Philine Sonny

In the artist's words:

Philine Sonny, real name Philine Bernsdorf, is 20 years old and comes from Unna in the Ruhr area.

Her musical path began when she sat at the drums for the first time at the age of 10.

A short time later, Philine started taking drum lessons and started making music in school bands and the school choir. Within the next 7 years she taught herself to play guitar, bass and piano, took singing lessons and started writing songs.

Her interest in music production also grew and became a bigger and bigger part of her artistic identity after graduating high school.

In early 2019, her ambition to pursue this activity as a profession intensified and she began to professionalize her songwriting and production process more and more. She finds her sound in modern minded indie with nostalgic Springsteen borrowings, folk and bedroom pop aesthetics.

A short time later, Philine takes part in several newcomer workshops and contests. She also attracted the attention of many people, including A&R's of major record companies, but she decided to take the first steps with the management and indie label Mightkillya, in order to be able to uncompromisingly pursue her own vision of her art.

Besides studying music, she spends a lot of time in Hamburg, where she was able to make some connections in the local music scene last year. She supported the local artist M. Byrd on bass, guitar, vocals and keys at several shows - including the much sought-after Reeperbahn Festival.

Philine sees her artistic roots in classically pared-down singer/songwriter music. In her repertoire, however, melancholic indie rock guitars go hand in hand with organic piano parts, driving drum beats with fragile acoustic guitar.

Despite the contrasts, the different facets are in no way inferior to each other and find a rightful place on Philine Sonny's debut EP "Lose Yourself". Artists such as Bruce Springsteen, The War on Drugs, Maggie Rogers or Bon Iver influenced her sonically and lyrically.

As a sensitive person Philine draws her inspiration from supposedly or actually inconspicuous stories from everyday life, people from her direct environment are often part of her lyrics.

Although Philine Sonny often tells stories from a self-critical, depression- and anxiety-ridden perspective of a child of divorce, that is not all that makes her stories what they are.

A critical and naïve attitude toward existing norms and systems has also become a significant part of the creative breeding ground as she has grown up. Above all, she tries to take away the fear of losing oneself and finding oneself again.