Sophia Stel writes songs the way some people keep journals: attentive, unguarded, and deeply present. Rooted in instinct and adaptation rather than strategy, her music captures the quiet weight of everyday moments, the ones that slip by if you’re not looking closely enough.

In this conversation, Sophia reflects on spontaneity, staying offline in an always-on world, the strange intimacy of sudden recognition, and the growing dialogue between her music and fashion, following her recent runway debut at Ann Demeulemeester.

You’ve described your songwriting as rooted in the everyday — the small, fleeting moments that often go unnoticed. What draws you to these details, and how do you turn something ordinary into something worth singing about?

Everything is worth singing about to me. I think if life feels super flat, you’re maybe not looking deeply enough at it.

The video for “You Could Hate Me” feels almost like a home movie, with sunburned friends, cheap cameras, and everything a little off-the-cuff. Was that spontaneity a deliberate choice, or just you trusting instinct over planning?

I definitely always trust instinct over planning. I think some things you have to see in action to know if they’re gonna look good. Often, I have ideas for videos and then when we actually shoot them, it doesn’t look good. So it’s more about always being prepared to pivot at the last minute, and just going with what looks best versus trying to force something to happen if it’s not right.

In an era where most artists are hyper-present online, you’ve managed to build a devoted following while keeping a minimal social media footprint. Has that been a conscious resistance to digital noise, or simply what feels natural to you?

It’s just what feels natural to me. It’s really nice to be able to connect with people on social media and I’m glad to have it as a tool, but I don’t feel that it’s good for my art in a lot of ways because I think I need to be present in my life and pay attention to the things around me in order to write about them.

Object Permanence gave people a first glimpse into your world, but “I’ll Take It” really broke things open, especially with Troye Sivan’s co-sign. What was it like navigating that sudden shift from private creation to public recognition?

I’m currently still navigating it. I think the most important thing is to stay really close with my good friends and be patient with myself, because it is strange.

You just wrapped your first headlining tour with sold-out dates in New York, LA, London, and Barcelona, plus Pitchfork Festival in Paris (where we had the chance to shoot). What has been most exciting or scary about bringing your songs to life on stage in this new way?

The most exciting thing is meeting people in real life who have been listening to my music — the best feeling is seeing people sing along to the songs and know the words. And the scariest part is having everyone looking at me because I’m on stage, or thinking that my voice will crack or that I’ll run out of breath.

And now, there’s the fashion connection: your recent runway debut at Ann Demeulemeester’s SS26 show felt like a natural crossover for someone whose work already plays with texture and mood. How does fashion feed into your sense of self-expression, and what does that world offer that music doesn’t?

I’ve always loved clothes, and I love to put outfits together. I care about my own personal style quite a bit, and you basically get to choose to make yourself a piece of art each day by what you wear. All the high fashion stuff to me is quite foreign in many ways, but at the end of the day, I just see it as an expansion of something that I’ve always been interested in.