“This is why I make music: to help sort through the rough emotions,” the musician says. Soko started working on the production of the record after an intensive week-long retreat at the Hoffman Institute, an organization specialising in psychological de-conditioning to eliminate negative behavioural patterns. “I’ve always been really into therapy. I’ve never had issues with talking about any emotions, but this learning process at Hoffman made it so that there were suddenly even more answers showing themselves to me.”
“Feel Feelings smells like all the sex I didn’t have while making it.” Soko wrote all the songs during her self-imposed break from physical intimacy. “I love diving fully into creative projects. I love having big ideas and seeing them through,” she says. Breaking dating patterns (Replaceable Heads), studying the melancholic void after a break-up (Blasphémie), bewitching straight girls into conversion (Oh To Be A Rainbow) and giving a voice to the deepest fears (Now Wha); the album is a sonic exploration of all the complexities of life, all of its emotions and colours. Tiptoeing between consciousness and dream, “Feel Feelings is asking you to dim the lights a little and relax.”