Sofie Royer "before/after live 2026"

Sofie Royer is a multidisciplinary artist based in Vienna who translates her interest in classical tradition into shimmering electro-pop songs. A conservatory-trained violinist from Vienna, Sofie ended up in California at age 19, where she DJed, helped establish Boiler Room in LA, and worked at Stones Throw. Over the past six years, Sofie has honed her songwriting skills with three acclaimed albums. She channeled her love for French chanson into her 2020 debut,*Cult Survivor*,and drew inspiration from Viennese opera and ballet for 2022’s*Harlequin*. She appeared as a guest artist on Lewis OfMan’s latest album, *CristalMedium Blue*, and on Toro Y Moi’s*MAHAL*in 2022, and has recently opened for Lana Del Rey, Air, LCD Soundsystem, Belle & Sebastian, and Von Wegen Lisbeth.

For Sofie’s 2024 album*Young-Girl Forever*, she borrowed the term “Young-Girl” from the book*Preliminary Materials for the Theory of a Young-Girl*, originally published in the French anarchist journal *Tiqqun* and republished in English by Semiotext(e). She expressed a desire for true liberation while oscillating between optimism and doom, and celebrating the figure of the “Young-Girl” while critiquing the culture that created her.

Now, she’s a pop artist who infuses her lyrics with references to Fassbinder, David Lynch, and Falco, and has collaborated with prominent pop producers on her new album *before/after*, out September 4 on Stones Throw— , Matt Cohn (SZA, Charli XCX), Jorgen Odegard (Sabrina Carpenter, BLACKPINK), and Eli Hirsch ( Suki Waterhouse). The Austrian-Iranian pop artist and producer wonders if conflicts between the past and the future aren’t really just battles with ourselves. “The older you get, the more aware you become of certain patterns in your behavior,” she says. “So you ask, what will it take for me to stop repeating the same things over and over again? But then you find yourself behaving the same way.”

As her songwriting and production have grown more complex and polished, Sofie’s lyrics—which weave self-exploration with cultural commentary—have become sharper. On *before/after*, the main target of her satire and critique is herself. But though Sofie might be her own worst enemy, she’s also the first person to laugh at herself: the cover of *before/after*depicts Sofie’s face crushed beneath a boot; the back of the jacket reveals that she’s the one holding the boot. As she puts it, “Really, in the state of *before/after*, it’s always you versus you.”