Sofi Tukker are the irresistible American EDM duo who have been making humongous waves in the music industry.
Made up of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern, they are best known for tracks such as the Grammy nominated ‘Drinkee’ and ‘Best Friend’, which was played during the Apple iPhone X commercial reveal. Earlier this year, Sofi Tukker released their debut album Treehouse, which peaked at number five on the US Dance chart.
Their unique blend of infectious beats and sounds have captured the attention of music lovers across the globe, enabling Sofi Tukker to tour every inch of the world. They have become synonymous with their high energy live shows and on Saturday (July 14), Sofi Tukker stopped off to perform at London’s BST Hyde Park.
We were lucky enough to chat to the duo just before they went on stage to discuss their album, collaborations, remixes and more.
First off, welcome to BST Hyde Park! What can people expect from your performance today?
Tucker: We have a fun party set where Sophie plays guitar and sings, I play bass and sing a little bit. We hump a little bit…
Sophie: Hump a lot really!
Tucker: We have this big sculpture in the middle of the stage which we call the book tree. We hit books with drumsticks and they play different samples and stuff. We’ve also got choreographed dance moves, it’s just a lot of fun.
Earlier this year you released your debut album Treehouse. How has the response been so far?
Sophie: It’s been great! It was our first album ever and we had no idea what to expect. I think we’re just grateful that anybody feels connected to our music, especially getting to travel and going to all these countries and seeing them singing the lyrics to the album’s songs. It’s a really special feeling.
You recently released a video for one of the songs, ‘Good Time Girl’ with Charlie Baker. What was the filming process like? It looked like a lot of fun!
Sophie: It was so much fun! We were in London for it.
Tucker: Charlie’s like our best friend, and she lives on a house boat and we went on it and thought it would be fun, as we have a song together, to make a video for it. We grabbed one of her friends, a local videographer, and just had a fun afternoon on her boat on the canal. That’s literally it!
You also recently released ‘Everybody Needs A Kiss’ with Benny Benassi. How did that collaboration come about?
Sophie: We met Benny a couple of months ago, maybe a year ago actually. Time is confusing haha. We became instant friends, he’s just one of the nicest guys ever.
Tucker: He’s the sweetest guy ever.
Sophie: We’re big fans.
Tucker: Who didn’t grow up with ‘Satisfaction’?
Sophie: That’s true.
It must have been quite a dream then to be able to work with him?
Sophie: Yeah, it was very surreal.
Tucker: It was so fun, like woah. We saw him at a few festivals after we met and he was such a pleasant, nice guy. We were like “we’d love to mix if the vibe is good”. It’s just nice to make things with friends, it’s fun.
You do a lot of remixes, for example you recently did a remix of ‘Solo’ for Clean Bandit and Demi Lovato. How do you go about putting your own twist on somebody else’s song?
Tucker: We just have fun with those. Because we’re always touring, we don’t even have houses, we’re just constantly on the road so it’s just fun to low pressure make stuff and keep our creative juices flowing. I really love hearing songs and being like “you know what? I love this song and some of these parts are incredible and it would be really fun to put it in this world.” It’s just fun to puzzle piece things into a world that feels like us.
What can you tell us about your plans for the rest of the year?
Sophie: Ooh we have so many plans! We are going to be releasing new music…
Tucker: A lot of new music, every couple of weeks, maybe every month with music videos here and there.
Sophie: We just have a lot of stuff. We’ve written a lot of music during the past year so we’re going to be putting that out and we’ve been collaborating a lot as well. We’re just putting out a lot of music and continuing to travel the world.
Tucker: We’re pretty much playing all continents before the New Year, except Africa.
Do you have a favourite country to perform in?
Sophie: I really really love playing in Brazil because it’s where a lot of our inspiration comes from. People know the lyrics, it’s just a different relationship with the music.
Tucker: I love Brazil too. Honestly I love every show, all the touring. European touring has been so great the past year as we’ve done more of it. South America’s always incredible and Mexico. I love playing in the US. I mean, this summer’s been really fun because we’re doing all of the European stuff but then next year we’ll do more US stuff like we did last year, so it’s just fun to do it all!
Thank you so much to Sofi Tukker for their time. Make sure you keep up to date with them via Facebook and Twitter.
Check out our BST Hyde Park review here and keep your eyes peeled for more exclusive chats from the festival.