There’s something quietly disarming about Sophie May’s songwriting –

– the way it feels both deeply personal and carefully held at a distance, like a thought you’ve been sitting with for longer than you meant to. On her debut album Stars and Teeth, she leans fully into that tension, balancing existential weight with intimate, internal reflections.

Stars and Teeth - Sophie May — Stars and Teeth – Sophie May

Written over the course of a year and refined with meticulous care, the record brings together themes of longing, intrusive thoughts, and self-discovery without ever feeling overworked. Instead, it unfolds naturally, guided by instinct rather than concept – a collection of songs that feel lived-in rather than constructed. As she steps into this new chapter, May speaks with a quiet confidence, one shaped less by sudden breakthroughs and more by time, growth, and learning to trust her own voice.

In conversation with Atwood Magazine, Sophie May reflects on the making of Stars and Teeth, the emotional honesty behind her songwriting, and the slow, often invisible process of becoming more certain in who you are.

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:: stream/purchase Stars and Teeth here ::

:: connect with Sophie May here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH SOPHIE MAY

Atwood Magazine: Stars and Teeth feels deeply intimate, but also carefully balanced – as if every song is in conversation with the next. You’ve said you wanted each track to feel “on a level” with the others. What did balance mean to you while making this album, and how hard was it to let certain versions of songs go in pursuit of that feeling?

Sophie May: I think while I was making this album, I was very aware that you can only make your first album once. Which sounds intense but really I just didn’t want to settle on any songs that I felt could be made better. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of a line that felt good writing in the moment but sometimes pushing yourself to be a little more critical can actually lead you to an even more beautiful / considered outcome.

The album moves through tenderness, yearning, and intrusive thought spirals with such quiet confidence. Did you approach Stars and Teeth as a cohesive emotional journey from the beginning, or did that shape only become clear once the songs started living together?

Sophie May: For me this wasn’t really a concept album. I just wrote the songs over the course of a year and then produced them for another six months after that. I knew the kind of world I wanted them to live in, but I think the overall tone of the album came together in quite a natural way.

The title ‘Stars and Teeth’ is striking – both celestial and visceral. What do those images represent for you emotionally, and when did you know they belonged together as the name of the record?

Sophie May: It took me a while to get the name. But I ended up going with what I felt like encapsulated the whole feel of the project as a whole. Big existential worries paired with more intimate, internal feelings. ‘Stars and Teeth’ just felt right.

You’ve described “Touch Me” as capturing that irrational, hormone-led moment after a breakup – the pull toward something you know you should run from. Why did this song feel like the right one to introduce the album, and what does it reveal about the emotional world of Stars and Teeth?

Sophie May: “Touch Me” lives in a slightly different world sonically to the rest of the songs on the album. And that difference made it feel like a nice way to introduce people to a (hopefully) slightly more mature and elevated chapter of my music.

So much of your songwriting sits in that uncomfortable space between self-awareness and compulsion. How do you protect yourself emotionally when writing songs that require such honesty, especially when they’re rooted in longing or vulnerability?

Sophie May: I’m not sure if being overly honest ever crosses my mind when songwriting. I guess there are moments where a line might be a true reflection of what I’m going through, but in those cases that’s often what makes the song good. I don’t write lyrics the way I’d write in a diary. I feel quite secure when writing songs because you can word your honesty in a poetic way, which feels like a protection of sorts. No matter how honest the lyric, for me it never feels like I’m reading my diary out loud.

Your earlier work – songs like “Tiny Dictator” and Worst Things in the World – opened powerful conversations around OCD and intrusive thoughts. How has your relationship with writing about mental health changed since then? Does it feel different addressing these themes now, on a debut album?

Sophie May: I don’t think I’m ever consciously tackling any kind of specific themes when I’m writing, including mental health. I’m someone who has gone through periods of feeling really consumed by my OCD, so writing about it is just a product of how I felt in that moment. It worked the same for this album as any other project I’ve made. The songs that ended up on the album were the best of the bunch that I had been writing over the last couple years. So naturally a few of the songs lean towards some of my OCD tendencies. But I wouldn’t want to mark it as a conscious choice.

Looking back, do you see Stars and Teeth as a continuation of those earlier confessional instincts, or does it feel like a shift in how you hold and present those experiences?

Sophie May: I think the writing has changed slightly since my first projects because I’ve changed as a person since then. I’d like to think I’m a little more sure of myself now so hopefully this album brings that same growth also.

Your lyrics often feel precise and quietly devastating, like they’ve been lived with for a long time before being shared. Do you still write outside of songs – poetry, fragments, notebooks – or has your process evolved as you’ve worked toward larger bodies of work like this album?

Sophie May: I’m being honest this album took a lot of my attention that past two years. When I began the writing process I went full tunnel vision just churning out songs and working any of the ones that felt like they had potential. That being said, I do still like to write bad poetry on the side. Id love to do another poetry book at some point.

You’ve cited artists like Angel Olsen, Adrienne Lenker, and Weyes Blood as inspirations. Were there particular writers, musicians, or even non-musical influences that shaped the emotional language of Stars and Teeth?

Sophie May: I’m constantly influenced by other artists. I feel like I can remember who I was listening to and drawing inspiration from on each of the tracks off the album. For me It doesn’t feel like a real conscious choice when some of my inspirations slip into my own work. It’s just nice to feel inspired enough to want to keep making music you haven’t made yet. Personally I find it quite motivating hearing something that makes me look to my own work and makes me feel like it needs more of whatever that person is doing. It’s the balance of finding it inspirational and not self-deprecating. I like the feeling of not having captured exactly what I want yet. And listening to other artists pushes me to make things even better than the last time.

Over the past few years, your audience has grown rapidly, both online and in live spaces that feel deeply communal. Has knowing how closely listeners connect to your songs changed the way you think about releasing such personal work?

Sophie May: To me songwriting feels very personal and small. I write alone in my room most of the time. I think if I start to let in the idea of other people listening to what I’m writing in that moment, I’d probably end up writing really bad songs. I love playing live and getting to meet the people that have been listening to my music. But when it comes to the writing process I try to keep the doors closed. Both literally and figuratively.

Stars and Teeth feels like the work of someone who trusts their instincts. Do you feel more confident in your voice now than you did even a couple of years ago – and if so, what helped you get there?

Sophie May: I definitely feel like I can trust my choices a lot more than a few years ago. I’d like to say it’s due to some artistic breakthrough, but really I think I owe all my confidence to time. It really is just as simple as getting older and slowly understanding who you are and what you want to put into the world.

When listeners finish Stars and Teeth – whether they play it once or return to it again and again – what do you hope stays with them the longest?

Sophie May: Ultimately, I’ll always be a songwriter who loves classic songwriting. So if anything, I hope people can connect to the lyrics and feel like this is an album they can hold with them forever, or however long they so choose. I’ll always love these songs, as well as anyone that offers their time up to listen to them.

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With Stars and Teeth, Sophie May doesn’t try to resolve the contradictions she writes about – she simply allows them to exist.

It’s that openness, that willingness to sit in uncertainty rather than define it, that gives the album its quiet power. For Sophie May, songwriting remains something intimate and contained, created behind closed doors before it ever reaches an audience. And yet, once released, these songs take on a life of their own – carried by listeners who find pieces of themselves within them.

If there’s one thing she hopes endures, it’s that connection: the idea that these songs can be held onto, revisited, and lived with over time. Because while Stars and Teeth may mark the beginning of her story as an album artist, it’s also something far simpler: A collection of moments, honestly felt, and carefully shared.

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