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This opening song feels like a cathartic way to begin the set because SoKo in 2015 seems transformed.
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I expect the lyrics refer to the dark times she went through after putting out her 2007 EP Not Sokute, which culminated in her declaring herself “dead” in 2009 and quitting the music industry. The eerie keyboard and smoky fog are pierced by the chime and chug of the guitars as a tensely energetic SoKo sings of being frightened and of hearing people dying. Behind them are the male drummer and, more unusually, a man capturing the performance from various positions with a video camera. The smoke machine has gone into overdrive as five musicians appear on stage to kick things off with ‘My Dreams Dictate My Reality’, the title song that’s heavily influenced to my ears by SoKo’s favourite band, The Cure.Ĭutting a diminutive figure on keyboards in the centre of the stage, SoKo, straight-edge, and a self-proclaimed ‘white goth’, is flanked by her long-haired brother on guitar, and by a bassist/cellist and a second guitarist, both female. Whereas on her 2012 début album I Thought I Was an Alien she gives her autobiographical, sensitive songs an intimate, quiet and dreamy presentation, the faster pace and fuller sound of the new record, with its new wave and synthpop influences, lends itself to a full-band show. Tonight is the turn of The Ruby Lounge to host her show, so I take the descending flight of stairs and choose a spot in front of the central pillar that helps prop up High Street’s shops above this basement venue. French actress, musician, singer and songwriter, Stéphanie Sokolinski, known as SoKo, is finishing up her 14-date European tour in support of brand-new album My Dreams Dictate My Reality, her second LP, with a couple of UK dates.