RS: So you weren't that involved with the remix process?
Sophie: No, and I really think it's phenomenal, honestly. Like, I think it's phenomenal to be in a club to hear it. I think I'm at a point and this is what I think is happening in my life. Something inside of me has loosened where all these things are allowed to happen and there's none of this constriction like Sophie can't do this, Sophie can't do that. There isn't a hardcore definition of who I am, and it's beautiful, because when I heard "Beautiful Girl" in a club I flipped out and I thought it was so incredible. If I had been involved with it doing anything besides giving him the vocals I would have ruined it, because I would have been like well, let's try this here and let's try that. It's not my world, you know what I mean? So I think the good news is that I'm able to do my records, really succinctly with all these instruments and really be who I am. But I'm also at a point where I'm able to just give everything and say take my vocal, you can do what you want with it, take my song, it's great.
RS: I noticed there's a remix of one of the tracks on your album…
Sophie: Yes, I love that, Soul Lover?
RS: Who is Infinite Space?
Sophie: He was a guy that I met through Sylvia Massey, and she's a really famous mixer, a kind of alternative mixer. She's on Platinum Records but she's works more with underground bands. I went up to mix three of the songs that are on the record with her and she said I have this friend that would like to do some mixes, and I said go for it. So he did this one for "Soul Lover" and it just blew my mind. I think it's so beautiful.
RS: Speaking about beautiful, I've got to ask you some questions about your past. I remember an article in Details magazine, you did this really interesting interview and there are these photos of you pouring milk on yourself.
Sophie: Oh wow, yes, I remember that.
RS: What was the inspiration and the meaning behind the milk?
Sophie: Well, see this was me and David LaChapelle, who I love so much. Because he did the first album cover and David and I had a vibe right from the very beginning, and I think it's because David and I really love nature. Do you know David?
RS: I know his work, he does really creative photography.
Sophie: Well he's very beautiful, he's so oriented in nature and we really bring that out of each other as you can see on the Tongues and Tails album covers. He gets really in nature and that was where I like to be and so it was wonderful. So for this shoot, he threw me in this gown, he hiked up my tits and he said stand over there. We were on a dairy farm and this farmer came by with some fresh warm milk and he wanted us to taste it. Instead of tasting the milk, I poured it over my leg. It was just an instinct and David thought it was so beautiful. Then when I saw the pictures I thought it was so beautiful. I don't know if it was just the moment. It was warm, sexy milk, fresh out of a cow and it couldn't have felt better. It was a freezing day, in upstate New York and the milk felt wonderful. And that's what happened.
RS: Also, I wanted to ask you about some controversy…
Sophie: Oh, good.
RS: I remember when the first song "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" came out, there was a controversy about the lesbian lyrics saying "as I made love to her".
Sophie: Right.
RS: What was your reaction to the controversy and did you expect that, was it calculated?
Sophie: Oh, nothing's ever been calculated with me. I think it's the one thing about me that I can say is always the same, is that I really am not calculated. I think it's a blessing and a curse. It's been a curse in terms of being a somewhat known person, because people always misunderstand me. Some people love me, some people absolutely hate me and think I'm calculated. But the beauty of it is that things come out that never could have come out if I had thought about those. First tell me what the controversy was, because I didn't know there was controversy.
RS: Well, maybe it was just here in Nashville, Tennessee, but when they only played your song after 8pm because it had a "lesbian lyric: in it. This was back in '92 wasn't it? And that wasn't appropriate to be played on the radio…
Sophie: I'm amazed.
RS: So this is new to you?
Sophie: The only thing I ever heard was some people didn't want to play it because of the word "damn". No, I never heard about it and I thought that probably people didn't notice that I said that. Because even on the label, no one ever mentioned, did you notice that you said "making love to her"? I thought that it was amazing that people had chosen this to be the hit, because it's such a deep emotional song to me.
