Soccer Mommy talks Stardew Valley ahead of March 12 Truman gig

Soccer Mommy. // facebook.com/soccermommymusic/

True to the band’s name, Soccer Mommy is constantly driving forward.

Soccer Mommy, the moniker for singer-songwriter Sophie Allison, has had few breaks from touring since 2021. Delayed by the coronavirus pandemic to promote 2020’s “Color Theory,” by the time Allison concluded their second run of shows for that record, a new album, Sometimes, Forever, complete with a slate of concerts aptly titled, “Touring, Forever,” had already been announced.

Allison has also made frequent stops stylistically. After home recordings of early songs led to full-length releases For Young Hearts, and 2018’s Best New Music breakout, Clean, producer Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) augmented the band’s compositions with an experimental edge on 2022’s Sometimes, Forever, and Ben H. Allen provided a lush and familiar acoustic-based tone to her most recent album, Evergreen, released last October.

Her public persona evolved with the times, too. Once likely to be chatting with fans on Tumblr or Tweeting at fellow indie rockers, Allison has recently opted for more specific channels of personal promotion, including Letterboxd reviews, a fan club group chat on Instagram, and listening parties on video games Club Penguin and Roblox.

Soccer Mommy’s stylistic flexibility and Allison’s determination to improve with every album has helped the project resonate with fans across a culturally tumultuous decade. Evergreen not only demonstrates her development as a songwriter and composer, but puts a generational spin on the everlasting nature of grief, a familiar theme across the Soccer Mommy discography.

“I’m always trying to make sure that I’m doing something that excites me more and more, and that I feel more and more proud of,” Allison said. “And if I make mistakes – not mistakes – but with a previous record, if there’s something that I wish I had done or wish I had tried, I always try to bring that into the next thing I do.”

Flexibility was an especially necessary attribute during Soccer Mommy’s last appearance in Lawrence, Kansas, which happened to be the same day as the 2022 championship parade for the University of Kansas men’s basketball team.

“I mean, it was crazy,” Allison said. “Even just like getting in there, there was this parade happening like right in front of the venue while we’re trying load in and everything. It was really cool.”

The Pitch caught up with Allison ahead of Soccer Mommy’s Wednesday, March 12, show at The Truman.

The Pitch: The song “Abigail” was born out of what you described as a writing exercise. When did you begin this practice, and how do you see it reflected in your work?

Sophie Allison: I don’t usually do things like that, really. I think sometimes you kind of hit a block in writing, specifically when you’re working on an album and you have a lot of songs kind of finished, and you just don’t really feel inspired for anything new to say on this kind of topic at the moment. It can be helpful to just give yourself something to write about without the pressure of necessarily thinking this is something that is going to be this super deep, meaningful song, or something that is going to go on a record. It can be fun to just give yourself an idea to write off of.

I do find that having like a person you’re that you’re kind of creating in your mind can be a good way to do that because you’ve got, you know, kind of unlimited possibilities if you’ve just kind of let go of searching for this thing that you’re trying to translate, and just kind of let a lot of creative stuff go.

So yeah, that’s how it kinda came out of that song. Obviously, it was very Stardew-inspired, because I love that game and I play it a lot. I think that game is also really beautiful and have so many details that made it a fun thing to focus on.

Your last show in our area was the same day as the championship parade for the University of Kansas men’s basketball team, and I understand there were delays in traffic due to the party. What details do you remember about the delay and the rest of your experience in Lawrence that day?

I remember it was the last day of tour. It was with a band called Peel Dream Magazine that’s really great. I remember that we had a fill-in bass situation, a couple people from Peel Dream were playing bass, and our merch person was playing bass, because our bass player had gotten Covid. I also remember I got a Kona Ice that day. That’s all the details I have.

Some of my favorite recent songs of yours (“Driver,” “Feel it All the Time,” “Dreaming Of Falling,”) happen to find poetry in cars and driving. Aside from long runs on tour, what is it about that subject that appeals to you?

I love driving and I find it to be a really pensive time, for me personally. It’s just very romantic, too. I think growing up in a place where your drive, it’s not really a super walking city in Nashville, it was just like this feeling of freedom, this sense of freedom. Being able to just drive, drive around, listen to music, and kinda be alone with your thoughts, I guess. It’s always been a very, like, thoughtful, pensive space for me.

And I think a lot of things come up that end up being used in songs. A lot of thoughts that end up kinda end up turning into lyrics or being reflected on later and kind of brought into a song in a more poetic way. Yeah, it’s just a good quiet, alone space for me.

I admire the creative ways you have met your fans directly over the years, be it social media posts, Letterboxd reviews, video game listening parties or a group chat for fans. How strategic are these fan outreach methods, or do you feel like you are simply inviting fans to meet where you are?

I always like to do that kind of thing, like, where I feel inspired about it, and it speaks to me a little bit. Like with the Club Penguin thing, it was just like I was playing Club Penguin and I was like, this would be really cool, and you just throw out the idea and other people make it happen. You can make a lot happen, you know, when you have like a team, if you just throw out some genuine ideas and see if anyone can come back with anything.

It’s definitely not too strategic, usually. Sometimes things, like ideas come out from my label, or management, where they have a specific kind of plan in place for doing something and it sounds cool to me. But other times it’s just stuff where it’s just like, one time I like streamed me playing Stardew Valley, and it’s just kind of ways to be like genuine with fans, you know, actually do something that I like and kinda connect with people, and those are always like my favorite things to do.

How important is it for you to supercharge arrangements for live shows?

I really like to make sure that the arrangements translate in an exciting way. Like, when it comes to, you know, taking a song and listening to the recording, you could play it the exact same way, and it might be missing dynamics and missing these kinda big things that a live show needs. I definitely try to work with my live band and like make sure that it’s something that feels more fun and a little bit more creative, I guess, in that world. Rather than just bringing people in and saying, play exactly what’s on the record and don’t change a thing. I think you can really change arrangements a little bit so that they have a new life, live.

Are there any songs off the new album or on the current setlist that you think are translating well during your live shows?

I think that “Thinking of You” feels really exciting live, and it definitely feels different. It’s obviously true to the basic arrangement of how it’s done, but it has a little bit more energy and more drive to it and feels a little bit bigger live, so I think fans will appreciate that one.

Soccer Mommy plays the Truman on Wednesday, March 12, with opener Hana Vu. Details on that show here.