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Photo by Emil Gentes

Artists find inspiration anywhere. German indie rock artist Philine Sonny found inspiration in Benedict Wells’ coming of age novel Hard Land. Going through her own coming of age transformation, Sonny created her debut album Virgin Lake, taking listeners on a journey from anger and sorrow, to a place of understanding. Sonny sat down with us from her home, which also doubles as her studio, to chat about all things Virgin Lake, collaborating with friends, and cooking. 

Ones to Watch: Who is Philine Sonny? Can you describe yourself in three words or phrases? 

Philine Sonny: I will try. I’m a crafty person, which I kind of view my music as a crafty thing. I’m very in my head about a lot of things. And I love cooking. 

Do you have a signature dish that you cook?

Right now it’s Chinese hand pulled noodles.

That’s so cool! We’re here to talk about your debut album, Virgin Lake. What was it about this moment in time that pushed you to create an album as opposed to an EP?

I’ve been collecting songs for this album for a few years now. Whenever I wrote a song that I thought was part of a bigger story, which is my life, I put it aside and saved it for this album. I also wrote a couple new songs that were inspired by big life changes that happened about a year and a half ago, the album is about that. Funnily enough the songs that I was saving are also part of that story, kind of building up. The album is a documentation of that. 

This album takes listeners through a journey of anger and grief, to an ending of understanding and a bit of acceptance. What was it like piecing together the track list to create this journey?

The whole thing made a lot more sense to me after that, which was important but also devastating to see the bigger picture. It was like piecing together a puzzle. At the end it’s all black and white and pretty sad sometimes , it also has its good moments. For me it’s a documentation of my life story and who I am so it was pretty big thing to put this together. 

When you had that moment of “This is a big thing, this is a sad thing” did you do anything to take a step back? What’s your self care in a heavy moment like that?

I’m very bad at that. Cooking is one thing. Take five hours to make a dish that I eat right here. Recently I’ve picked up knitting, which is awesome. Good way to calm down and to process things. When I laid the album I think I didn’t have that, I was fully in it. 

You wrote on Instagram that “Outrun” and “Eye for Eye” are both part of the same broader story. Were they written around the same time? 

They came at different times. I wrote “Eye for an Eye” first. It’s a very bitter and angry song and “Outrun” is letting it out for a second and not be so tense and choked up on this thing. Let it out and get over it. Be a bit mean and loud. I was just not caring too much about what I was saying, in a good way. There’s a couple months between the two songs. 

There’s a lot of vulnerability throughout the album. Are you ever nervous to release a song? 

Oh, yeah! Yes, I’m very, very nervous to release these songs. Some of them are a bit vague, but “Eye for an Eye” I’m definitely nervous because it’s pretty obvious naming people. I don’t do that without thinking about it, I do care and I do worry about it, I don’t want to do anyone injustice, that’s not why I do it. I want to tell my side of the story. There’s different versions of every story and every situation. Someone’s probably going to hear it and say “That’s not how it was,” but I guess that’s how it is.

Is that what pushed you to release it anyway? Wanting to tell your side of the story?

Definitely.

You drew inspiration from Benedict Wells’ coming-of-age book Hard Land, when creating this album. Is there any other book that you’ve read that you’ve found inspiring and could see yourself creating music about?

I really enjoy this book called, in German it’s called Eine Grage der Chemie. It’s about a chemist in the 1920s and she’s this very powerful female character. It was written in such a funny tone, so smart. Strong female characters.  

What about the sound we hear on the album? Is there anywhere specific that you draw sonic inspiration from?

Not really to be fair. There’s inspirations but I don’t have a playlist of songs that inspire me. I don’t really work with references. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. 

As a solitary creator, what was it like to bring in friends to flesh out some of the tracks on Virgin Lake?

It was really nice actually. Before I would think “What if it’s not what I imagined? What if it’s not good?” My friend, M. Byrd, played the guitar solo on “Eye for an Eye” and it was so good, I could never have done that. I made a song with Shadowboy and Brockhoff, which is the first song I’ve written in collaboration with people, that was really fun too. 

I feel like friends are a great first collaborator. Now that you’ve opened the door to a bit of collaboration, are there any artists that you would love to collaborate with?

There’s one feature that didn't make it, because of time issues. I would still love to make a song with Medium Build. I’m hoping that will happen some day. And the song that he was supposed to be on, is not on the album, so could still happen. At a personal level I’m still scared of collaborating with other artists, it’s very stressful. It’s not an ego thing, it would stress me out and I would be judgmental of myself, so I don’t think about that too much, but there’s definitely people I’d like to work with just to try it out.

Last question for you! Who are your Ones to Watch? 

One of my favorite bands ever is Chartruese. Haven’t got the spotlight yet that they should. They’re amazing, have been playing together for 10 years. I’d say Radiohead but I guess I’m late to the party. 

Listen to "Virgin Lake" below: