After a decade of wandering down the same NYC streets, musicians Richey Rose & Lina Sophie met in the fall of 2017 at Brooklyn bar, Night of Joy. Bonding over a mutual love for Swedish pop, 80s alternative/first-wave, and 00s indie, the two later formed Songs for Sabotage in early 2019. They played their debut show in August 2019 at Bushwick’s the Sultan Room and released 3 self-produced singles with b-side remixes by May 2020. When the pandemic hit, the duo relocated to Rose’s hometown of Lexington, KY for several months. It’s here that they completed their first full-length album, fittingly titled ‘Night of Joy’, before ultimately relocating to Los Angeles, CA.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hey Songs for Sabotage, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Lina - At a young age me and my friends would put on shows etc. for the neighboorhood. Then as I got older I started playing an instrument and singing in school plays etc. and eventually in bands.
Richey - My parents raised me around generally good music from their era (Beatles, Stones, Doors, etc) and my dad played piano around the house a lot. In the 90s, when I was about 9 years old, he bought a pretty sweet Korg synth, the M1. The first songs I ever made were all done on that thing… mindless soundscapes with distortion and explosion sound effects, and very bastardized cover versions of Star Wars songs.
Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Lina - Butch Vig, Linda Perry
Richey - Rick Rubin, Julian Casablancas
Your latest song is 'Shadow'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
We decided to cover this song for a Twin Peaks-themed charity compilation that was released via post-punk music blog Darkness Calling. We thought the original had a similar ambience to the kinds of songs we write, so that’s why we chose it. We also decided to change the key of the song from major to minor and that really influenced the overall sound design.
What's the behind-the-scenes of shooting a music video? How did the idea for it come about?
We knew we wanted to keep it fairly stark and minimal, since we shot everything ourselves… one of us performing and one of us holding the camera. Since the song is very much a dance track we knew we wanted to move/perform in front of the camera a lot. It was all done in a few hours at a photo studio we rented, which had a decent lighting rig that we kind of learned on the fly. It was all pretty spontaneous.
What are you most proud of?
Lina - never half-assing anything.
Richey - being diligent about my creativity and artistic pursuits, and staying true to myself.
What is the biggest challenge of being an artist?
Lina - Carving out time to be creative and not self doubting too much.
Richey - reminding myself it’s not a competition.
How do you structure your day?
Lina - one day at a time!
Richey - my notes app.
Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music?
Lina - photo-& videography, hiking, reading and making CrockPots.
Richey - hiking the trails and mountains around LA and watching Frasier with my cat.
Do you sing in the shower? What songs?
Lina - all the time! Whatever is on my mind that day, it’s super random.
Richey - no, I just sigh a lot.
What are your plans for the future?
We’re releasing a new album later this year, which we are still in the midst of recording. It’s going to be called ‘Clean Trauma’.