Name: Sofi Paez
Nationality: Costa Rican, Berlin-based
Occupation: Composer, pianist, singer
Current Release: Sofi Paez's new album Bodies of Water, featuring Lara Somogyi, is out via OPIA.
Shoutouts: Recently I heard about We Are Moving The Needle x Project La Rue Masterclass. It is a project done with artist Victoria Canal and mastering engineer Julia Borelli. It is a project bringing together six creators that will take a song from composition all the way through to mastering. That is honestly a dream place to be specially because you get to share with other people and really get a hands-on experience into other peoples creative processes as well. Sounds like an awesome initiative and I hope it continues!
Hometown Recommendations: I recently went to this place that opened earlier in the spring in Berlin. It is called Kissabō and it is a contemporary tea bar. It is a space that invites you to stay and to contemplate. It brings me the feeling of staying present. Trying the teas and the sweets was a really wonderful experience. I didn't want it to end. The first time I went I was alone and I just had a deep appreciation for the space and the people working there you can see it is done with so much attention and love to the craft. It was an amazing experience and if you love tea I can highly recommend it!  
Things that I are am passionate about into but rarely get to talk about: I don't think this is rare but I am really into photography, so much that one point in my life I wondered if maybe that was the right path for me instead of music. I carry a film camera everywhere I go, I just like the feeling of having one shot, it relates a lot to what I have talked about in this interview of wanting to stay present. Shooting in film just forces you to be more intentional, in a digital you can shoot endlessly without really questioning why you are shooting. I wouldn't say I am particularly good at it but it is something I really enjoy, specially when I am on tour. 

[Read our Lara Somogyi interview]

If you enjoyed this Sofi Paez interview, and would like to know more about her music and upcoming live performances, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



The borders between producers, sound artists, and even songwriters are becoming increasingly blurry. What does being a composer mean today, would you say?

Personally I think that composer can be such a big scary word but it doesn't have to be. I like to think that anyone that creates a piece of music no matter how long/short/complex it is, is a composer.

There is something really liberating about creation and expression … the more I explore it and talk to people about it, the more I realise how many people use it as an outlet.

Many people perceive classical music and contemporary composition as having high barriers of entrance, both for listeners and musicians. What have your own experiences been in this regard?

I must say my early experiences and exposition to classical music were very organic. I used to listen to classical music with my dad on a record that he had, and my grandfather also used to play me some classical music in the radio.

Of course when wanting to study it was a different story. I was very lucky to have the support of my parents and was able to be sent to a private school in Costa Rica. Later on I continued my studies in the National University in Costa Rica which is funded by the state but I don't think it would have been possible to get in without my previous studies.

I do think that is important to make it accessible to everyone and I remember that my teacher had some students that were under scholarships so he was able to teach them too.

As of today, what kind of materials, ideas, and technologies are particularly stimulating for you?

These days I am really into creating a practice more tied with routines.

I have always loved to have them but recently I was able to start going to a separate space to write that isn't my home and I find that you do get more work in because of the physical separation between where you live and where you work.

Where do most of your inspirations to create come from – rather from internal  impulses or external ones? Which current social / political / ecological or other developments make you feel like you need to respond as an artist?

I think my inspiration comes a bit from both worlds. Internal and external.

For example for my track “Ocean” I was able to tie some things happening in my personal life to a time where I was also reading Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Somehow seeing myself reflected onto a character as well.



I think the current state of the world just makes me want to try to convey a message of kindness. There is so much destruction going around the world and it is important to stand up for what you believe and try to help in any way that you can.

There are a lot of foundations that make this help available no matter where you are.

Tell me a bit about the sounds & creative directions, artists & communities, as well as the colleagues & creative hotspots of your current hometown, please. How do they influence your music?

I think community has been incredibly important to me in my musical journey. It has been something that I have been thinking more about in the last few years.

I like to think that music is a unifying force and somehow even if we don't necessarily have the same taste we can all somehow connect to each other through it.

Composing has always had an interesting relationship between honouring its roots and exploring the unknown. What does the balance between these two poles look like in your music?

For me this balance comes from writing in Spanish. It is not a language that is as predominant as English but I do feel like it makes me feel more grounded and connected to Costa Rica while living in Berlin.

It can be scary thing to open yourself up in your mother tongue but there are things for me that simply have no translation and it wouldn't work otherwise.

I think in the future I would want to experiment with using more traditional instruments in my songs but this is an idea that I am trying to explore still.

What role do electronic tools and instruments play for your creative process? What does your creative space / studio look like and what tools does it contain?

My practice space has a piano and and some synths. I also have a microphone to record vocal demos but I wouldn't say I own a lot of equipment. I find that the limitations give me freedom and less is more.

Electronic tools have been becoming more prominent in my creative process. I love learning a new instrument and last year I got a new synthesiser. I have discovered l like 10% of it but it is fun to just play with something and allow yourself to have happy accidents.

In recent months I have been trying to write only with it and have tried to leave the piano aside. Just to see what happens there!

It is my impression that adding a conceptual, non-musical dimension to one's work is almost a prerequisite for commissions and grants. How do you view this tendency and how “conceptual” is your own approach to writing?

For my album Bodies of Water I had the concept right away. I think making it in this way was also really fulfilling to me because I was able to form a story around the songs and have a clear vision of what to do in terms of album visuals as well.  

I am looking forward to experimenting more with concepts because I feel like there is a lot to explore, I think you can dedicate even your entire life to one concept.

I was also interesting to me that subconsciously I had been following water themed things for a very long time. So I am very happy that I finally got to explore that with this album.

Working with long forms, complex concepts or new vocabulary is potentially more challenging today because they require us to remember things that happened perhaps minutes ago – while most of us are finding it hard to focus even on what's happening right now. Both as a composer and as a listener yourself, how do you deal with this?

This is a really interesting question. I think we need to resist the fastness of the world right now. And sometimes it's not easy. There are always pressures about wanting more, doing more … but I find that usually that way is not the one that leaves me more satisfied (at least from a personal point of view). And as a composer I am trying to find that balance now.

As a listener I am a huge fan of listening to albums from start to finish. I think every album has a very unique story that I feel like you can only understand when you listen in one go. It also allows me to have more time to really enter this world of music or art.

I want to feel like I am fully in this world and sometimes a short piece of music or a snippet of something cannot give me a full picture.

How, would you say are live performances of your music and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

They are very closely influenced by each other, I would say

I sometimes compose thinking about the live aspect of things. And I think also playing live is such an enriching experience for me that it often leaves me with new ideas for new compositions. Creating a live show is almost like composing again because you want to think about the transitions from song to song, maybe even write something new for it …

Also, some of my songs end up transforming after being on tour because I find new ways for them to feel new to me. It is really a beautiful process.

To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. What are your hopes, fears, expectations and possible concrete plans in this regard?

I honestly am the biggest AI hater there is out there.

I don't think economising and optimising everything in our life is a good thing. It doesn't help us think clearly. It just gives us fast results, and for what? Specially when it comes to a creative process.

I do really hope that AI somehow becomes more regulated as it is something that is here to stay.

The Montreux Festival intends to preserve its archive of recordings for future generations. Do you personally feels it's important that everything should remain available forever - or is there something to be said for letting beautiful moments pass and linger in the memories of those that experienced them?

I think there is something about letting moments pass. There is just something so special about knowing and feeling present. And I feel like having everything forever takes away from that feeling a little bit.

I have been trying to go to concerts without my phone recently and there is something so special about not being able to record anything and just letting the memories live in my head.

It's almost as if you take everything in, every second, every move and every note.