Sophie: I mean, to me it's a very layered song, and yes it does have a hit chorus but so many men loved it and I was always thought it was amazing. I never thought that women even picked up on it, until really recently when I've started to hear that women say it was their anthem. Which isn't to say that I didn't know that women were attracted to me, but that's always been fine. I think its because a lot of my music.
So I never knew there was controversy but I was never self-conscious about it, I was never shy about it. I was really proud of it, because I think that I was the first woman or man to ever say making love to the same sex in a pop song. I know that people have come out and said I'm gay or a lesbian, but I don't think anyone's ever put it into their work, so blatantly. To me art is deeper than publicity and art is deeper than coming out. So I thought it was extremely deep and extremely real and I was very proud that I did it. I felt like a private proud and now I'm publicly proud of it because now I realize that people were moved by it and it gave a lot of people at lot of inspiration.
RS: Very cool. Speaking of inspiration being the first, I want to congratulate you on your law suit with eBay. So the back story is, someone was selling copies of your promo on eBay and you went after them.
Sophie: Yes, I did. Because he was selling the copies of the promo knowing that my record was going to come out. He was saying how they were time-sensitive and that's why he was able to get the price up to $360. Because the minute the record came out they could buy it at Warehouse for $9.99 or whatever the price is. So this guy really bugged me because it was December 23rd and everyone's already on vacation and I just felt like this schmuck is never going to end. Also I'd invested $300,000 into this record, which is including the whole marketing budget. It's not a little, it's my whole life savings this guy is ruining it, he's ruining my release so I did go after him. The reason I decided on small claims court was because I thought if I go after him for copyright infringement, which I could have done because he started burning copies of that promo and selling them for $12, I knew I'd be in court forever and everyone will just think it's about the money.
RS: Yes, exactly.
Sophie: But if I go after him for just the amount that he got from the fans, because he ripped off the fans in my mind, because I would have given that promo copy to my fans and I actually did when I got it back. I gave it to them with a $300 check, because I never got the money from this guy. Even though I won, I would have to send a collections service after him, and who wants to bother with this prick? So anyway, the whole thing was the principle of it. Giving the money back to the fans and teaching them a lesson, and basically a lot of people know his name and wherever he works, that he got that promo from, people probably know about him.
RS: Good job. Speaking about the eBay and the Internet, I notice you have an amazing website and you have a really deep connection to your fans from your website.
Sophie: Yes.
RS: Since you started in '92, before the Internet was really a part of things, how has it been a part of how you getting your music to your people?
Sophie: I think the Internet actually freed me in many ways from Sony, because the people started emailing Sony demanding that they let me release Timbre. They were sending 2000 emails a week from all over the world and Sony was telling me to stop these people. I said I didn't even know these people were out there because I didn't go on the Internet at the time, this was back in 1998 or 1999. So I discovered that there was all these people from Singapore to Brussels to the US that really liked my music and were willing to stand up to Sony to get a copy of my CD. This gave me a lot of courage that I could have a market if I was independent. Then I thought that I should be marketing to these people who really appreciate the music rather than always being stopped and told that I'm a bad girl. The Internet was pivotal to my career that way and now, being able to answer these questions on the Internet from these fans. Before I would go on the road and never know if anyone would show up. Now I go on the road and I have this feeling that there's at least one real fan out there who's really wanting me to be there, and that's intense. It does something to the whole process, it makes it very meaningful.
RS: Awesome. Is there anything you want to say to your fans who love dance music?
Sophie: I want to tell them that if they want more of my music in the dance music that I'm totally willing to do that, but they should know that I don't know all the avenues and it's a sort of a new thing to me. So please communicate with me about that, because I really love the dance music medium a lot.