Exclusive Interview

Exclusive Sophie Interview

(04/05/07)

We managed to catch up with Sophie whilst on her trip to Holland recently.

Here’s what she had to say . . . .

Hello Sophie. Where are you today?

I’m in Amsterdam. Its’ Queen’s Day here. There are thousands of people out on the streets, all dressed in orange. It’s quite a sight. They say the population of Amsterdam is normally about 800,000 people, but there are about two million here on Queen’s Day.

What is Queen’s Day?

Well, apparently it’s a national holiday to celebrate of the Dutch monarchy, but they have it on the birthday of the Queen Mother, who I’m afraid is no longer with us. The funny thing is that the current Queen was born in January, so she decided to keep the festivities on her mum’s birthday at the end of April, because the weather is nicer, which is better for an outdoor celebration. I like that kind of sensible thinking. And the weather is absolutely lovely today, so she was right.

Have you been for a wander?

I have. It’s crazy out there. It looked like Notting Hill Carnival out of the hotel window, but it actually makes Notting Hill Carnival look very civilised. There’s just so many people out there. It’s gridlock! And pretty much everybody is wearing orange. Orange tops, orange dresses, orange head dresses and orange feather boas. But there’s so many people out there that we couldn’t really get anywhere, so we just went and had a beer in a bar instead and looked at it through the window.

What are you out there for?

I’m here to play a big outdoor radio station gig tonight, which they’re saying will have a crowd of 100,000 people, so that should be pretty cool. People seem to be getting well into the swing of the celebrations already. Plus there’s this other tradition where kids set up little stalls to sell their old toys, which is really sweet.

Will you be wearing orange on stage?

I don’t think so. Unfortunately the only orange thing I’ve got with me is a T-shirt that says, “Support the arts – sleep with a musician”. I used to wear it when I was pregnant, which made people laugh. But I’m not sure it would be all that appropriate for the show.

So you’ve been busy promoting the new album recently?

Yeah, I seem to have been going out to Europe about once a week. We were in Poland last week. We flew in to Warsaw and then went to another town called Lodz to film a TV show. Apparently David Lynch has a real thing about Lodz, because it’s quite dark and moody. He has a house in the town and has put some money into some factories there.

David Lynch doesn’t seem like an obvious factory boss.

No, you wouldn’t think so, would you? But I think maybe he liked the architecture of the factories, so he put some funds towards keeping them going.

Your new video seems to be getting lots of attention. Are you pleased with it?

To be honest, it’s not my favourite. I get quite obsessive about my videos and I think maybe I let my expectations get the better of me after I saw the plans for this one. I suppose it’s a bit like when you’ve read a book and conjured up all these images in your mind, then the movie of the book can never quite live up to it. But I’m really pleased that everyone else seems to like it!

Your legs look about 20 foot long in it.

Ah, that would be the Bextor side of me – they’re who I’ve got to thank for my height. My grandmother, Sybil Bextor, has got amazing long legs. She’s what I’ll look like when I’m older.

And is that a good look?

Yeah, I like it. She looks great.

How about the cover for the new about, do you like that?

Oh, I love it. I think it’s probably my favourite album cover yet actually. It was taken by a great Norwegian photographer called Solve. I knew pretty much what I wanted. It’s partially inspired by an old Julie London cover where she looks great but she’s looking off into the distance and you can’t really tell if she’s happy or sad. I like the ambiguity of that.

How would you describe your mood on the album cover?

Well, traditionally with pop covers you either try to look as saucy as possible or as smiley as possible. I didn’t really want to do either.

Shall we say pensive?

Perhaps. Or maybe a little wistful.

So you’ve done some interview with Dutch press today.

I have indeed.

How did they go?

Fine, thank you. They were all very nice.

What was the best question?

Well, I got asked how much I’d changed from when I started to now, which I thought was quite a good one. I haven’t really been asked that. I normally just get asked how I’ve changed now that I’m a mother, which is quite annoying to answer, because it’s quite hard to articulate. But I’ve actually been doing what I do not for 10 years, so I might possibly be able to use the word veteran. I’m not sure how long you have to have been doing it to officially quality for veteran status.

Have you taken Sonny out to Amsterdam with you?

I haven’t actually. I’m going back tomorrow, because Richard gets home from America, so we’re off to meet daddy at the airport.

Has be been away long?

Oh, for ages. The Feeling have been touring the US for the last six and a half weeks. It’s been too long really. I went out to spend a week in New York with him about halfway through, which was great, but it is hard when he’s away that long. We keep in touch all the time on the phone, but it’s not the same as being together.

Presumably it’s unavoidable with the jobs you have.

Absolutely. We might still have a few years where we’re both flying around all over the place, but it won’t be like this forever. I don’t think I could handle it if it was. I just look forward to all the years in the future where we’ll be together all the time.

Richard must have some nappy-changing duty to catch up on. If, indeed, Sonny still wears nappies.

He does actually. He probably shouldn’t still be in them – he’s three now – but he just has absolutely no interest whatsoever in wearing big boy’s pants. I think the only way we’ll get him out of nappies will be when he starts getting embarrassed to be wearing them in front of his friends. I don’t think that day can be too far away now!

Do you have more promo duties coming up this week?

Yes, the single out on Monday, so it’s pretty busy. I’m filming for Paul O’Grady’s show tomorrow, which I think is being shown on Friday. I’m on there with Terry Wogan and we’re talking about Eurovision, which sounds amazing. Chatting about Eurovision with Wogan? That’s the kind of conversation I’d like to have whether it was being filmed or not!

Are you a big Eurovision fan?

I love it! I’ve already made plans for where we’ll be watching it. Richard’s going to be in a cottage in the country with The Feeling, who are about to start work on their next album. So the plan is to go down there with a few other friends of the band and have a big Eurovision party. I can’t wait.

What do you love about Eurovision?

I love its earnestness. It’s completely serious about itself, even though everybody knows it’s really cheesy. Everybody likes to giggle at other countries trying to be cool, but then our one comes out and we’re not cool either. My mum and my step-dad are going to the actual event in Helsinki. I’m really quite jealous.

Pick a country at random that you think will won.

OK. I’m going to plump for Estonia.