SOKO ANNOUNCES FIRST HEADLINE TOUR OF NORTH AMERICA
JUNE TOUR INCLUDES SHOWS AT EL REY IN L.A. (6/2) AND NYC’S LE POISSON ROUGE (6/18)
SOKO RECORDING SECOND FULL-LENGTH ALBUM – MY DREAMS DICTATE MY REALITY – WITH ROSS ROBINSON
“WE MIGHT BE DEAD BY TOMORROW,” FROM HER DEBUT ALBUM, TOPS BILLBOARD’S STREAMING SONGS CHART AFTER “FIRST KISS” SHORT FILM GOES VIRAL
French multi-instrumentalist Soko today announced her first headline tour of the United States. Soko is currently in the studio recording her second full-length album, My Dreams Dictate My Reality, with producer Ross Robinson (The Cure, At The Drive-In).
While this record is the follow-up to her record that Nylon Magazine called “gritty,” “honest,” and “simple,” you can expect more of the grit and honest and less of the simple on Dreams. A fun taste of Soko in the studio HERE. Upon finishing recording, Soko will hit the road with a full band and will preview songs from the forthcoming album along with some songs from her acclaimed, if not a tad quieter, 2012 full-length debut, I Thought I Was An Alien. The run kicks off June 1 at the Constellation Room in Santa Ana, CA and includes shows at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre (June 2) and Le Poisson Rouge in New York City (June 18). Penn Badgley’s band Mother (on Neon Gold Records) is supporting on all dates. See below for full list of dates.
“Think Daniel Johnston with experience in place of innocence. Touching and strangely beautiful,” said The UK Independent upon the release of I Thought I Was An Alien, which Soko produced with Fritz Michaud (Elliott Smith). Stew of Negro Problem, reviewing for The Talkhouse, pronounced it “brilliant” and urged, “You should stop reading this now and just listen to it.” “Beneath the neu-folk veneer…lies lush beds of texture rife with swelling strings, pulsating synthetic drum beats, and reverb-soaked keyboards,” observed Vogue.
Born in France and now residing in Los Angeles, Soko has appeared in more than a dozen French films, including À l’origine (In the Beginning), for which she was nominated for a César Award, and 2012’s Augustine, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina. The New York Times praised “the uncanny power of Soko’s face and body” in Augustine, saying “she is as grave and luminous as a silent-film star.” When director Tatia Pilieva tapped her for “First Kiss,” a short film that features 20 strangers kissing for the first time, Pilieva selected Soko’s “We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow” as the soundtrack to the short black-and-white film, which became a viral hit, racking up more than 80 million views to date.
“We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow,” which is from I Thought I Was An Alien, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart and at No. 9 on the Hot 100 last month. You can view Soko’s video for “We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow” HERE and “First Kiss” HERE. While there is an air of melancholy to Soko’s songs like “We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow,” they also brim with the sense of euphoria that comes from learning to live in the now.
A self-taught talent, Soko began writing songs at age 20, teaching herself guitar after seeing a friend play music and realizing she wanted and could do that, too. After moving to Paris, radio stations in Denmark, Belgium and Australia started spinning her music, and soon she was playing gigs with Daniel Johnston, M.I.A., Babyshambles, and Azure Ray, among others. In addition to her songwriting and acting, she is also known for directing her own boldly spirited DIY music videos and creating her own artwork.
Soko – U.S. Headline Tour
6/1 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
6/2 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
6/3 – San Francisco, CA @ Slims
6/5 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
6/6 – Vancouver, BC @ The Imperial
6/7 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
6/10 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center
6/11 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
6/13 – Toronto, ON @ The Hoxton
6/14 – Montreal, QC @ Le National
6/15 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
6/18 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
