Sophie Jamieson - the river of connection

10/02/25: "everything around us is pushing us to be disconnected, and individually driven"

When I saw Sophie Jameson perform at an intimate north London songwriter night, on the precipice of releasing her sophomore album, “I Still Want to Share”, I’d never seen someone embody music as much as her. It’s as if she lives inside her own songs. The only three other comparable artists are Aldous Harding, Adrianne Lenker and Hana Stretton (please watch their performances in the links, and you’ll know what I mean). Sophie wears her heart on her sleeve, the one job of an artist, and has all the makings of an authentic one, something that needs to be held carefully by the world.

We spoke about how the world often does anything but.

SJ: *looking at the name my iphone has called my recording*

Santander cycles. That must be near here.

CV: We're at the Gladstone Arms, this beautiful square against the sky in London Bridge. You can tell it's a protected building. Everything around it has been carved and knocked down.

SJ: I love this place. Is this an audio interview or a transcribe interview?

CV: Transcribe! I hate the sound of my voice.

SJ: So funny when you're a singer and you hate the sound of your speaking voice.

CV: Have you ever listened to yourself back on, like, the radio or something?

SJ: Yeah. I'm like, ‘why is my voice like a little girl's’…I think I have a weirdly nasal voice. I don't know, I think my voice is weird.

CV: That's so funny, I wouldn't call your voice nasal. I think we just hear our own voices strange because we can't hear how we normally sound to others.

SJ: No, it does sound different in here *taps head*.

CV: I always think I sound neurodivergent.

We both laugh.

CV: And I can hear it when I hear myself back on radio.

SJ: I don't think there's a way to sound specifically ‘neurodivergent’. Whatever you think that sounds like.

CV: I tried to do a test once, and then I gave up.

SJ: I think some of the tests are terrible.

CV: They're really bad. I just looked at it and I thought, do I need a diagnosis? Can I just live my life just knowing this about myself and that's fine?

SJ: It's cheaper than getting an actual diagnosis.

CV: Also, I’m sick of this lineation between ‘well’ and ‘unwell’. I don’t find how I am shameful in any way. In fact, I kind of like it. You know, there's this whole thing about ‘neurotypical’. Everyone's on a spectrum, a million different spectrums. Is there such thing as a ‘normal’ brain? That's what I've started thinking.

SJ: Do you know what really mystifies me? There's like… ‘securely’ attached people.

CV: I got told it doesn't exist.

SJ: Really?

On Sophie’s bandcamp, the new record is described as follows: “an album exploring the push and pull, merry-go-round nature of anxious attachment and how it weaves, cuts and steals through familial and romantic relationships." On its titular track, ‘I Still Want to Share’, she croons,

“I saw your face in some other guy, he had your nose and you had his eyes”.

Lovers meld into one, a perfect image of how our attachment styles exist within us, projecting outwards.

CV: By someone who was studying child development. She said securely attached people don't actually exist. You can strive for it, but nobody ever gets there. I was quite relieved to know that.

SJ: Me too! Somebody did once show me there's a circle with like some like...venn diagram stuff. Or a cross that goes from like secure to insecure. Then everyone falls somewhere in the circle. Everyone's somewhere between avoidant and anxious, and apparently you can flip.

CV: Something can ‘happen’ to you, and then you change. I'm so fascinated by it all.

SJ: I did. I thought I was just totally insecure. And then in my last relationship, my avoidant side reared its head. And I was actually quite delighted to see it because I was like, oh! There's more to me than being anxious.

More laughter.

My relationship before my last one was short but very painful, in that it started with a real whirlwind romance. That was nice for about two or three months. And then the other person started to retreat, and just spent the next five months sort of...retreating from me. And then they eventually said, “oh no, I don't actually love you after all. I said it too soon and...I'll let you know when I do”...sort of thing. And…yeah…it was one of those breakups that fucks you up. Even though the relationship itself was really short.

CV: Did it inspire your record, too?