FROM:        MARCEE RONDAN

SOPHIE B. HAWKINS
SHOWS HER CREATIVE MUSCLES
AS SHE ENTERS ‘WILDERNESS’ ON HER TERMS;

Singer/Songwriter back with new album, television show and 3 feature films 

Singer, songwriter and musician SOPHIE B. HAWKINS took it all in her own hands when preparing for the release of her forthcoming album WILDERNESS, due out April 20 on Trumpet Swan Records/Lightyear/WEA. 

SOPHIE independently recorded, conceived and planned the release of the album, which she co-produced with production wizards Christian and Frank Berman (Amber, Baha Men, Real McCoy).  On WILDERNESS, HAWKINS experienced her most liberated creative process on this album since before being signed by Sony.

“What’s so beautiful about this record is that I trusted my instincts as a musician and a songwriter but more fully as a human being,” SOPHIE says. “So many people are throwing up their hands because the world has gotten so dark, but I went against the current and I actually found more light and positive energy. That was a great feeling.”

Working out of her home studio in Venice, CA, HAWKINS wrote and laid down the tracks for these songs on a variety of instruments: guitar, cello, drums, keys, plus the exotic percussion that has fascinated her since her studies while growing up in New York with African drum legend Babatunde Olatuni and at the Manhattan School of Music. On WILDERNESS, these elements flow through nuanced arrangements, in which echoes of Nina Simone, Laura Nyro, and other influences only enhance HAWKINS’ unique sound.

Light splashes through these tracks: the dizzy downtown swirl of “Meet Me On The Rooftop,” the sly tease of “Surfer Girl,” and the festivity of “Blue” reflect her state of mind as much as her delight in thwarting expectations.  But this wouldn’t be a SOPHIE B. HAWKINS project without some darkness, and it does crop up, most notably in “Angel Of Darkness,” whose wounds bleed through subdued verses and break in an anguished chorus, and the sole cover on WILDERNESS, a rendition of “Feeling Good” that seems haunted by invisible yet irresistible danger.

SOPHIE describes “Beautiful Girl”–the album’s first radio track and video–as a song that “is dark and light.  It’s about talking to a young girl, someone who is disappearing rather than facing her situation. I’m the older girl, reaching out to her in the first lyric: ‘Are you all right? Is there a light?’ But she’s not; even that fast guitar part is saying, ‘Don’t just go away with your addiction. Come back and bust out!’ It’s like talking to Sleeping Beauty, telling her to wake up–not in the days of white dresses, but now, in the street. And off course, I’m actually talking to the young woman inside of me…”

WILDERNESS marks SOPHIE’s fourth album.  HAWKINS’ first album TONGUES AND TAILS–which was certified gold and earned her a “Best New Artist” Grammy Nomination–featured the Billboard Top 5 single “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover.”   Her second album, WHALER (also gold-certified) spawned the #1 AC/Adult Top 40 hit “As I Lay Me Down,” which today is still the longest-running single in the history of AC radio according to BDS (since the tracking began January 2, 2001).  Her third album TIMBRE was released in 1999.  

Stay tuned for news of SOPHIE’s upcoming performances in support of WILDERNESS. Hawkins is also making quite a splash with her return as she’s currently in talks for a reality show “Sophie B.: On Her Terms” that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the release of her latest album.  She’s also caught the eye of Hollywood and will appear in three upcoming high profile feature films: “West Memphis Three” (Michael Pitt, Gina Gershon, Michael Madsen), “Walk On” (playing Jessica Simpson’s mother) and she will be playing the mother of worldwide boxing champ Tommy Morrison (“Rocky V,”) in his upcoming biopic. Morrison was the first sportsperson who tested HIV positive and was immediately banned from the ring, which ended his quick rise to fame.

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