THEORY & PRACTICE
“I want to see guitar in the mainstream, I don’t ever want it to go away. I would love to see that happen.” Sophie Allison, AKA Nashville solo artist Soccer Mommy, is reflecting on her desire to see the instrument she has been entwined with since the age of five become an enduring part of the pop zeitgeist.
If that admirable ambition comes to fruition, the 23-year-old, who was born in Switzerland and grew up in Tennessee, will have been as instrumental in that ascendency as anyone. Already two studio albums in and working on a third, Soccer Mommy’s evocative grunge-pop combines the serrated edge of mid-1990s alt-rock role models such as Liz Phair, Sonic Youth and The Breeders with the pop sensibilities of Avril Lavigne and Taylor Swift. Her songs burst with heart-swelling melodicism, the lyricism unflinchingly direct and emotionally nuanced, the arrangements smartly honed.
It’s emblematic of a modern landscape where archaic genre boundaries are being swept aside, and Allison and contemporaries such as Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Sasami and Snail Mail are leading the charge. A Fender Next artist and owner of an enviably cool arsenal of Strats and offsets, Allison
