Soko

She’s a killer queen

Soko – as well as being a helicopter factory in Bosnia (apparently, thanks to Wikipedia) – is also the shortened name of singer/songwriter Stéphanie Sokolinski. Imagine if Kate Nash had been born in Bordeux, hadn’t had the backing of the Brit School, and owned a ukulele and you’d probably have a reasonable idea of what Soko sounds like. With half-spoken, half-sung, seemingly rambling song structures, she comes across as a shoegazing Edith Piaf for the MySpace generation. Soko started out as an actress, appearing in a number of French movies, such as Les Irréductibles, Dans Les Cordes and Les Diablesses. In 2007 she released an album alongside guitar player Thomas Semence, entitled Not Sokute, which included tracks such as ‘The Dandy Cowboys’, ‘Shitty Day’ and the now infamous track ‘I’ll Kill Her’. Soko made a name for herself via this death threat-styled song – a beautifully honest ode to being jilted (which reached number 1 on the chart of the Danish iTunes Store). Including great lines such as “She’s a bitch, you know, all she’s got is blondeness… I’ll kill her, she stole my future when she took you away,” and “She’ll dump your ass for a model called Brendan”. In October 2007 the song was picked up for use in Stella McCartney’s show at Paris Fashion Week.

New track ‘I Will Never Love You More’ would sit comfortably alongside any of Stephen Meritt’s best ukulele efforts, as she once again opts for self-confessional diary-style lyrics. Soko has also performed a wistful version of The Klaxons ‘It’s Not Over Yet’ (The Gentlemen Drivers remix) and recently covered The Teenagers’ ‘Love No’, stripping away the affected accents of the potty-mouthed trio, paring it all down to a beautifully simplified and heartfelt rendition.

Soko has supported the likes of Adele, Black Kids, and MIA and is planning to release her first album in the autumn of 2008. She, unsurprisingly, supports Kate Nash in Germany on 1st March, makes an appearance at Domino 2008 in Belgium on 17th April, and you can catch her in London as part of the Camden Crawl on 18th-19th April.

http://www.myspace.com/mysoko

Soko -’I'll Kill Her’

Soko – ‘Shitty Day’