Q&A: Inside the Wonderfully Wonky World of Sophie Truax
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY SHEVON GREENE ☆
SOPHIE TRUAX’S WHIMSICAL WORLD—is full of puppets with fuzzy gums, giant papier-mâché heads and comically long limbs. The puppets may be what first catch your attention, but they’re far from the whole story as Truax creates her own emotionally honest space in the indie-pop universe.
Throughout her debut EP Can’t Split a Worm, out today, Truax brings forth her own version of dreamy indie-pop with her natural talent for sharply observed songwriting that explores themes of self-worth, heartbreak and how we subtly reshape ourselves for other people. Even through the heaviest moments, though, somehow the project keeps a sense of humor.
While speaking with Luna, Truax opened up about why humor has become one of her favorite coping mechanisms, how Puppet Sophie slowly transformed into the harsher voice inside her own head and why creating everything by hand has become even more meaningful in an AI-generated world. Read below for more.
LUNA: How did you decide on the title Can't Split a Worm? Did it kind of just click for you out of nowhere, or was it something that came after writing the songs?
TRUAX: I was stuck on the title for a while. One of the last songs I wrote for the EP was "You Won't!" and that's one of the lines from the song. I had recently found out something that, as a child, I probably should've registered as an adult. Everyone says you can cut a worm in half and it becomes two whole, new independent living worms, but it doesn't. Unless you perfectly split it, maybe one side can live, but actually both halves go, which is really sad. A lot of that just means I've witnessed a lot of worm murders in my life, which is unfortunate (laughs).
But I liked the idea of not being able to separate two halves, or parts of yourself. I wanted that to be in the song, and then I thought it was a fun line, so it only felt right. I feel like it encapsulates the EP well.
LUNA: I had no idea. I've never even heard somebody tell me that you could split a worm in half (laughs).
TRUAX: Misinformation being sent as a child, I guess (laughs).
LUNA: Your songs obviously deal with important, deeper themes, but you pair them so well with humor. Like on "I'd Still Be," when you talked about getting stood up because someone wanted to play Bean Bohnanza.
TRUAX: Listen...I hate to say it, it's kind of a fun game (laughs). It's a trading card game where you grow and harvest beans and trade them for money. I like any card game, so maybe I'm biased. But there's a certain amount of stuff you go through where the only thing you really can do is throw in the humor, or it's just sad all the time.
LUNA: Does that come naturally?
TRUAX: I naturally cope with humor. Even when I'm getting into it in the writing and I'm all sad, I have that little pop of humor that comes through, and I can't help but insert it. There was a while where I felt like I couldn't include humor because it wouldn't make me a serious, cool artist if I was joking around. But a lot of artists I love are silly too. So I'm trying to mix more of myself into all of that.
LUNA: Some of the songs on the EP seem to be about reshaping yourself into someone you think another person will love. How did you recognize those patterns? Did you realize that while writing the songs, or was it something you recognized before?
TRUAX: I've always been able to catch myself when I'm doing that. For a long time, it was kind of a "the heart wants what it wants" situation where I was putting aside what I knew was better for me in hopes of making something work.
Over the years, I've definitely gotten better at not doing that; not compromising the integrity of who I am. But when I'm writing the songs, I'm really sitting in it and reckoning with it in the moment. Sometimes I'm writing things that feel very honest and very myself, but that honesty makes me go, "Oh...gotta check that out. Maybe I should see someone about that." (laughs)
LUNA: The visual world you've built is already so vivid with your puppets, your Instagram and TikTok videos and even the tour trailer. When you're writing a song, are you instantly thinking about the visuals too, or do those come after the songwriting process?
TRUAX: I'm definitely thinking about them in the moment. For me, it's this big, all-encompassing thing where, as I'm creating, I'm kind of seeing the world around it. That's also what makes me so excited about it. There was a while where I was writing music that felt like I was trying to do something I felt pressured to do. It didn't really feel like myself, and I had no visual ideas to go with it. I was like, "Maybe I'm not a real artist because I can't align here." But as soon as I started making stuff that felt more in alignment with me, everything else immediately clicked into place.
So I'm definitely thinking about it all. I also have a lot of big dreams for it. I'll turn to my producer Sean [Cook] and go, "Hey Sean, imagine if I was sitting on a ladder and I had 15-foot-long limbs…but they were puppet limbs." He looks at me like I’m crazy…
LUNA: ...and then it comes together.
TRUAX: Then I send it to him and go, "You'll never guess what I did. I told you I was going to do it." It looks a little wonky, but everything I do looks a little wonky. I think that's the magic of it.
LUNA: Exactly, that’s where the whimsy comes in. I love that you're already thinking about those visuals while writing. Everything comes together so well and it all goes hand in hand.
TRUAX: I have fun with it. For the longest time, the songwriting process was the little spark of joy that kept me coming back. Expanding on all the visuals and getting excited about those has really prolonged that joy. It's not just the songwriting that makes me happy anymore. I get to spend months crafting this world.
LUNA: Is that where those visuals came from?
TRUAX: Yeah. I was trying to figure out how to get really tall. I've actually been writing songs about getting really tall for a couple of years now. I think I have maybe six demo versions of songs where I'm singing about getting taller because I just love the visual of it. I've felt very small and timid for a lot of my life, so the idea of stepping into this imaginary, magical world where I can become giant and tall has always been really fun to me.
I'd also been wanting to do a papier-mâché head for a while because I've always thought they were so cool. Everything kind of lined up where I got to do all these things I'd been wanting to do while also singing about getting tall. In the moment, I always try to think as big and as silly as I possibly can, then I figure out the logistics later. That's a later problem that I'll stay up for days trying to solve.
LUNA: Your Instagram reels and TikToks show so much of the puppet-making process. I kept thinking about how much patience it must take to make these puppets. There have to be test runs where you're like, "Okay, maybe this part didn't work. Let me try something else." Is that kind of how you are with songwriting too, or is it a completely different process?
TRUAX: There are definitely songs that take much longer than others. Sometimes my favorite songs are the ones that feel like they happen to me, which always sounds kind of crazy because I'm not necessarily a super spiritual person. But I'll be like, "Wow, I have no idea how I did that. It just exists now."
A lot of what I write starts as a voice memo because I'm feeling something in the moment and I just have to get it out. But when we go in and start figuring out what the world around the song sounds like, there are definitely times where we spend weeks or months on a track and just keep coming back to it.
There's one song on the EP called "SELFISH," and Sean and I didn't get the final version until maybe a year after the first one. Some of it was done in LA, then I went to Nashville and we worked on it there. Then we came back and I was like, "What if we delete everything we did?" There's a lot of throwing things at the wall. We both throw a bunch of sounds at it. There are banjos and mandolins on most of the songs that you'd never even know were there because they're layered so much. We spend a lot of time figuring out the balance. Some songs happen almost immediately and we're like, "Oh, the first version feels right," and other ones haunt us for months. But it's all for the sake of the art. I kind of love the process of being able to tweak it until it feels right.
LUNA: In one of your recent Instagram reels you talked about people suggesting you use AI to animate your puppets. I really loved your response because we're in a time where everything is becoming more automated. Has all of that discourse around AI made creating everything by hand even more important to you?
TRUAX: Totally. As somebody who loves making things by hand, it makes me sad when convenience starts to become the priority over the magic of making something. Everyone's burnt out all the time. They're running around trying to make ends meet and do as much work as they can. So I understand someone saying, "I'm exhausted. I don't have hours to pour into this." But I feel like the further we get away from making things ourselves, the more we forget how cool it is.
I've spent so many nights, especially before my career picked up, working my day job and then spending every hour afterward making puppets, making music, writing for other people and doing all of it. While it takes a lot of time and patience, it's so fulfilling.
I also think a lot of people believe art has to be perfect or that you have to have a certain amount of skill to make something. But there are so many things you can make by hand that are actually pretty easy and really fun. They might come out a little wonky, but when you're in it and you create something, it's just so cool. Words can't really describe what it's like to look at something and think, "Wow. I made this. I pulled it out of my brain." I'm trying to work with as many puppeteers as I can and bring in small artists who work with their hands because keeping those professions alive is so important. Keeping the magic alive is important too.
LUNA: I loved the tour trailer, especially with Puppet Sophie, who obviously has such a distinct personality. When did she kind of start becoming a bigger character in your world?
TRUAX: With the first EP, a lot of the songs were breakup songs surrounding the puppet I made of my ex-boyfriend, who was never really my boyfriend. That was kind of the running theme I was working through. When it came to this EP and this period of my life, at first it was going to be another outside character chronicling the relationship because I'd gone through some stuff—not just in my relationship with myself, but with another person too. But after writing everything and sitting with myself, I realized I wanted this EP to feel more like it was about what I allow myself to go through, what I put myself through, my relationship with myself and why I accept those things.
I feel like I was letting people who weren't very kind to me into my life because I wasn't being very kind to myself. That's really the core of it. It's less about this person on the outside and more about me. It takes two to tango, and I was accepting that treatment. I wanted Puppet Sophie to become this character who wasn't only me, but also the gritty, aggressive, rude and brash voice I have toward myself. I'd always done the smoker voice for Puppet Sophie. That just kind of came naturally, so it only felt right for all of those bits to surround that character. She was just...born, and now she exists. I get to watch my child run around and give me shit.
LUNA: You've said the puppets represent parts of yourself that are easier to confront through a character. Has one of them ever surprised you and revealed something about yourself that you maybe weren't expecting?
TRUAX: Yeah. Sometimes I'll draw the puppets before I make them, and sometimes I just kind of go for it and see what they look like. When I made Teethy—the puppet with all the teeth—he was supposed to represent my fear. I wanted him to be kind of cute and little, with that same timid feeling I felt had lived within me for a long time. But then I started adding teeth because I've really been enjoying giving the puppets the teeth that I'm missing. It feels like they're that missing piece of me visually.
I tried giving him one tooth, but it didn't look right. So I kept giving him more teeth, and he has these fuzzy gums. All of a sudden, I looked at him and thought, "He's a little horrifying." Not only is he supposed to represent my fear, but I also fear him. He's kind of gross. I realized there were all these layers to the emotion I was trying to capture. I thought he was just going to be this cute, timid little fear, but there are actually several layers to it. There's disgust, fear and something visually distorted about him. It's interesting watching how, subconsciously, he became something much more layered and complex than I'd originally planned.
LUNA: That's so cool. You had this idea in your head originally, and then it kind of manifested into something completely different.
TRUAX: Yeah. It's kind of weird, but also cool. There's a lot happening there. I also think it's funny seeing people's responses and which puppets they become attached to because everyone loved Teethy. I thought he was going to scare a lot of people, but he's actually really beloved. It makes me stop and think, "Maybe I need to look at that part of myself with a little more love." It's sweet.
LUNA: What's the thing you're most excited about going into your tour, and is there anything you're nervous about?
TRUAX: The thing I'm most excited about is that last tour we did a "Make a Puppet With Me" VIP experience, and we're doing it again this time. Last tour was only seven shows, but this one is around 20 cities, so I get to go city to city making little worm puppets with people. We're definitely in the trenches making all of those puppets right now, but I'm so excited. I just love hanging out. I like building hanging out into what I do, so getting to sit with a bunch of puppet people and make puppets together is so fun. Then everyone has a puppet they get to sing along with during the show. People also bring puppets they've already made, and looking out into the crowd and seeing all these puppets people created of themselves...there's nothing like it.
As far as what I'm nervous about, we always build interactive elements into the show. Last tour we had this dating show where I'd bring three audience members with puppets onstage and try to find Zeb a rockstar girlfriend in every city. We'd ask dating questions, then the winner would get a little veil, they'd get married, kiss and we'd take a little "just married" Polaroid. I always get a little nervous about the live audience participation because you never know what people are going to say or what's going to happen. But it's also my favorite part of the show, so they're good nerves.
LUNA: I love that you're bringing back some of those familiar elements from your last tour while still making them feel new. Fans who came before have something to look forward to again, and people seeing you for the first time are in for a really fun night.
TRUAX: We're definitely adapting everything, so it's a new iteration of it all. But it's important to me to keep those little crowd participation moments because I feel like that's something that's been lost a bit in live shows lately. I'm really excited.
