Today's Song: Susannah Joffe Freestyles a Sweet Concoction on "Sofia Coppola"

A longtime fan of Sofia Coppola’s work – “Marie Antoinette” most of all – Susannah Joffe has named her new song after one of her longtime cinematic heroes. The fully freestyled track alludes to the finer and sweeter things in life in gleeful and lighthearted style.

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Stream: “Sofia Coppola” – Susannah Joffe

“Coppola” remains one of the most respected names in the entertainment industry – even if Sir Francis’ comeback attempt, Megalopolis, didn’t fare so well at the box office last fall – and it’s likely a smart move for a rising singer like Susannah Joffe to name one of her singles after the prominent daughter of the family. The name recognition has to count for something, right?!

Yet as we all know from history’s greatest playwright, names don’t really count for all that much; it’s really an artist’s talent and musical versatility that will allow them to go far. Ms. Joffe has spent much of her life strengthening up in those departments; it certainly helps that she grew up in Austin, Texas, one of the cities in America where live music is the most inescapable.

“I grew up going to small open mics, watching bluegrass and country bands at places like Shady Grove, Threadgills, and Antones, which feel exactly how they sound,” she says. “That organic Texas sound has always informed my music. It did then, and it still does now.”

Joffe started off performing compositions written by her father, but then she took command of the pen and released one of her first self-authored singles, “Backseat” in 2021 (“I see my project as really having begun” with that song, she reflects). A steady stream of singles have since followed, along with two EPs, The Punch and Your Mother’s Name. And now, she’s inaugurating a new creative phase, one she says will be geared towards making music that is “all about whimsy and dreaminess, whether that be dark and foreboding, or light and fleeting. The songs are super production heavy and the visuals are a huge part as well because I really want to create an alternate universe for the project and fans to live in.”

“Sofia Coppola” represents an early window into that alternative universe.

Over an ethereal beat composed by Los Angeles-based producer Ben Coleman, Joffe floats plenty of alluring declarations of affection over to her love interest (among them: “Cherry soda’s sweet but you’re sweeter, baby” and “You make me feel like spring, so come on, please, just be my baby“). The song was selected for release on February 14th, and it takes all of a split second to see why.

Another one of these tender statements is Joffe’s insistence that she’ll “idolize you, my Sofia Coppola.” This alludes to Joffe’s affection for this director’s body of work, most of all the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, one of the singer’s childhood favorites. “That movie felt like a sweet piece of cherry flavored candy in a shimmery wrapper, and I wanted this song to feel like that too, like you could just taste it,” she explains. Given all of those aforementioned references to sweet stuff, it’s fair to say that “Sofia Coppola” succeeds in that sense.

Moreover, making a song about the sweet side of life makes for a sensible counterbalance to the rough times Joffe was going through around the time of its conception. “I had just gotten out of a painful year of feeling incredibly out of touch with my body and sexuality, and I was just beginning to rediscover that side of myself in a very climactic way,” she says. “Sofia Coppola” developed very naturally as a result (“[it] was of those songs that just kinda spilled out of my brain onto my lap,” she says), given that it encapsulates all of the feelings she had during this particular period.

“I felt the way the song feels – pastel pink, dreamy, whimsical, and horny,” she says. “It was really exciting getting to come back into my sexuality and playfulness through this song, which was reflected in the production.”

It all came so organically to Joffe that she didn’t even have to write anything down – the whole song came off the proverbial top of her head. “I actually freestyled all the verses,” she explains. “This was a drastic switch from all my previous music, which I painstakingly crafted line-by-line.”

The colorful music video for “Sofia Coppola” is designed to evoke the song’s high degree of sweetness. Directed by Joffe’s fellow Austinite Ruby Bowman, “the video channels a very nostalgic, sweet and southern feel, which is the aesthetic direction my project is headed towards right now.”

In addition, there will be plenty of chances to see Joffe perform “Sofia Coppola” in person this summer. “I’m eager to get on the road as much as possible,” Joffe smiles.

Times are sure to be busy for young Susannah, but as long as she lets her sweet and lighthearted sign shine through as she’s does on “Sofia Coppola,” she’s sure to have plenty of more likable music to her name all the while.

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