Made up of Sophie (lead vocals), Chris (drums), Toby (lead guitar) and Bailey (bass), Sophie and the Giants are the new band in town that are about to set this place on fire! With recent release, The Light, this band have established their sound and know exactly where they want to go, all the way to the top.

Their music is a statement and a half with powerful messages, aiming to empower people. Melodic, powerful ballads make up their EP, Adolescence with tracks like Wast My Air, Space Girl and Bulldog. Forgetting the typical love songs that artists seem to be drawn to, Sophie and The Giants approach more relatable lyrics made up from experiences between adolescence and adulthood.

I tagged along to their first headlining European Tour, they've previously toured with people like Yonaka and Tom Grennan. I was surprised to not see the venue full to the brim, obviously this band are a big secret at the moment but soon they're going to attract a large fanbase thanks to their appearances at festivals like Live at Leeds, Y Not and Reading and Leeds (where they've actually bypassed the BBC Introducing stage).

This band are going to blow up this year.

When the performance began, Sophie was a ball of energy, dancing along to her own music. Toby, Chris and Bailey looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves too. It was clear through their performances that these guys have so much enthusiasm for what they do.

I always say that live performances are better than studio recorded music and Sophie and the Giants did not sway me at all. They were exceptional, playing songs they've already released and also some newer ones which were incredible - I can't wait for them to be released!

Once their set was over, they ran to the back of the room to sell their merchandise and get to know their fans which they seemed really involved in doing. This band are so down to earth and will be going places.

Before the show, I sat down with them all - it was a right laugh! You can read my interview with them below.

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Who are Sophie and the Giants, what do you represent?

Chris
The thing that we say is that the Giants is empowerment

Sophie
A lot of our songs are, I don't know, we like to empower people, make them feel better about situations. So, it’s kind of like that. We always say that we are quite normal people, quite real and down to earth.
You (Bailey) said something cool about having a barrier with the audience.

Bailey
As a band, we have grown up alongside like, Reverend and The Makers. They helped us out with a lot of writing, gigs and stuff. Being at a Reverend gig, all these normal people coming up and saying, “Aw yeah, I love John, he did a gig at my house.” The level of connection between the fans, the location and the band itself, its completely getting away from the whole, ‘We are a band and we never really see anyone’

Sophie
We love, at the end of our shows, we like to stick around and meet everyone. It's always really sweet. It makes them really happy and us really happy, to have people come up to you and tell you how much they love your music.

You're midway through your headline tour, how are you feeling about it?

All
Amazing

Sophie
Last night was just insane. We were playing Sheffield where we live and it was just packed out. There were people dancing at the front the whole time.

Bailey
It was the most people singing our songs, that we don’t know personally. Obviously our girlfriends were there singing along. To actually see strangers singing along was like an achievement.

Toby
Fulfilling.

Chris
Because I don’t move around a lot at the back, everyone else moves around, I get to visualise everything. Everyone moves around and I have to stay still. I just saw people, when we were saying what the next song was, their eyes lit up like "Yes, this one!". It was like, when did that happen? How did that start?


Sophie
It's also people knowing our songs that haven’t been released, which means they have been to lots of our gigs.

Bailey
The whole fact that on this tour people are there for us, its mind blowing to see people actually turn up.

Sophie
We started the tour off being like "Let's not think too much about it, we're not going to have that many people" it's been amazing.

Bailey
Glasgow we only had about fourteen ticket sold presale

Toby
I thought it was four?

Bailey
Apparently it was fourteen. It turned out there were fifty-two?

Toby
Fifty-two on door.

Bailey
It was like, Thank God.

Chris
We've played Manchester but we've never played Jimmy's and we've only played Manchester supporting, we got there and it was only a couple of tickets from selling out. It was basically sold out so we were just there like *pulls shocked face*

Toby
If there were anymore people in there, they'd be standing next to the toilets.

Chris
Yeah! It was really really good and it shocked me. I don't think any of us thought we had any fans other than Sheffield.

You've been doing some good stuff! You've been on BBC Introducing and a good festival line up so you're getting there. 

What’s been your favourite moment, you mentioned Sheffield?

Chris
It's Sheffield or Manchester.

Sophie
Guildford was wicked.

Bailey
Guildford was good and bad.

Sophie
We don’t have to talk about that! Sheffield was really special.

Bailey
It was a bit of a redemption, we did a headline there, same venue not too long ago.

Sophie
Yeah, we sold like fifteen tickets or something.

Bailey
We weren’t particularly prepared for a headline gig at that point, we were used to supporting and only had a certain amount of songs in our set that we could play definitely. So, there was a couple of shaky ones. So, to go back and play again to people who came back or came for the first time and smash it, we were really happy with ourselves.

Chris
There were a lot of mixed emotions before we started that gig. There were a lot of anxious people then excited - all of us.

Sophie
We were so excited, but so sick at the same time

Chris
I couldn’t eat all day, and then when I ate I felt so sick and then when we were there, I was just like I don’t want to go on stage. But then when we got on stage you forgot all about it. We went nuts. It's when you see people singing your songs you start acting more lively.

Sophie
People actually moving as well make such a massive difference to how you feel on stage. We're so used to people with a beer like *nods her head* but there are people just *dances in her seat*.

Chris
Sheffield is known to be quite a hard place to get people moving and I've seen so many gigs where people give stand there, seeing that was crazy!

Your most recent release is The Light, what inspired this?

Sophie
When I wrote it I was going through a really shit time, I didn’t know how I was really gonna get myself out of that situation of feeling crap all the time. I wrote this song and didn’t realise until afterwards what I had to do to get out of it. It was like, stop relying on other people to create my happiness.

I got out of a long term relationship that I'd been stuck in for a long time, I relying on this person so much to make me feel good and I was like, "What the hell am I doing?". As soon as I was without him, I had to find out what makes me happy.

Bailey
It's almost like writing to your future self or writing to your past self and being like "this is what you need to do".

Sophie
Yeah, I empowered myself. It’s listening to your own advice. I was saying what I would say to someone else in that situation.

There’s been some hints about a lot more music to come, what can we expect from you?

Bailey
Nothing, we're breaking up

Toby
We don't exactly know what we want to...

Sophie
We have got stuff in the mix.

Toby
We don't want to give away too much

Sophie
I don’t know what we are allowed to say or are getting at.

Chris
What are we getting at?

Sophie
We have released some really big song so maybe we will release some songs that are cool and we really like.

What’s the vibe with the new songs? Are you allowed to tell us?

Chris
Well we don’t know which ones we are going to release.

Toby
There's a bit of a mix of alternative - I don't really know how to describe it.

Sophie
I think the word is slightly tribal

Toby
Percussion wise maybe

Chris
It's us at the moment but a bit more fresh, that's all I can think of.


Toby
It's us experimenting a lot more. All our other songs are like, as the EP says, Adolescent. It's very pre-mature, we're going to see how it is when we put it out. Thankfully we are really happy with most releases and now after that, it's matured musically.

Sophie
We've figured out what we want to play now and what we want to write.

Bailey
We have new songs that we are playing exclusively on this tour, we are using them to see how they go down.

Toby
Test the waters

Chris
And also, bringing out that EP, going back to the EP we just released, we have taken out a lot of old songs that we thought were good back then. We are developing until we find we have hit the niche sound that we want.

Sophie
We have such a massive catalogue of songs, we had so much to choose from release wise. Then after Adolescence and releasing The Light it's only, at this point, we've realised what we want. We have had to throw away a load of them because it's not our sound anymore its not what we want.

Toby
It's good though, we keep pushing forward.

Sophie
We are doing a lot of writing after we have finished the tour, it could all change again!

You're so indecisive guys!

Sophie
You write a new song and sometimes it changes everything. It's like "This is what we want to do now" and you just have to scrap everything.

Bailey
I think that's wha happened with Bulldog. That's what set everything properly going. We were debaing on what songs to put on the EP and how we were going to start debuting ourselves and then Sophie came back with Bulldog and we were like "THAT is it, that is sick, I want to be like that!"

Your EP, Adolescence, is like you’re singing to your singing to your younger self. What's the one thing you would tell your younger self now?

Bailey
Stop being such a dick!

Sophie
Stop complaining about everything all the time, stop worrying and get on with it, have fun! Stop dwelling on shit!

Bailey
But, as Chris said to me last night, if we hadn’t have been who we were we wouldn’t be where we are now!

Sophie
To be fair I probably wouldn’t change anything because I wouldn’t be as wise as I am now!

Chris
That’s a Ghandi quote! That’s literally what I said to Bailey last night, I wouldn't change anything. If I had to change anything it would be my ADHD!

Sophie
Or your YouTube videos! You should never have made those in the first place!

Chris
You shouldn't have said that! I can’t delete them as I can’t find my channel name.

Sophie
We could use the bacon one as a promo, or the one where you drop your Go-Pro and your mum starts shouting at you!

Chris
That one's funny! "Mum I am sorry!" "Chris what are you doing?"

Toby
I am from Wales….

Bailey
He would change his heritage

*All laugh*

Chris
Were you going to say that?

Toby
No, I was going to say I put off mentally moving out, going to England and meeting these guys eventually. I would make myself just have the courage to go and do it. I put it off for a whole year and ended up getting a shitty job at a pharmacy with women that didn’t like me.

Chris
If you didn't do that, you might not have met us!

Toby
I still think I would've. You have to go through the shit to get to the good places.

What’s the one song that defines your childhood?

Sophie
Oh my God, Crazy Horses! I used to dance around my bedroom to that song.

Chris
My first ever gig was Slipknot I was ten. I loved metal, I was an emo as well, so I am gonna say Pulse of the Maggots by Slipknot. Hammersmith Apollo I saw them, my dad took me and there was bottles of piss flying over my head when I was ten! I loved it, my dad absolutely hated it.

Bailey
I would probably say an album of songs that defined my childhood was Green Day, International Greatest Hits, I used to have it on DVD of all the music videos. I used to have cardboard boxes taped up and play along like Tre Cool. I used to drum, now I play bass.

Have you seen the theatre production of American Idiot?

Bailey
Yeah I went to see it in Southampton. I went to see it when they came to the UK for the first time and seeing the band on stage, I was like "That's what I want to do!"
My grandma used to take me to see We Will Rock You, Lion King, Shrek, all the musicals.

Sophie
I was in that (We Will Rock You)!

What's your favourite musical?

Bailey
Lion King made me cry.

Sophie
Rent is my favourite. I did musicals before I did music. It was always a debate as to whether I was going to go to musical theatre college or music. But I am so glad I chose music, cause this is way more fun.

Toby
My childhood song was - this is going back to Primary School - Year 3000.

Sophie
Aaaaahhhhhh BUSTED!!!

Bailey
I was going to say Thunderbirds by Busted as I used to have just that song on a disc that I took to school.

Toby
Air Hostess

Sophie
Oh, when I was younger I used to collect BRATZ CD’s and I used to play them and dance around my living room. There was one I played on repeat and it was, These Boots Are Made For Walking by Nancy Sinatra, who I love now. I didn't know who she was at the time.

You have got loads of festivals lined up, what are you looking forward to most?

All
Reading and Leeds

Sophie
Reading, because we went to Reading so many times

Bailey
I have never been

Sophie
It’s the first festival I have ever paid for and been to.

Chris
The first year I ever went to I was twelve and there was Guns N' Roses, Libertines and Queens of the Stone Age. What a line up.

Sophie
Was that the one I went to? The first one I went to was when Paramore and Artic Monkeys played.

Toby
I'd like to retract my answer for what my childhood song is. It just came back to me, when I was in Cardiff Indoor Market, I bought my first album and it was Songs For The Deaf by Queen of the Stone Age. I just want to put that out there and erase Busted! Back to the festivals.

Bailey
We're playing Y Not. Last year we played and afterwards went back stage and met loads of really cool bands. This year we are playing Stage 2 which is such a crazy step up from where we were.

Sophie
Last year we were watching bands on that stage, I said to you I want to play on this stage or something and we are actually doing it.

Toby
But also at Reading and Leeds we have skipped the BBC Introducing stage.

Chris
We are doing the Festival Republic straight away, it’s a good achievement.

Sophie
When we got told we were playing it we thought it was going to be like BBC Introducing or something but Festival Republic, I was like are you sure?

What’s your festival essential, what’s the one thing you have to take with you?

Sophie
Beer

Toby
Hobnobs

Sophie
Wellies, babywipes, shewee.

Toby
What is that?

Sophie
Its like a funnel you can use to piss out of

Toby
When we went to Latitude, my parent twice brought a portable toilet which was great because all the toilets were clogged we just used the potty.

Chris
I fell in poo at the Reading festival! It was the only clothes I had, I fell in poo, lost my voice, couldn’t do anything. Dropped my phone in the poo that I fell in.

Sophie
Was this when I was there?

If you were going to have a dinner party, which five people would you invite, past or present?

Sophie
Debbie Harry hands down.

Bailey
Basil Brush.

Toby
Can we just have puppets, like Basil Brush, Nev, Crazy Keith.

Chris
I want Mr Blobby.

Sophie
He was really creepy

Toby
So we've got Debbie Harry, Nev the Bear, Crazy Keith, Basil Brush and Mr Blobby. I'm imagining Debbie Harry, the only human surrounded by all these puppets.

Sophie
She would probably get pissed off and walk out straight away saying "I didn’t sign up for this!"

Bailey
Four bald guys with puppets.

So what would you cook for your guests?

Sophie
Soba noodles from Sainsbury's

Chris
They are the best thing ever

Toby
Shall we make a three course meal

Sophie
Soba, Pot Noodle.

Chris
And custard at the end.

Sophie
No what’s that stuff you had a kid that was pink, like custard?

Chris
Angel Delight

Sophie
Yeah Angel Delight

Chris
What about Teletubbie custard?

Sophie
Yeah, main course, Teletubbie toast

Toby
So, Soba Noodle, Teletubbie Toast and custard.

Sophie
Angle Delight specifically

Describe another band member in three words.

Sophie
Annoying, you’re okay (about Toby), annoying.

Chris
Oh Cheers

Sophie
(About Bailey) Irritating, -

Toby
- Vegan -

Sophie
- Vegan, but shows a good time.

Toby
That was about ten!

Sophie
What’s a word for shows a good time

Bailey
Shows a good time alone is about four words

Toby
Reliable

Chris
Reliable?

Sophie
No, we have so much fun……Fun! There we go. Bailey is Irritating, Vegan and Fun.

Bailey
Toby is old and Welsh

Toby
That’s two

Bailey
That’s three, and!

Sophie
Old, Welsh, Dad!

Toby
Chris is a loud, coughing, gremlin

Sophie
Specifically Golum!

Toby
I am not going to go to the extent of Golum, I am going to say Gremlin.

Chris
Sophie is, small, gullible, twat.

Sophie
I am fine with that.

What’s on your Netflix list to watch?

Sophie
I want to see Dirty John

Chris
I have kind of out done Netflix now, it’s annoying I binge watch too much.

Toby
I haven’t seen Captain Marvel yet.

Bailey
I also haven't

Toby
We need to see it

Sophie
We binge watched Russian Doll, that was incredible.

Bailey
I watched a couple of episodes of Umbrella Academy and got a bit bored.

What’s one pro and one con of being on tour?

Chris
I have to sit next to these guys

Sophie
Drink too much alcohol

Chris
The con is me!

Sophie
I don’t think there are any con’s, I love being on tour, it's my favourite time

Bailey
Pro tour is that I don’t have to spend money on anything, and I have a schedule.

Sophie
It depends what day it is as we don’t have any normal routine jobs. One day you are really busy doing stuff and then you have a couple of weeks that you literally don’t know what to do with yourself.

Do you have a message for your fans?

Bailey
Thank you

Sophie
You are really cool, you have enriched our lives.

Toby
You have exceeded our expectations, this tour has been fulfilling.

Sophie
You have made us happier than we ever were before!


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You can follow Sophie and The Giants on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I recommend you go and see them live too at some point!

Until next time...
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