Ben Long, SOPHIE’s Brother, Talks Posthumous Album

SOPHIE, out now on Future Classic and Transgressive, barely scratches the surface of that unreleased wealth. At 16 tracks, the posthumous album is expansive, impressive in its scope of genre, packed full of the sounds and production SOPHIE grew famous for. The track list is as SOPHIE left it upon her passing; her brother and longtime collaborator Ben Long wanted to keep the vision as true to SOPHIE’s as possible. “The track list did change a lot over the years,” Long tells PAPER. “But in 2021, this is where we were at.”

Long set out to finish the album and release it for public enjoyment specifically because he believes it’s what SOPHIE would’ve wanted. And he feels the same about other tracks still in the vault: “It would have been a disservice to SOPHIE to just let it fester in a safe somewhere,” he says. “I think if I told her that, she would say, ‘Well, what’s the point of that?’”

Congrats on the album. How has release week been?

Thank you. It feels good that the moment is here and the music’s going to be out there in the world. We had a friends and family party the other day where we listened to the whole album, it was very nice. You know, many emotions. But it’s good that it’s coming out.

I got to hear it last week in NYC and was really blown away. What was the process of getting started on the project like for you?

It was quite clear from pretty early on that this album needed to come out. SOPHIE and I had worked on it for so long, for many years, and we’d discussed it in-depth, and most of the music had been made — we were already discussing how to finish it. We’d already laid all that groundwork. It would have been a disservice to SOPHIE to let it fester in a safe somewhere. I think if I told her that, she would say, “Well, what’s the point of that?”

So it was really just picking up where we left off. We did a lot of work in the years leading up to COVID. There was a lot of touring at the time, and I think the touring informed what the album would become. She wanted to really break down the barriers between the distinct processes of recording and studio time, live shows and albums; she wanted it all to feel a bit more organic. The other side of that, of course, is there wasn’t as much time for finishing stuff. So when COVID came along, we thought, it’s a shame all these shows are being canceled, but we’re gonna use this time to really nail it and finish everything.

We made some progress, but as many people found, it wasn’t quite as productive a time as we’d imagined. Making a dance record at that time, everyone was in a bit of a weird space. But we kept plugging away at it.

Were there any segments or tracks that you found difficult to finish?

Every part had something difficult in it, really. Some songs it was the emotional weight, some songs there were technical things. Sometimes it was even just finding things, missing plugins and files and sometimes there were multiple versions. And there was a lot of material because the music spans many years. You’re looking at music from probably 2015 through 2021, so really, it’s a lot of her career. And SOPHIE changed her setup a lot. Some songs had started in different software, or used different pieces of equipment. Or sometimes technically things like tempo — she’d do many, many versions of a song, and it was like, I had to remember which one she’d settled on as her favorite tempo or arrangement, whatever it might be.

Was the plan to always do this tracklist, or did it change at all along the way?

The plan SOPHIE and I had, just before we lost her, was this track list. It did change a lot in the years preceding that. She toured the material for quite a few years, and some of it she’d sort of had enough of at the time, some of it got scrapped. There were things that were tweaked. She fell out of love with certain songs, lyrics, whatever it might be. The whole first section was going to be a very different thing, and the live show had a very similar intro. Like “Take Me to Dubai” and “New York’s Burning Down” and “Burn Rubber.” Which are great songs, but she played them so much over those years. And I think she didn’t think it was setting the right tone for the start of the record. I don’t know, maybe she thought it was a bit destructive in some ways, some of the messaging, though it was obviously meant in a light way. And I think it was the jokey nature of it, which she got bored of after a few years. Not to say the music was a joke, but some of the lyrics. But yes, certainly in 2021, this is where we were at.

Those songs, like “Take Me To Dubai,” for example, is that material you’d want to revisit in the future?

I certainly wouldn’t discount it. I know “Burn Rubber” was a song very dear to SOPHIE’s heart. But absolutely, I think with every song we have, it’ll have to be discussed a lot. Many are collaborative — like “Burn Rubber” is with Jimmy Edgar — so every song will need its own careful consideration. There’s a lot of music there, and in the same way as with this album, if we can finish it in a way that we think SOPHIE would like... you know, SOPHIE really nurtured this kind of family environment, and a lot of these collaborators on the album worked on other SOPHIE work. It’s a special kind of community thing. She trusted them and really admired them.

I think if it came to it, if I asked SOPHIE, “Would you rather this never come out or it’s finished by so-and-so of your friends?” I think she would, of course, want them to come out.

Having said that, the reason I’ve said this is the “final album” is because I’m not aware of another long-form SOPHIE piece, unless I miraculously find something hidden on a hard drive. We have long arrangements of stuff, but no albums we had discussed, none planned. So it wouldn’t be right to put out another album, but I certainly wouldn’t discount any of these songs or others from the vaults.

Through this process, did you ever consider simply leaking all the material?

No. There were two sides to those leaks. Sometimes Sophie was upset with them, because they weren’t finished. In some cases it stopped her from finishing things, she scrapped songs because they’d been leaked, which was a real shame. I totally get that fans want to have them, and they might think, Oh, well, that’s Sophie’s thing, you should put it out without changing anything. But with those tracks, there’s a reason why they weren’t out. Sophie was good at putting things out when she was happy with them. Thankfully, after a certain point, none of that early leaked material is out there.

But no, it never really crossed my mind, because she didn’t want them out in those versions. Otherwise she would have. She wanted a lot of them finished. As an example, when sketching something that became the demo, she would work with samples, but then she’d want to switch them out, I want to make my own drums or whatever.

Was there anything about SOPHIE’s ethos of music-making that was of critical importance to you while working on the album?

Everything. The aesthetic, the uncompromising nature of some of the sounds. The thing is, we worked together for so long, and so closely, at that. So I feel like she transferred all that. And anyone who worked with her knew the level she was pushing for, knew the feelings you’d get when you were there in that room with her, the excitement you’d feel. So really it’s more of a feeling, I think, where I was striving for how I felt when we were finishing the last record. Pushing it to the limit and just going and going until you’re really happy with it.

It sounds like most of this process was focused on what SOPHIE would have wanted. What was your thought process around the audience as you were making this?

We never really thought about that with the last record, particularly, though maybe we did a bit more with this one. It was always more driven by how the sound made her feel in the moment. And if it made us excited and was interesting to our ears, then hopefully it would be for other people. But I don’t think there was really consideration for what people would think. I mean, occasionally SOPHIE would say something like, “Fuck, people aren’t going to know what the fuck this is,” or something. [Laughs] And that amused her. She liked that. She liked confusing people a bit. With this one, as a whole, it was like, let’s just make a party record. It was about the vibe in the room when it was being made and also how that went down in a live environment.

And in the last year or two, as you’re working on finishing it, have you been at all concerned with what fan reaction will be like?

I wouldn’t say concerned. I don’t think about it that much. Like with everything, I expect there to be criticism. There was criticism with the last album, even from fans. It’s going to happen. If I can be up to the level in my head that SOPHIE wanted it to be, and if the collaborators and close friends and regular contributors listen and are happy, and it makes them smile and dance and remember and are really into it — that’s the confidence I want.

And what’s next for you, outside of SOPHIE?

I need to take a break for a few weeks, I’ve been working on this for so long. Up until we lost SOPHIE, I’d been beginning to work more on my own productions — my production was always much more technical, engineering and such — and it was really SOPHIE who gave me the encouragement and pushed me to do my own stuff. In my head, SOPHIE had been doing it for so long, and SOPHIE was incredible. So I was always nervous. I had been doing it more and more, and then it massively took a back seat the last year, because really this had to be my main focus. I’ve been learning a lot. The last few weeks I’ve been opening up some new sessions and doing things.

And then, there’s many more SOPHIE songs that, like I said, need to be discussed in their own time. Some that include people who are on the album, some who are not, people have been asking the last few years, “When can we do this?” So I have a list of priorities, and a lot of them at that. I played a few unreleased bits at the friends and family party, and people were really excited to hear that stuff again. There is a lot.

Photography: Getty