and I don't' really yet see where it's all going, but I definitely feel like it's not going to a good place," he says. "I think everyone's got responsibility to start being a little bit more of a stand-up citizen from day to day."
Use the audio player above to listen to the complete in-studio session with SOHN.
Songs Performed
"Hard Liquor"
"Rennen"
"Conrad"
All songs from SOHN's 2017 album, Rennen, available on 4AD.
Hosted and produced by David Safar
Engineered by Michael DeMark
Visuals by Nate Ryan
Web feature by Luke Taylor
Resources
SOHN - official site
