Sophie sat in her wheelchair, staring at her broken toes. Four months. The doctor had said four months until she could walk again, let alone dance and perform. This was devastating. Sophie lived to dance, play music, and travel the world. She was constantly on the move. Her mom even joked that Sophie was doing cartwheels in her belly before she was born. Dancing too much is what broke her toes in the first place.

Stillness felt impossible.

But Sophie was creative. Her inclination to move started to flow in other ways while she was healing.

She opened her laptop and connected to a video call. Tucker’s face appeared on screen. He was a close friend from college and he also was into music, like Sophie. The two friends were quickly becoming musical collaborators over their near daily video calls.

This time, she had something exciting to show him!

She pressed play. Smooth lyrics sung in Portuguese flowed over a pulsing electronic beat.

Sophie and Tucker had very different musical backgrounds – which made the sound of their musical collaborations deep, rich and textured.

Tucker bobbed his head to the rhythm. He was thousands of miles away, they were on separate continents, but they were doing what they loved to do together: Experimenting with new sounds, learning new ways of making music, and most importantly, jamming out! They learned to work together and create a vision for their musical ambitions.

Sitting still while she recovered forced Sophie to slow down. And in that stillness, she found the sound that would eventually fill festivals and move thousands of people to dance.

I’m LP Giobbi. And this is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls.

A fairy tale podcast about the real-life rebel women who inspire us.

On this episode, Grammy-nominated musician Sophie Hawley-Weld from the band Sofi Tukker, on connecting friends and the world through music.

Sophie was twelve years old, sitting cross-legged on her bed with a well-loved guitar and a book report due the next day.

As she noodled on the themes of the book she’d read, “Things Fall Apart,” she started strumming the familiar chords of a popular song. She sang the melody, but the words that came out weren’t the original lyrics. They were her lyrics about the book, and her thoughts and feelings around it. She realized her book report was flowing out of her as a song.

Her teacher had asked for something creative, and Sophie had delivered. And she learned a whole lot more than if she’d just written an essay. She realized that she could make songs her own by swapping out the lyrics. Now if she could just change the music a bit, she’d have a whole new song.

Sophie always felt like the new girl with feelings too big to contain. Her family moved a lot, and the change sometimes felt hard. She moved from the US to Canada when she was 14, and then went to high school in Italy. Her guitar became her constant companion, her way of processing the many places she called home. Traveling the world also gave her more beats, vibrations, and languages to blend into her own music. She would strum her guitar, open her mouth and let the words and feelings flow out.

Sophie’s international upbringing had given her a gift. She learned that music allowed people to connect beyond language, to communicate through rhythm in ways that transcended traditional boundaries. It was a passion she would bring with her as she headed to college in America, guitar in hand, ready for whatever came next.

As a student at Brown University, Sophie spent a lot of time making music with friends. One night, she was performing with a jazz combo at an art gallery on campus. Her acoustic set was filled with the bossa nova influences she’d brought back from six months of travel through Brazil. The audience swayed gently to her melodic lyrics and soft guitar.

Tucker Halpern was DJing at the event. After hearing her set, Tucker was inspired to remix her song – giving what was once a gentle acoustic number, an electronic transformation. She felt perplexed and amazed listening back to his beats!

She needed to learn how Tucker worked his magic. So the next day, the two met up and remixed more of her music. The collaboration was electric! Sophie’s deep understanding of rhythm and language paired perfectly with Tucker’s electronic production. They played with sounds from both of their worlds – distorted electric guitar, strong bass, bongos, and cowbells, all layered beneath Sophie’s Portuguese vocals.

After graduation, the pair took a risk and moved to New York City together, like so many artists before them. They called themselves Sofi Tukker – a combination of both their names.

But just as things were taking off, the universe had other plans.

Sophie broke her toes. She was dancing so much that she had stressed the bones of her toes, and now she found herself in a wheelchair for four months. While she recovered, she traded the vibrating energy of New York City for her parents’ quiet home in the Netherlands.

This could have been a career-ending setback. But she had faith that she could be resilient. She learned how to adapt to her new surroundings as she healed.

Sophie was putting in a lot of hard work. She was learning how to collaborate with Tucker, trading beats and lyrics back and forth, talking about their different creative inspirations, and refining their distinct sound. Together, they were creating electronic tracks that pulsed with energy, Brazilian influences, and global beats.

They were putting their minds together and forging a unified vision. With a lot of hard work, that vision turned into a reality that was cooler than anything they could have imagined. Little did she know, but at the time Sophie and Tucker were building a very important foundation of an artistic partnership that would rocket them to the Grammys, sold-out shows, and worldwide tours.

In 2016, Sofi Tukker released their first mini-album. The first song on the album was edgy, confident, and entirely in Brazilian Portuguese. Sophie sang lyrics that she adapted from a Brazilian poet. It didn’t matter if listeners couldn’t understand the lyrics. This music was made for feeling.

Sophie connected with the spiritual aspect of making dance music. And the thrill of losing herself in rhythm. “By repeating sounds over and over again, I lose sense of time, space, and ego, and I get to just vibrate,” she said.

Sofi Tukker’s music, now released into the world, took on a life of its own.

Their song was nominated for a Grammy, and it launched their careers into overdrive. Suddenly, Sofi Tukker was performing at major venues, and their music was featured in commercials, video games, and festivals around the world.

Sophie found freedom in performance. She felt so lucky to create spaces where listeners could lose themselves in rhythm and vibration. Music was, as she says, the place where she felt the most alive.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, musicians worldwide faced a crisis of their own. Tours canceled, venues closed, the future became uncertain. But Sophie and Tucker saw an opportunity to connect in a new way.

They began livestreaming DJ sets from their homes. Day after day, they showed up for their fans, creating a community they affectionately called the “Freak Fam.”

By their 100th livestream, they had discovered the healing power of community, even when physically separated.
When they finally returned to live performances, including a triumphant set at Coachella 2023, Sophie brought a new perspective to the stage. The young girl who had once processed her feelings through acoustic guitar had become a performer who could move thousands of people, dancing in unison to a rhythm.

Sophie and Tucker joined the board of Femme House, a nonprofit founded by their friend, LP Giobbi – that’s me. Femme House provided education and opportunities for women in music production. Sophie and Tucker understood the importance of creating paths for others, and using their platform to open doors.

For Sophie, the journey from being a young girl with a guitar to an international star wasn’t about fame. It was about growth, finding ways to connect across languages and cultures, and creating spaces where everyone could feel the freedom she felt from music.

Sophie’s musical journey took her from acoustic bossa nova to electronic dance music, from small clubs to festival main stages. Along the way, she remained true to her core belief – that music transcends language, and rhythm and vibration can create connections where words might fail.

From that first song about a book report at twelve years old to a Grammy nomination and worldwide tours, Sophie created a life built around connection to rhythm, to her fans, and to her friends.

Sophie is a living example of bringing your whole self to every song, every performance, every collaboration. Dancing through languages, vibrating with rhythm, and inviting us all to join her in the music.

CREDITS:
This podcast is a production of Rebel Girls. It’s based on the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

This episode was narrated by ME, LP Giobbi. It was produced by Danielle Roth and directed by Ashton Carter, with sound design and mixing by Carter Woghan.

The story was written and fact-checked by Danielle Roth. Haley Dapkus edited this episode. Our executive producers were Joy Smith, Anjelika Temple, and Jes Wolfe.

Original theme music was composed and performed by Elettra Bargiacchi.

A special thanks to the whole Rebel Girls team, who make this podcast possible! Until next time, staaaay rebel!