Sofie Royer on songs about film, therapy and life beyond music's metrics

Vienna-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sofie Royer is preparing to release a new album titled Before/After. One track, Actress, is packed with film-industry terminology and elaborate metaphors, while another, Cowboy Mouth, reimagines a Sam Shepard play in song form. Her music blends Italo disco, new wave and garage rock, often referencing a wide range of cultural figures.

Now 35, Royer was born in the US to an Austrian mother and an Iranian father, later moving to Vienna as a teenager, where she trained as a violinist at a conservatoire. She says her mixed background and itinerant upbringing across several countries have left her feeling like she never fully belongs to one place.

A winding career

At 19, Royer worked at the Los Angeles record label Stones Throw, later moving to London to become one of the first employees at streaming platform Boiler Room. After the company took on major investment, many in the underground music scene saw it as a departure from its original, alternative ethos.

When her mother was diagnosed with cancer, Royer returned to Vienna to care for her, and it was around this time that she began seriously writing songs as a way of processing the experience. Her debut album, Cult Survivor, came out in 2020, followed by other projects built around different personas, including 2022's Harlequin and 2024's Young-Girl Forever.

On the new album, Royer wryly addresses the fact that, while admired by artists such as Lana Del Rey, Air and LCD Soundsystem, commercial success and fame have largely eluded her. She also sings about her experience in therapy, which she has recently stopped.

Beyond music, Royer is increasingly turning to acting. Following a cameo in Emmanuelle, she has been working on two new Austrian films with director Jasmin Baumgartner.