Music

When I get on the phone with exuberant electronica project Sofi Tukker, the first thing I hear is that Sophie Hawley-Weld — one half of the duo, along with Tucker Halpern — has just gotten back from the hospital after herniating a disc. Despite the injury, she and Halpern are equal parts peppy and down to earth, with irresistible energy and rapport; even a spine injury, it seems, didn’t put a dent in their infectious, unending optimism. At this point, it doesn’t seem like anything could.

For a duo who rose to fame playing their unique brand of jazz and bossa nova-infused EDM on the global festival circuit, the pandemic could have spelled career disaster. But Sofi Tukker pivoted and started livestreaming daily sets directly to their fans … until, before they knew it, they were the second-most-viewed solo music streamers in the world. Their streams inspired a new fan community called the Freak Fam, whose emotional and material support for each other helped get everyone through the pandemic’s darkest days. It’s the joy and optimism of the Freak Fam that inspired Sofi Tukker’s new album, WET TENNIS.

It sounds like you and your audience grew closer than ever over the pandemic.

HAWLEY-WELD: Definitely, that’s true. I think on a different level, like the people who would come back every day, we just developed such an intense intimacy with, because it was, like, we’re not just going to their city one time a year. We’re with them every single day throughout what was one of the hardest periods of time for a lot of people. So, you know, we were checking in with how their grandmother was, and how their cat was, and how their surgery went …

We really, truly knew so much about each other’s lives during that time.

HALPERN: I think just as much as it helped them, I think it helped us. You know, we were definitely going through difficult times, and I know, personally, I was very open about talking about what I was going through. I think the reason that the fan connection got so much closer is because people really got to know us on a personal level.

How did you two meet?

HAWLEY-WELD: We met in college. We weren’t actually friends in college, but I was performing a jazz bossa nova set at an art gallery, and Tucker was the DJ at the same event. And he came early and saw me play and he basically started mixing out of my set. We basically remixed one of my songs that I was playing live on the spot — it just felt so seamless and natural and sounded really good. And, so, the next day, I literally went to his place and we recorded that track, and we’ve been working together ever since.

What does WET TENNIS mean?

HAWLEY-WELD: There is, kind of, three layers to it. There’s the tennis part of it, which is about how everything we do is a back and forth between the two of us … We also really like the fashion of tennis, and what we really want to do with this is move it from something that is exclusive, like, “You have to wear all white to get into the country club,” and make it really colourful and inclusive and wet. The “wet” part of it is about that enthusiasm and excitement and flow that makes it a little different from traditional tennis. And then it’s also an acronym — so it actually stands for “When Everyone Tries To Evolve, Nothing Negative Is Safe.” It’s inspired by the Freak Fam and by the experience that we had over the pandemic, whereby all of these people were showing up every single day and they were choosing, even though life was a bit shitty and challenging, to choose optimism. To choose to be together and to dance and to dress up. That mentality is really something that we wanted to make sure the album represented.

What do you hope people get from the album?

HAWLEY-WELD: I mean, it depends on the track. But in general, I think that we want people to listen to the album and, at the end of the album, just feel better than they did before they heard it, you know? And maybe a little freer or freakier — a little happier.