MacD on Music: Read Your Mind

Since starting this job, people have often asked me how I go about finding artists and getting interviews. Basically, there’s three main methods. One, I get in touch and say ‘Do you want to do an interview for…’, two, the artist/band reaches out to me about getting something in the paper or three, someone (usually a promoter or manager) will get in touch with me and ask would I be interested in talking to such and such. This third method is how I’ve discovered a few artists that I probably wouldn’t have heard about otherwise, including the subject of this week’s column, Sofia Gillani. 

Sofia is a London-based singer/songwriter who began her career at age nine with a role in ‘Evita’. Since then she has gone on to release a string of singles, including her most recent, ‘Read Your Mind’ (out now). I spoke to Sofia about her musical beginnings and her career to date.

“I definitely got into music through growing up around instruments. I’ve always been quite loud, quite bold in general and I knew the only way I wanted to express that was through singing. I released my first song at twelve, which is really kind of crazy, and from there I’ve just been on this journey, releasing singles, going with the flow and learning along the way.”

Describing her sound: “I’d say it’s very experimental. It is leaning towards pop and R&B, which is always fun, but I listen to a wide variety of genres. I’ve done a bit of rap a few times, there’s even bits of rock, but leaning towards pop and R&B.”

 I asked Sofia who her main influences would be: “At the moment I’m really digging Jhené Aiko. She’s really, really cool. I love the harmonies and the sounds that she uses on her music. I really like Ariana Grande and Charlie Puth. They’re quite experimental with their songs and their music as well. My early influences, people who have always influenced me would be, like, Adele, because she has that really loud, really soulful, to the core, which I love.”

I asked about how many singles she’s released to date and the reception she’s received: “I’ve done fifteen? I lose track nowadays. We just keep going, really. I’m always writing in the studio, singing in the studio, but around fifteen I think. We’ve just been releasing singles, we don’t have CDs and stuff, but we’re developing all that for it to be a big thing later.”

“So far, the feedback has been incredible, especially on social media, on Instagram. I’ve got a lot of radio press from America and some other countries. Even in, like Asia, in Japan, China, but, yeah, really great feedback so far.”

Speaking about her career highlights to date: “I did Haslemere Fringe Festival, which was really cool. I was on the main stage for that. I also did the Southbank Centre, which was incredible. I was on BBC Radio Berkshire and BBC Introducing on a separate occasion. I’ve had so many amazing gigs. They’re all on my social media but those are definitely the highlights.”

Speaking about who she’s worked with so far: “I have an amazing team of producers, people who like to collaborate every now and then, but I haven’t actually done a collaboration with my music yet. I’m so open though, and would love to work with other people.  Sometimes, I have my keyboardist that comes with me to my gigs and stuff. I do have a backing track but I do like to have my accompanist with me.”

READ MORE: MacD on Music

Next, I asked about her dream collaboration: “I’d say it would either be with Ariana Grande or Jhené Aiko. I love how vulnerable they are in their music. They’re quite sentimental and they wear their hearts on their sleeve, and I think collaborating with someone who has such emotional intelligence in their music and is able to express it in that way would be really, really cool.” 

Finally, Sofia told me about her goals for the future: “The main goal is to do more gigs globally. I do a lot in the UK. It’s like my main gig-base, but I have a big fan base in America and other countries that I’d like to explore, so it would be really cool to do gigs in the US and everywhere else that my music gets played. Definitely more global gigs and follow that with the release of more and more material. I’d love to come to Ireland too.”

And that’s it from Sofia Gillani. Her new single ‘Read My Mind’ is out now on all good streaming platforms and she can be found on Instagram @sofia.aneesa.gillani.