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March 2, 2023 • 57 mins

Ally sits down with musical duo Sofi Tukker to discuss how they met and decided to make music together, making their differences work, and practicing self-care within their busy schedule.

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Today's podcast is sponsored by sea Geek. If you didn't know,
Sea Geek is the official ticketing partner of the Brooklyns.
Whether you're trying to go to a Nets game, Liberty Game, concert,
or any other event at Barclay Center, you really only
need Sea Geek. Welcome to Courtside Conversation. I'm your girl,

(00:31):
Ali Love. After years on the Hartwood as the inn
arena host for the Brooklyn Nets, It's time for me
to take a courtside. We're here with artists, athletes, and
all of our favorite people to break down the game
called life. We're getting real about the grow up and
the glow up. So let's take a seat. What's up, friends,

(00:57):
It's your girl, Ali Love. Welcome to Courtside Conversation and
we're today. We don't just to have one guest at quartside. No,
we have the Dynamic Duo Producers DJs. They are absolutely
exceptional and they are known for some of our favorite songs.
Please welcome Sophie Tucker. Sophie Tucker, Sophie and Tucker. What's up, y'all?
What's up? We're so happy to be here. Hi. I

(01:21):
playing it cool in the intro because I don't think
you're more happier than I am, or because I'm like
a little nervous to have this, which is never the case.
I have to tell you. Usually when I come in
for Quartzie conversation, I'm super cool, super chill, but I
was my palms are a little clammy for you. It's
like I'm clammy for y'all, I'm clammy. I think you're
just feeling brazil through the screen. Yeah, we're in Brazilo

(01:45):
right now and it is just NonStop sweat, but not
in like a bad way. It just is. It is how.
It's just how they live here. It's crazy, it's it's
a good life. It's a good life. Well, in Quartzoide conversation,
we're going to talk about this good life, this good music,
and the good people that you are. We're going to
jump right in four quarters a halftime of fun. So
let's tip off at in quarter one and sincerely talk

(02:07):
about the paths of intersection for those that may have
heard your music but don't know that one Sophie Tucker's
two people, Sophie and Tucker that you met in university.
Let's talk about that intersection where life led you to
meet each other. I think my first question isn't necessarily
how you met, because I just said it was a
university for those that are paying attention, but the reality
of how did you know that you were for each

(02:28):
other professionally? I feel like we should rewind and Tucker
should talk about his basketball. Well, I was in school
playing basketball, so I was going to get to that,
but we can go there. Sophy's now interviewing. Okay, God,
I feel like it's just such a big part of
this story, you know, Yeah, I mean, yeah, we were

(02:49):
just we were even at school for totally different reasons.
I mean, I was playing basketball, planning to play professionally
in some capacity, and that was sort of my life
goal and work and that was like my identity. And
I ended up getting sick my junior year and had

(03:09):
it to take a year off, and I was in
bed for like seven months, and I had never taken
a break from training and playing ball, and it was
the first time I ever had time to pursue something else,
and I didn't really have energy to get out of bed,
so I could only the only thing I could think
of doing to try not to go crazy or to

(03:31):
get really depressed was to learn how to produce music
on the computer. So I just like watch YouTube tutorials
and just sort of got obsessed with doing that and
put all my time and energy into that. And when
I went back to school, I played. I still played
another year, but my body never could handle the same

(03:52):
physical craziness again. It just like wasn't It was like
inflammation issues, and I was struggling with that, but my
love of music was still going and I I just
kind of get further and further into that, and then
my senior year I had to stop playing. My doctor said.
Right before summer before senior year, my doctor said, you

(04:14):
need to stop playing. You're gonna like hurt yourself. You're
just like your body can't handle it. And so on
the way home, I went to a guitar center picked
up a DJ equipment and was like, all right, I
have one year left school. I need to figure out
how to make music my career because it's the only
other thing that I loved doing. And I started djaying

(04:38):
like at home to my parents the summer before senior year,
and then first week of school, I got a DJ
gig at like the swim House and played like the
first one there when there was you know, few people
there and just kind of build my way up. And
then halfway through senior year, I started to do like
I was kind of a go to guy for the
parties and I would just bring my stuff around to

(05:00):
the parties. And I met Sophie at an art gallery
and she was performing like jazz performance, and I was
the after party DJ guy, and I saw what she
was doing. I thought it was incredible, and it was
just Boston nova jazz music all in Portuguese. I had
never really heard anything like it, being like a dude

(05:21):
from Boston, and I thought that would be really cool
mixed with past music because I really loved a lot
of like international dance music that had different languages and stuff.
Before we get into that, I want to backtrack really quick, Tucker,
in terms of those options, right, you're light in the
bed and you're like, you know what, I might need
to explore other avenues. So that kind of lends itself

(05:43):
to the first thought of why was it music? Was
music kind of like an undercurrent that supported basketball? Was
it like your love of music was secondary because you
could have gone into anything. You're like, you know what,
I could have been like a chef, like I could
have just started looking up recipes and how to make things.
But music was was your calling, your second calling in
that capacity? Why was it? Though? I don't know. I

(06:06):
mean I always loved it. I think, you know, I
was the guy in my friend group who would make
like burn CDs with mixtapes and and give it to
everyone and like discover new music, and it was it
was always something I loved. I was. I played drums
growing up and was in like a garage band basically
like a Blink Win a two cover band in like
you know, a grade or you know whatever, And uh yeah,

(06:31):
I mean it just kind of it just popped out
as as something that I loved doing. I think I
never got the time to explore my creative side. And
I think being an athlete and being like a jock
is pretty limiting in in the way people look at
you and treat you and how you see yourself, I think.

(06:53):
And I was never incage, not unencouraged, but I was
never encouraged or even thought that that was something I
could do because I was an athlete and athletes aren't artists,
you know. So I think it took something life shaking
to make me to give me a chance to look

(07:18):
into that side of myself, I think now, So if
you tell me how, how was it? Wintucker came and said,
you know what you're doing, this Boston Nova jam, and
it's working for you. It's working. But I do think
that there's more there there with some house music, with
some of those like undepending of like dance of that
pop dance pop world. What was your response in that interaction?

(07:39):
It just felt very organic and effortless, Like I don't
I feel like I just wasn't really thinking much of
it at the time. Like I was there with a
jazz trio, you know, with a pianist and I think
and a drummer, and you know, we were playing songs
that I had like written with just the guitar, and

(08:01):
it's like very slow and botnova inspired, like all in Portuguese.
And he literally like he just came early because he
was playing that same gig he saw me play, and
he basically just like brought in like a loop of
like an intro of drums to a track that he
was about to play, and he was like you just
stay here, like just keep up with the drums. So

(08:22):
he basically like spet me up on the spot and
and so I just kept playing and it just sounded great.
And then the next day I get a like Facebook
message being like, hey, like, do you have a recording
of that song? I want to make a remix of it.
And I think I had a recording of the song,
but it like wasn't in time or anything. So he

(08:43):
was like, just come over and we'll re record this
song like in time so that I can make a remix.
And so I went over to his house and you know,
recorded the song and again it just like felt so natural.
And then like I think the next day he was like, oh,
come over and like record another one. And then it
just kept, like to answer the original question, it's it

(09:03):
wasn't like super premeditated, you know, kind of like one
day at a time, it just continued to feel right,
continued to feel very organic. And we weren't even friends,
you know, like we didn't like hang out, Like I
don't think we really understood each other as people. We
just really meshed well as like musical brains, you know,

(09:27):
and our workflow was so natural and yeah, effortless that
I think we just kept doing it because it just
felt right. There were times I had to convince her, yeah,
to do it, to keep going. What was that? Like?
There were two times in particular. One time, so you know,

(09:49):
basically he had been like remixing songs that I had
already written. And it was our final semester of college
and he came to me and he was like, how
about we start a because if brown you can basically
like create your own class and you like you choose
a professor to basically like monitor it, and then you
can do whatever you want. And you say, like, our

(10:09):
final project is going to be, you know, writing an
EP together, and he was like, why don't we create
a class and just do this and like make anyp together.
I also needed an extra credit, Yeah, should graduate. And
here I am like so hyper focused on like on
writing my thesis, you know, and at the time, like
that felt really important. And so I remember coming back

(10:33):
from winter break and being like, hey, Tuck, like I've
thought about it a lot, and I I need to
focus on writing my thesis, like I don't think that
doing this course makes sense for me. And he's very persuasive.
I don't know exactly what he said, but he was like,
come on, let's do it. And I was like, okay,

(10:54):
wait in that moment, so you're either like easily persuaded
because Tucker was just like, no, this is great for us,
and you're like, I guess I didn't think about it
that way. Let's do it. I don't know what it
was exactly. It just felt like, okay, well, we were
gonna do it anyway. I feel like my argument I
don't remember. Yeah, he was kind of like, why we
get course credit, but I was like, just let me

(11:15):
get course credit for it. We're going to make music
together anyway. And I think that I think that was true,
Like it had been feeling so good like it, it's
true that we would have been making music anyway. So
that's when I was like, yeah, sure, okay, let's do it. Yeah.
It seems like y'all speak the same nonverbal communication because

(11:36):
even the way you are with each other outside of
like and again, as someone who's played your music in
my peloton classes, quite often we you know I all right.
My colleagues have even done for all for one literally
a stuff we tuck a ride like our members love it,
and we know you speak the same language when it
when it's in our ears and when it's in our
hearts and when it's in our bodies, but even seeing

(11:56):
you right now, it's like that kind of like that
non verbal communication of this feels right, and that's what
you said, and also if you for you, we've kind
of gotten Tucker's perspective of how he's found music for you?
Was music always that one thing? I think music was
always that one thing, but I didn't always admit that
it was that one thing. Like I started writing songs

(12:17):
in middle school, like I remember, for like a school project,
you know, it was like a book report about you know,
the book Things Fall Apart. Anyway, I basically I did
like my book report in song form. So I took
the melody of James Taylor song Fire and Rain, and
just like my book report to the song. And that

(12:40):
was the first song that I ever quote unquote wrote,
even though obviously I stole the melody, but I realized
that you can just do that and then you can
kind of change the melody and then all of a sudden,
like you have a new song. And so I just
started doing that basically for like therapeutic purposes, you know.
I would write like I'm really sad and I'm fourteen,
and like I you know, I moved a lot as

(13:01):
a kid, so I would like go to a new
school and like be the new girl and be kind
of fat about it, and I would write songs about it.
And that's kind of like what music was for me,
is this like very private thing that I did for
myself to process my emotions. So that was for a
long time, and then like I started performing a little bit,

(13:23):
like a little like school talent show things. And I
actually had a similar experience in high school where I
kind of felt like I had to choose between being
the athlete and being the artist and among like, especially
because I was a new girl at the school and
I kind of felt like I didn't really like I

(13:45):
don't know for whatever reason social pressure wise, I felt
like I had to choose. So I actually chose to
be like the soccer player, like in terms of my identity.
So I was like very private about the fact that
I was making music. And even in college, like same
thing I was, and you know, I was really into
conflict resolution, I studied development studies. I was like super

(14:09):
nerd writing my visas you know, and I for the
most part was keeping my music as kind of like
a thing that I did for myself. And then I
was just gonna say the biggest hurdle that I had
to overcome with getting her to be in a band
was that she could not selfishly pursue music. Yeah, I

(14:36):
think I always. I think I thought that music, that
pursuing music, which was my ultimate dream, was like a
selfish move because I've had this insane education, like my
whole life. My parents are educators, and I think I
just felt this responsibility to use my education for good

(14:58):
and to give back, and I I thought that music
was not that Like I thought that I had to
go be like a diplomat or something, or like a mediator,
which is actually what I was doing at the time.
And then and then I actually moved to Brazil, and
Brazil has I mean, we're here right now, so we're

(15:18):
like living and breathing it. It has this I mean,
it just values music above other things in a way
that I have never experienced before. And I think that
was what really brought me out of my shell of
doing music in private into bringing it more into my
life and kind of more to the forefront. And so

(15:40):
I came back from Brazil and when I met Tucker,
I was basically only writing music in Portuguese, and I
started like performing it, and I started sort of making
it a bigger part of my identity, I guess, and
I would say like public life instead of just like
music being this thing that I did more in private.
Today's podcast is sponsored by seat geek. If you didn't

(16:03):
know SeatGeek, it's the official ticketing partner of the Brooklyn Nets.
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web in one place to make buying simple. I have

(16:28):
to ask, because sometimes we have before we get into
the second quarter. We have influential people in our lives,
and I would say primarily the first people that are
the most influential our parents or guardians, right. And I'm
curious for both of you, when it was that change
when it happened to you know, transition for Utucker from sports,

(16:50):
whether it was a conscious decision or kind of like
the byproduct of your situation, when you had to make
that switch into music, what was the response from your
parents and even for you, Sophie, when it was the
time to not unquote quote unquote take it seriously but
sincerely invest and own yourself as a musician, your new
title became I'm an artist, like I'm a musician. When

(17:11):
you started to own that a little bit more, What
was the response from your parents or guardians or those
that were influential in your upbringing. For me, it was
really illuminating. I think it's when I realized how supportive
my parents were. Because my dad's like a basketball junkie.

(17:33):
We grew up going to Celtics games together. My mom
was an All American, Like she still holds like shot
blocking records, Like wow, I was. I knew they loved
basketball and I was really good at it, so like,
and they were obviously supportive of that because they got
so much joy out of it. But it wasn't until

(17:55):
I started doing something that wasn't necessarily their passion that
I realized they just loved me, you know. And I
knew they loved me and they've always been supported, but
it was it was different to be like, Okay, all
of a sudden, I've worked twenty two years, you know,

(18:17):
put countless hours traveling to tournaments, driving me around, you know,
the amount of time and effort, like and all of
a sudden, I some you know, my identity is something
new and I'm working on something else, and you know
I'm not necessarily that good at it right away, and
they still believed in me. I mean my dad especially.

(18:40):
I think my mom is tougher, funnier, but my dad,
I think he immediately was like, yeah, you can. You
can be the best at this in the world if
you want to be. And I think the yeah, that
belief goes so far, it goes so so far. And

(19:02):
for us. There was one band that initially I got
close with as friends from djaying, and they were the
ones they called The Knox and they're they're out of
New York. And this guy Ben in the Knox. He
heard what me and so we're doing initially right when
we were about to graduate Brown, and he said, you
should pursue this. And he had a real career. He

(19:24):
was a real artist, you know, he had some big songs.
And all I needed to hear was one person in
the industry who had done it, because we didn't really
have connections in the industry, like there wasn't like a
path to go, and all I needed to hear was
one person say you can do this, and I grabbed

(19:46):
it and ran with it. And I think the first
person to do that was my dad. And those moments
are so just so important to like have permission almost
from people that you respect and who sort of done
it before, you know, separate from my dad, but from
Ben from the knocks and yeah, and you're you're you're

(20:08):
with your pants is a little different. Yeah, No, I
mean it's so validating. I think when you have the
vision in your own head and then somebody else just
like affirms the vision, it's like, yeah, I see it too,
and you're like, okay, it's real. Um yeah, I mean
for me. So basically, Tucker called me like on the
last day of my of my exams and um, at
the time, did you write your thesis? Sorry, before you

(20:30):
give us a story, I have to ask you at
this point, you're about to graduate, you're taking exams, you've
done you've done thesis, and you've finished the class that
you had a professor kind of ordaining or look over right, Okay, Yeah,
I finished my thesis and honestly, it was a it
was a brutal process, like I didn't enjoy it at all.
Um who does, Yeah, I don't know. It would not

(20:52):
recommend and I mean, who knows. Maybe for some people,
but like from my brain, no, I would not do
it again. I learned something. But anyway, I got a
call from Tucker on the last day and he was like, hey, so,
if like I'm in New York and I just showed
our music to this guy you know who's part of
this band, and he says, like, we can work out

(21:15):
at their studio at nights when they're not working, Like,
will you move to New York and form a band
with me? And I was like no, Like I already
had a fellowship to go back to Brazil, like my
whole kind of plant like lived I lived in Brazil,
fell so in love with this culture in this place,
and I just wanted to return. So my parents basically
told me, like I have to go finish college and

(21:37):
then I can return. So this was like, you know,
I was just about to return to this place that
like really speaks to me. And I already had like
the plane ticket and the fellowship and the jaw or whatever,
like it was happening, and so I said no, and
then he did some very good convincing and he basically
told me, he was like, you know, you really want

(21:57):
to make a difference in the world, and like Brazil
matters so much to you. Here's what we're gonna do.
We're going to form a band and then you're going
to build a platform so that we will go back
to Brazil and you're going to be able to make
way more of a difference than if you just went out.
And that was the pitch out a man, I'm man

(22:18):
speak to her and what she you know, what she
thought was her calling and yeah, which which is but like, yeah,
I be like we're gonna make sig dances that you're
gonna go the best parties in the world. Yeah, I'd
be like okay, you know, she'd be like, no, I'm
not doing that. It seems like Tucker's the and man
like he finds the ad and all of the things

(22:39):
that you know, which again it goes to make this
stuff work. It's like, okay, we can do that and
maybe not now, but and yeah, and also I think
like he connected me and my kind of bigger purpose
and bigger why as like what motivates me and so
you know. Then I had some pretty tough conversation with

(23:01):
my parents, Like they're very, very supportive, but it was
I think there is just a lot of fear, um,
you know, especially around like money and being um okay
and having a roof over my head. You know. They're like,
oh god, music, you know, like uh okay, um, we
can make it work for three months, like we'll, we'll,

(23:23):
We'll give you three months of you know. I lived
on people's couches and I had like enough for three months,
and that three months ran out, and like our career
didn't pop off, you know, and then no, no, not
at all, and we realized that it takes time to
do this, you know, and it takes time to make
music we're really proud of and learn how to even
like really make music together. Um. So then three months

(23:46):
turned into six months. And then at that point they're like,
you you got to find a job, like we can't
keep supporting you, you know. Um, very long story short, essentially,
I broke my toes. I was I got two rest
fractures in my in my big toes, and so I
ended up I moved home, which at the time was
in the Netherlands, with my mom and dad and I

(24:07):
was in a wheelchair for four months, and at that
time it actually saved me because that way I didn't
have to go get another job because I was like
living with my parents. And that's when I think we
really really solidified like who we want to be, what
our vision is, because we literally talked on on Skype.
I think it was at the time every single day, um,

(24:30):
you know, making music and also building the vision. We
were like, okay, who who are you? Like we don't
really even know each other that well, like what do
you want out of this? Like what what would your
biggest kind of vision be? And so we talked every
day for that like analytical about it. I think it

(24:50):
was literally like what what do we visually look like?
You know, what is our what is what are we
both cool with? Because there's such a vendagram of like
me and Sophie and then right where we cross over
is Sophie Tucker. But there's so much like art in
music and certain things that I like that Sophie doesn't
and same vice versa. So it was also I feel

(25:13):
like it was when we kind of formed our bond
and our friendship because before then, like we had made
music together, and we were in college together, but we
didn't like know each other, you know, and at this time, like,
I'm pretty vulnerable because I'm in a wheelchair and like
in and I had gone through that exactly, so he
he was like, you know, I really know what that

(25:34):
feels like, and like I have been there before, and
this is kind of like how I cooked with it,
and he helps me and we talked, I had somebody
every day and something to kind of look forward to
on the other side of it, being like and because
we didn't know for sure whether or not the bones
were going to heal, and like it was very uncertain,
kind of scary, and we really I think just bonded

(25:55):
during that period of time. Wow, let's go into the
second quarter. It actually is about what we're talking about now.
Second quite it is all about the assists and the struggle.
I think, no great story, no matter how long, how short,
how new, how old, is worth telling without understanding or
having visibility into some of the struggles that were, you know,
and some of the challenges which I know we've already

(26:16):
pointed out individually. And at this point we're getting to
where it's that intersection of that Venn diagram as you're
forming your identity together, right, and then we'll lend it.
We'll go into the assists, which are really important and
the highlight of a conversation. But in terms of now
you're adults. Although so if you're at home, Tucker, you're
you know, figuring it out, you're doing the networking, y'all

(26:38):
are on Skype every day. Now you're having these conversations.
There is a level of deep responsibility that could also
be attached to fear when your adulthood, your livelihood is
now reliable and how do you say, like it's depended
on another person. Have you ever had those moments where
there were points of I don't want to say contention

(27:00):
and but honest conversations on work ethic or communication skills
because you know, personally your friends but also professionally you
are responsible for each other in your livelihood. Yeah, yeah,
that's huge. Early on we had a lot of those conversations,
and we've always been really good about communicating. I think

(27:21):
that's what keeps us good always. And one one thing
we don't really fight. We just talk about things before
they like get to we bicker fighting. We definitely bicker
all the time, but yeah, after like eight years of
traveling and being exhausted and stuff. But no, I was

(27:43):
going to say. One of the things I remember about
from early early on was one of the first times
we were in the studio and it was in New York,
and it was we got there like I don't know,
eight or nine or something, maybe even ten, and like
an hour or two into being there, Sophie's like, I'm tired.

(28:04):
I think I'm you know, I'm done. I don't i
don't want to bring music anymore, you know, I'm gonna
go to sleep or something. And I was like, you're tired. Yeah,
we just got here. Who cares? Like I used to
wake up at four thirty and run stadiums and then
go to lift and then go to practice and then
go to breakfast and then go to class and then
go back to practice. This is not hard, Like this

(28:26):
is easy. And it was just like those types of
differences from our life experiences that we had to you know,
figure out and like talk about and push each other
in different ways. Yeah, I would say too, both of

(28:46):
our own horns, like in regards to both communication and
work ethic, but I think both of us are are
strong in both areas. But I think Tucker is particularly
strong in his work ethic and I think he had
rubbed off enormously on me on the band. And I
think I, you know, I studied conflict resolution, like I

(29:07):
was a mediator, Like I'm obsessed with communication, and I
think that my kind of obsession with it also has
greatly informed our communication style and also like endurance of
the band, And I think both of those things like
we brought to the table and have been able to
share and really rub off on each other. And now

(29:31):
as you're evolving as a collective and individually throughout this time,
and like we said, there are those points of contentions
where one says we don't fight and the other ones like,
we do fight, which I think everyone listening on the
other side it makes us feel good. I'm not gonna lie.
And the reason for that is if you are fans,
or if you listen to your music or you see
you on social the aperture is so small that you
almost look so perfect. And so these conversations for me

(29:54):
are so interesting and necessary because we widen that aperture,
we get real out it and say, yeah, we're human.
Just like you said, my strength comfort resolution my strength
work ethics, and that's what we bring to the table,
and that's where we lean in and listen to each
other respectively. I think when we talk about this, not
only do you have each other, which is a uniqueness

(30:15):
that many people don't or I wouldn't say uniqueness, it's
like an asset that many people don't have because it
could be a large group of you and communication gets tougher,
or it's just an individual trying to make it whether
they're an athlete, an artist, an entrepreneur, vertical or versatile. Well,
I guess my question here is when you think how
you've been able to lean on each other. When we
talk about the assists here on quarteside conversation, we often

(30:37):
give it to other people outside of you know, Ben,
who was like you have something profound here, like go
for it. We think this has legs. Who in your
life and I know we talked about our parental figures,
but who in your life was a great assist in
terms of professionally over the last eight years that you say,
you know what, the award for assists for us, Sophie
Tucker as a unit goes to this person. Oh my god,

(31:00):
we've touched so many assists. Yeah, it definitely takes the
village of assists to get give us a few let's
get the rules here, chase the rules for a couple. Yeah, okay,
I'll start. Yeah. Our manager, Neil, Yeah, I think he
and Justin and Justina, um, they're both are managers and

(31:22):
we've had them since the very very beginning. They saw
our first show and we had a bunch of conversations
with a bunch of managers and we went. We went
with Neil and Justina and the major assist point I
think for them is the high integrity that they've always

(31:43):
operated under. And so many people say, like, oh, the
music industry it's you know, squeezy and slimy, and people
rape you off and you know, people go through managers
all the time and agents are yeah, all that kind
of stuff. And we've had such a different experience because
we've had such good people helping run the business and

(32:09):
helping us make decisions. Like we didn't know much about
the music industry. We didn't go to you know, music
school besides being fans and loving it, and we've learned
so much along the way, but having someone who could
guide us and you know, when making a record when
taking a record deal really early in our career, we

(32:32):
you know, didn't sign in the United States, so we've
been independent the whole time. And as we grow we
realized how unbelievable valuable, unbelievably valuable that was, and like
the nuances of little things like that not only to
benefit us economically, but to bet on ourselves for the

(32:55):
long term so that we're not you know, we when
we first started, we're like, oh my gosh, you know,
money crazy, like this is great, and he's and you know,
Neil was like, well, you know, if this goes, if
we believe in ourselves and we bet on ourselves, you
will make a lot more if you don't do this now.

(33:17):
And I think a lot of managers tend to take
the money up front and not think of the long
term because they get their twenty percent and they want
to get paid. But he, basically because the decisions he
helped us make, he didn't really make money for the
first year or two working for us, because we would
you know, what we'd make, we'd spend on touring and

(33:40):
you know, building. So I would say huge assists to
Neil and Justina, Yeah, I feel like we should we
should keep this assist going just because there's so much
to say about them, like not only all of the
things the Tucker said, but it's it's truly remarkable how
many people in our business will come to us and
be like, we work with so many managers, but Neil

(34:03):
and Justina are the best communicators, the kindest people. Like wow,
you know, like the ripple effect of it is enormous
because you know, there's a lot of people who work
on Sophie Tucker, the business, the band, the brand. You know,
it's like there's so many people and they all are

(34:23):
funneled through these two people, um that we trust so
much in terms of setting the tone of the culture
and the type of you know, the type of non
shitty deals we're going to make, or like the type
of just like respects. Yeah, yeah, they're not like trying
to rinse other people. And exactly it's like if it's

(34:47):
they're just really fair, which is just also like it's
good karma, it's good energy and to and we have
so much faith and trust in them to continue making
decisions that are fair to other people, and that just
goes such a long way. So we get to you know,
focus even more on being artists and you know, put

(35:08):
a lot of trust and faith in that side of
the business. Just running beautifully. Look at that, Neil, and
just you know, the assist goes to you and we're
gonna go ahead and hit halftime. I've never done a
halftime like this, and I'm actually as we have two
of y'all, we're going to see how alike you really
are and or how different you are. So it's really quick.

(35:29):
I call it fire wrapp it. It's really called rapid fire,
but fire wrapp it. It's a this or that blurred out,
whichever one comes to your head first, and we'll go.
We'll go Tucker and then Sophie. Just to create some contradiction.
Sounds good, Yeah, all right, great soul or jazz music,
So jazz, okay, Lake or ocean. That's tough because I

(35:54):
love the climate that goes with the ocean. But I
actually think lakes are it'd be more fun to like
live on. I'll go late because I think I'll have
a different enci and so ocean. Yes, different books or podcasts, music,
nah both okay. Mocktail or cocktail, cocktail, mocktail, hot or cold?

(36:23):
Really yeah, like weather? I hate the cold. I like
cryoh and like ice bad thing and stuff. But I
was thinking, like temperature wise, I'm not trying to live
in a cold climate. She doesn't drink like hot liquids. Okay,
you're right, I'll go cold. I'll go coold hot. Okay.
Dinner out or dinner in and day filled with buzzing

(36:48):
energy or day of solitude buzzing energy, love them both.
Come on, you got a big one, Sophie, You got
a big one buzzing energy. Oh, come on, she's I'm
not why she an Issian in person, She's like, I'm good.
I also wanted to keep that. I know there's the

(37:09):
next one that we had the same. All right, two
more pancakes or waffles? Pancakes waffles? Okay to your coffee
coffee team. So what we've learned in this halftime? Are
you folks communicate? Well? You have great work ethics, but
you are nothing alike. You don't like any of this.

(37:31):
You're literally polar opposite. Wait, last question, AM or PM?
Like who who's the AM and who's the PM? Big PM?
Big am? You still your sleep schedules are different? Oh
my goodness? Which up to be fair? Yeah? I mean,
because our job is way more PM than am I like,

(37:52):
even though I say AM, like I live mostly PM.
It's more like when we're like basically when we're like
at home for like short periods of time, like I
recharge by like being more solo and like waking up,
getting a workout in like starting the day that way,

(38:12):
whereas he will like sleep in super late, like go
out late, and like that's how we social and like
going out to dinner with friends and that kind of stuff.
I mean, I'm social in a different way, you know,
like I'll have like an an injimate dinner and then
like wake up early and work out with people or
like it's just yeah, that's great. I love that though,

(38:35):
because y'all are uniquely different but also very similar. It's
funny because we are so different, but there's there's a
lot of similarities too. All right, let's roll into the
third quarter. Now, the second half of the game usually
goes a lot quicker. Let's talk about what we are
currently doing right Sophie Tucker, the band just released Sacrifice

(38:57):
k X five included. Let's talk, but where are you
now in terms of your career? Folks at our fans
and or first time being introduced to you. What's up?
Lots is up? A lot of things are up right now.
We're in Brazil. We just played a couple of shows
for kind of All and are here getting inspired, writing

(39:20):
new music, making music video. And then we're doing Lollapalooza,
which is there's South America Lollapaloozo in Chile, Argentina, Argentina,
Colombia and South Hollo and yeah, and then we come back,
we continue going, you know, we do one of our

(39:43):
residency shows in Vegas, we play at Space in Miami,
and then we start rehearsing for our Coachella and we're
doing a brand new show, designing a completely new show
that I'm so excited about for Coachella. And then the
tourists just continue a lot of new music coming, really
exciting collapse, and we're hyped about how the k K

(40:04):
five has been going, really pumped. That's awesome. Now in
terms of I know you talked about working out, but
in terms of this endurance, which you mentioned earlier in
our conversation, so it's just like this stamina that you
have to have to do all those things you just
had a running list most folks are like, I got
a book coming out, and you know, I'm gonna do
this TV show, But they're all in blocks of schedule,

(40:25):
And I often say it's it's necessary. Sometimes life is
a sprint where you're just like, I just got to
get through three weeks. I get a break for a
month for you. It's not technically that that capacity isn't available.
What is it like in terms of maintaining your mental
and physical well being during a schedule such as that,
which are all great things? Yeah, oh my god, there's

(40:48):
so many things. Uh, I do all the things. Yeah,
to be mentally like in good shape ustem well. I
think the first thing that I would say is when
you have a strong sense of purpose and a and

(41:12):
joy doing the things, like I don't think they're actually
capable of burning you out, Like I really know, I
don't like. The only thing that I that I think
has gotten us in trouble and potentially like on the
kind of verge of burnout is our travel schedule. Like

(41:35):
there have been moments where you know, we like play
a show at three am and it finishes up four thirty,
and then like we're up at eight am going to
the airport, we got like one hour of sleep, then
we're in another country and then we switched time zones.
Like that stuff is pretty brutal, and I think can
take the joy out of what we're doing. And we
this year have started to be a lot more careful

(41:56):
about how we schedule things so that we're not doing that.
I feel like we only had like maybe two weeks
this year where like two separate occasions where we're like,
oh God, okay, we're doing the thing where our travel
schedule is getting so hectic that it's getting in the
way of the joy of this, and like we need
to maintain the joy for its own like just because

(42:17):
that's what life is about. But also that we can
maintain the endurance because as long as we really love
what it is that we're doing, like we can keep
doing it. Also, Like I think a big part of
what we do, separate from like making music for people
to enjoy on their own time in their own spaces,
is like transfer joy. Yeah, and so it's got to

(42:41):
be real, Like it has to we actually have to
be feeling it to do that, and if yeah, if
we're faking it, it's not the same. No. Yeah, So
that's that's the first thing that I would say. And
I've been thinking a lot about it because I like, well,
like we are so quote unquote busy, but like all
of the things feel very soul filling and like life

(43:03):
affirming and all the shit I do. Okay, so give
it to me. So I'm sober. I don't drink. That's
one big thing I do. UM. I have a very
strong or like consistent meditation practice. That's another thing I do. UM.

(43:23):
I every day I do a gratitude walk where I
like literally say my gratitude out loud, and then I
say my intention for the day, and I swear that
this particular walk is like probably the most impactful thing
that I do. How long is it? Sorry? How long
for those that are listening that maybe when adopt some
of the things you're doing. How long do you meditate?
And how long is or short is the walk? Yeah? Okay,

(43:46):
so I only meditate for ten minutes. I just otherwise,
like I'm not consistent UM and I and I do
it right when, I just do it in bed before
I even get out of bed, and then I walk
any length. So like, if I only have five minutes,
I'll take five minutes. And if I have an hour,
I'll do that. But like the verbal stuff is like
ten fifteen minutes a day in the morning. Um, I

(44:11):
work out six just seven days a week. I do
basically at this point mostly functional movement because like basically
physical therapy style like stand up pilates is what I
call it. I do a method called three form. Also,
I love peloton ps and I've taken your class. Thanks.

(44:31):
I honestly, for those that are listening, I come into
these conversations and I don't know that is not a prerequisite.
I assume our team hopefully plugs it and then they're like,
I know who she is, because then otherwise I may
not show up who you are. Your voice has been
lasting through our house many of times. Yeah, I love

(44:52):
I mean, I love working out. It's such a big
part of like how I how I like to take
care of myself. And um, I don't know what else
do I do. I like eat really well and I
no dairy, no glue, no sugar, no like I have
like all these sort of like things. I feel like
that took me a long time to sleep sleep. I'm fair,

(45:14):
I sleep a lot. I'm like, I'm very intentional about
my friendships, um um, like keeping them super well nourished.
And I just think, like all the things, I'm kind
of obsessed with my own health, I would say, because

(45:35):
at the end of the day, like I it's the
lens that you see everything through. Like I feel like,
even if everything is going amazingly and we're like the
biggest band in the world and we're you know, headlining
huge festivals and we're making a lot of money, what

(45:55):
et cetera. Whatever, Like if I don't have like my friendships,
my health, my sense of gratitude, like it doesn't matter
at all. So I just feel like, you know, let's
get it all. Let's get it all. Did you was
this was this a kind of a byproduct of living
this life, like once you start, once the fast lane

(46:17):
became fast, were you like, I need to start adopting
new principles or were these kind of like pillars that
you exercised all the time before Sophie Tucker, I was
a yoga teacher and so I you should have started
with that one. There we go. Yeah, So I think
it's just something that I've been very passionate about for
a long time. Like I think I'm just I'm passionate

(46:40):
about energy, and I think ultimately, like what we do
is energy transference, you know, like we're literally like through music,
which is the best way to transfer energy, and through
performance like in person. We are in the business of
energy change. And so I think I tried to do

(47:04):
the same thing when I was teaching yoga, and I
really believe in it, which is like you have to
invest in your energy, and there are all these ways
to do it, and so I kind of try to
do all of them. But the other thing, I sound
like chechoree Yesterday's or this is so long winded, but

(47:24):
I think that for the past ten years of my life,
like I've been so obsessed with kind of creating these
like structures and guidelines around like how to be well.
And I've also had like a lot of experience with
like you know, and even in my family of of
mental illness, and I think I've just been like also
reacting to that and wanting to make sure that I

(47:50):
stay like well. Um. But basically, I think I spent
a long time developing these sort of like things that
work for me, and I I was kind of like
strict about them for a long time, and I think
now in the past year, I've just loosened on all
of it. You know people talk about like the eighty

(48:12):
twenty or like the ninety ten or whatever. It's like, yeah,
most of the time, I'm going to sleep a lot,
but like twenty percent of the time, like I am
staying out until sunrise and I am skipping my work
out the next day because like that is what ultimately
brings me joy. Or like I'm gonna have, you know,
like sugar and dessert, because like that brings me so

(48:33):
much joy, like all of those things that it's like
I don't really feel like being in strict anymore because
I also can trust myself now that like I'm not
gonna like lose control just because I stay out it's
a little sunrise and I have dessert. Like, wait, Tuck,
are you involved in anything like it? Are any of

(48:54):
these Everything's a your Thingum, some of these are sort
of a myrid. I've my inflamation issues is that from
that we were talking about earlier kind of have persisted

(49:14):
over a long period of time and I wasn't able
to work out or play sports and stuff like I
was recently. I've the past like eight months, I've been
on this medication that actually has been helping a lot.
So I've been starting to work out more regularly, which
is really exciting. M. So I try to work out regularly.

(49:37):
I do meditate more like five minutes and I don't
get every day, but especially when I need it, I do.
I have a therapist that I talked to weekly and
m I think definitely trying to stay in touch with friends.
I think something I do when I get down or
feel kind of anxious or depressed is not talk to

(49:59):
people as much, and it's something that really gives me
a lot of joy and sort of grounding when I
do talk to people that even catching up with friends
I haven't talked to in a while, like those sort
of things. For me, being social is really in staying
connected when we're like always so far and in different
places in the world. It's nice to feel connected to

(50:22):
people and like that I have that I'm not really
part of all the time. No, I love, but I
love that for y'all is like again that individual individuality,
but there are a lot of intersections and what our priorities.
And they did say statistically that folks that live the
longest and have the happiest quote unquote, you know, when

(50:43):
everyone wants to be happy in their life, are folks
that have really great friendships or that have invested in
those friendships to make them great. And so I think
that both of you that is your intersection in that
and you have each other. So to round out fourth quarter,
last thing, last question, looking at your career and experiencing
that energy exchange of your music that is so impactful

(51:04):
that for me physically I get, you know, that outer
body experience of just letting go and being free. What
is your advice for folks that are looking and maybe
they're formally trained, maybe they're not, you know, similarly to you,
maybe they don't know music? Is that right path? What
is your respective advice to folks that are listening that

(51:25):
are are considering pursuing music or maybe a secondary passion,
a passion that they don't know is there that that
can be their primary You're gonna go first, sure all.
I'll just say one thing what you said in that
question sort of made me think about was when the

(51:49):
like being in the zone and like forgetting about everything
else that I was so scared when I lost basketball
that I wouldn't ever get that again because like when
I was upset, when I was anxious in games, like
if you if things are going on, even just going
to shoot, like everything would go away and you would

(52:11):
just be focused and you would be in it and
it would be like, you know, probably what meditation is
supposed to, you know, get you tours. That was always
basketball for me, and like performing, working really hard at
something and then performing in front of other people, like
those things. I actually got all those back with music.

(52:32):
So I feel like sometimes you might be able to think, Okay,
what are the things about this life that I that
like really spoke to me or gave me so much
joy and so much passion and so much excitement, and
there's there might be other avenues that can get you
there and maybe even do it better, you know, And

(52:56):
like I still get that we work hard, we go
out on stage, I perform like I used to practice,
go on the court and perform, and you know, when
we're on stage, you don't think about anything else. You're
focused and you're just like living in the zone and
I don't know you Definitely it's nice to know you
can find that again because I have a lot of

(53:17):
pro athlete friends who are kind of just starting to retire,
and you know, they're having to start over and reidentify
themselves and and you know, go try to get a
job against twenty two year olds coming out of college
and it's it's scary and difficult. And yeah, and then

(53:39):
if more music focused, I would just say, make what
make something different, don't make make something like that excites
you but that doesn't sound like everything else, because I
think people's biggest mistake is trying to sound like what's popular,
and then you're going against the people who are best
in the world at that, you know, like Carve your

(54:01):
on Lane, so you can't be compared to If we
were trying to make music that sounded like Calvin Harrison
David Ghetta, we'd be losing because they're the best in
the world at that, you know. But if we make
music that sounds like us, that is, you know, our
two brains put together that hopefully we're making something totally
new that no one's really ever heard before, then we're

(54:24):
not really competing against anyone else, you know. And I
don't know, I think that's I think that's the way
to do it. My advice would be to do what
turns you on, to do what makes you come alive,
whether or not you understand why. So, for instance, I

(54:47):
was so obsessed with Brazilian music, and then I was
so obsessed with Portuguese, but like I'm not actually Brazilian,
Like there's not like I didn't have like a career path,
you know, I didn't know why I would study Portuguese.
I just knew that it was making me really happy.
And at the time, I think I've at times it
would overthink it and be like, well, why am I

(55:08):
doing those? Like what am I going to do like
career wise that will make this make sense? And like
now it's such a huge part of what it is
that I do, and I think the story will unfold
very naturally if you continue to do what makes you
really come alive. There's a there's a book called Bending
Reality that basically the whole premise is just that everything

(55:33):
can either make you feel expansive or contracted, and you know,
kind of viscerally which it's making you feel. And I
think that if you just do things that make you
feel expansive and expanded, that you will only have more

(55:57):
of that, like that expansion like begets more expansion. And
so rather than trying to almost like create like a
grand plan and then like being stuck to it, like
trusting that like the more you are living in that state,
that the more that you will continue to live in

(56:18):
that state, just by doing those things that make you
feel that way, whether or not you understand them at
the time. I love that wise words from Sophie Tufaca
bending realities from Victoria's song. I just downloaded it. So
thank you. I always love a good book recommendation that
I do. Want to say, thank you so much for
your time, for your energy, and for continuing to make

(56:41):
music that you said is expansive that is unique to you,
that is identifiable for us listeners, us experience yours, Like
in the club, I know it's you on the bike.
I could take anyone's class and they don't have to introduce,
like your signature is profound and it's pronounced. So thank
you so much for what you do. Keep doing what
you do. You have a fan in me and many

(57:04):
of my colleagues, and we really do appreciate you. So
I appreciate you both taking the time and sharing your
story and I'm excited to see it continue to unfold.
Thank you. It's mutual we're big fans, and yeah, appreciate
your time. Yeah, we'll have to come to the game.
And hay, come to a game, come to a palaton class,
I got you. You let me know. I mean, my

(57:25):
colleagues will freak out, so I'd say, let's do it.
Let's let's break them out in the best way. Boss. Awesome, Well,
thank you again. That was Sophie Tucker y'all taking a
quartside seat here in quartside conversation where we are winning
in the game of life. I'm allie love, I'll see
you all later.
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