Sans Soucis Magnifies the Sensual on 'Sexed and Sexual'

Sans Soucis Magnifies the Sensual on 'Sexed and Sexual'

By Erica CampbellApr 26, 2024

San Soucis’ debut album, Circumnavigating Georgia, touches on identity, reclamation, tearing apart patriarchal structures and how anti-Blackness has impacted their life. Each track time travels to Soucis’ teenage years and early adulthood experiences, whether lyrically or sonically, beckoning listeners to re-experience life through their eyes.

The London-based, Italian-born singer-songwriter recently released "Sexed and Sexual," the first sample from their upcoming debut. In the track, Soucis dives into the desire for sexual liberation and hyper-sexualization, all driven by natural human nature. "When I was a teenager, I overlooked situations that I shouldn’t have been involved in," they say. "I don’t blame myself for it. That's why I really wanted to explore all of these aspects. The album was kind of exercising my guilt and actually being like, ‘Listen, it is what it is. It happened the way it happened, and it's not my fault.'"

Below, Soucis talks to PAPER about "Sexed and Sexual," and how Britney Spears, self-realization and ownership led to the sensual song.

What was the inspiration behind the track?

Last year, I decided to live at my grandparents' house in Italy for a month and address the relationship I have with some aspects of my identity that felt strongly tied to my teenage years — years when, as human beings, we start developing an identity detached from our parents or caregivers. During these years I used to listen to a lot of house and pop music, and songs like "Dance Floor" by Stylophonic and "Gimme More" by Britney Spears made me channel an energy that felt addictive, with elements of darkness and light. After sampling a bass line from a jam I had with a friend, the song took a whole shape of its own and lyrics emerged like a flow of consciousness.

Now, as an older person, I have begun to think about how much sex and sexuality defined the early days of my personal development and how little ownership I had over them. So when the concept of the track finally took a bit more of a shape, I realized all I wanted to do was to create a safe space for me to make sense of these experiences and own these parts of myself whilst moving away from shame and guilt I've felt.

How do you hope fans feel when they hear it?

I hope people feel sexy, powerful and naughty!

What are you most excited to share next?

I am very excited to share the album as a whole. I’m feeling so proud of it and it feels like the right time to release it into the world.

How did the music video come together?

The idea is really rooted in the home, the place where I conceptually gave birth to the album, and I oscillate between adulthood and teenage, as that’s the tone I established in the song.

We also wanted to open the curtains on a sensual scene where I was at times in control and at times lost. The video, directed by CT Robert, was born out of a wider concept that will be portrayed in a longer short film released later this year. The music video is therefore meant to be a bit of a magnifying glass on one scene from the film.

Photogrpaphy: Mahaneela Choudhury-Reid