soccer mommy wrote a song for her wife in stardew valley

Welcome to mixed feelings’ Hyperspecific, a profile series of increasingly intimate questions in which we ask our favorite artists, scientists, musicians, and the like to unveil their innermost selves — their weird existential musings.

There’s a good chance you, like me, had a pandemic album — a tip-to-tail, no skips collection of songs that kept us circling the drain during some of the most heart-rending times of our lives.

My album was “color theory" by Soccer Mommy. Even now when I listen to that familiar opening chord progression of “bloodstream,” the first track, it brings me back to long, masked walks on the Prospect Park loop, wistful out of my mind, beating against the bars of my mental enclosure. “night swim” reminds me of the first time I escaped New York City to the Adirondacks, treaded freezing water in Lake George with an uncovered mouth. “yellow is the color of her eyes” I remember listening to, invoking a higher power for the first time in my adult life so that it could cure my best friend of her cancer. (And reader, she did beat it.)

It’s always unusual confronting the reality that one of the people who has created some of the most meaningful melodies in your life actually has no awareness of their impact. They’re just doing what they love. Sophia Allison is ultimately a cool, nonchalant, dry-wit artist from Tennessee who likes sitting in the shower, playing Cribbage and Cinderella stories, among other things.

And now she has a whole new album, “evergreen”, filled with even more of the intimate, yearning, hazy melodies she’s known for, around which I — and perhaps you — can’t wait to create new sense memories.

I was honored, thrilled really, to meet her and get Hyperspecific with her. Enjoy a peek into the machinations of Soccer Mommy’s mind, below. — Amalie MacGowan

LEVEL I

1. Something you’re always hoping people bring up in conversation when you first meet.

   Maybe Stardew Valley. I love to play Stardew Valley, so if somebody else plays, too, we're going to get along. Abigail is my wife on Stardew Valley. Every time I play, I'll marry people, but then I'll divorce them and end up with her. I've married her on many different files. I've married her and divorced her, then had the witch make her forget that we were ever married and then remarried her. So we've really gone through it.

2. A positive trait people always tell you you have.
   I guess I've always just been creative, and I think people have always considered that part of my personality.

3. One destructive trait you know you possess and wish you didn’t.
   I think, honestly, my biggest flaw is my inability to complete tasks. I think that's holding me back the most of my life.

4. If a bodega were to name a dish after you, what would it be? (Be specific.)
   The two things I get in a bodega is chopped cheese and a Sausalito, it’s like a type of Turkey that has a seasoning on it. I would go Sausalito, pepper jack, and some mayo, on a roll, that’d be it.

5. One song that makes you feel understood.
   I think one that really was hitting me fairly recently was “None but the Rain” Townes Van Zandt. I think that really speaks to a feeling of love and losing someone. It's not so depressing, but it is.

6. Something you think is wildly underrated.
   I’m going to go with my wildly underrated choice: Fate: The Winx Saga, which was on Netflix. It was like Winx the cartoon, but live action and fairies! They're at fairy school. It was good, but it got canceled.

LEVEL II

1. A movie you watch when you want to self-soothe.
   Pride and Prejudice. The movie, not the nineties show. I watch it all the time…[I’ve seen it] at least 10 times this year. You don't have to focus once you've seen it so many times. It's soothing.

   I do like Darcy. I know that he’s easy to hate, but I love the troubled-but-actually-kind-of-sweet [characters]. I'm into that

2. Your problematic fave artist/actor/musician (dead or alive). And why?
   I know my problematic fave artist, but I'm not going to say it because I'm scared. I’m sure people can guess. But, [for fictional characters]…I don’t know if this is actually problematic, but maybe Mona from Pretty Little Liars. She definitely was doing stuff that's not acceptable, but I'm into it.

3. What’s the first fandom you lost yourself in.
   If I'm honest right now, it was K-pop. When I was a kid, I was a Shinee fan.

   I liked Min-ho. That was the Tumblr time period for me, and I was really in it.

4. Something you bought recently after LOTS of research.

   I'm not very good at research, to be honest. I guess recently I got a guitar that I was switching stuff out on, and I did watch some videos on some guitar pickups and stuff like that. I think I actually bought a pair of pickups that I didn't like, and then I got a different pair of single coil ones that [I did like.]

5. Who do you main in your favorite video game. 
   If I'm playing Mario Kart, I'm going to be Yoshi.

6. Dream game night rotation.

   I don't really play a lot of games anymore. I had to stop in high school. I just didn't like who I was becoming, but I do love playing Cribbage…

   I literally only play with my dad. I used to play with Julian [my partner and guitarist], but he stopped playing with me. There's a really high barrier to entry for Cribbage. My dream would be just playing with people on tour, playing with my group, but it's literally only my dad who will play with me.

LEVEL III

1. What’s an anecdote you usually tell to describe how you were as a kid?
   I was definitely very perfectionist, always, and I remember thinking that I had to do so well in school or I was going to die maybe. I remember in second grade or third grade I got a B on a science test, and I thought I was not going to go to college. When I told my dad as if I was going to be disowned, and he was like, it's fine, it's just a B. So my brain opened up and said, whoa. Big mistake because then I dropped out of college.

2. What is your low-key hell and actual heaven?
   Low-key hell is the airport, specifically if our bags get lost. We have so much stuff that it becomes awful really fast.

   My peaceful time is lighting a bunch of candles and putting on ambient music and sitting in the shower. [Sitting in the shower is like] completely giving up. It's like…I don't want to be submerged. It's constant hot water.

3. Last time you laughed so hard you cried.

   I had a really big laugh recently with one of my friends when we were watching Cinderella story, not A Cinderella Story, but one of the many other Cinderella Story movies. I forget which one it was, but it was not one of the main ones that people have probably watched, and I love those deeply. There’s something so formulaic and beautiful about [those] movies. I remember we were dying laughing the first time we watched it.
   

   I think it was either the one with Lucy Hale or it might have been the one with Bailey Madison. I’ve seen all of them. [My favorite?] Obviously the Hilary Duff one is a classic, but let's take that out of the picture. I do really like the Christmas musical one. That is really good.

4. Random thing you hate so much for no apparent reason.
   I hate broccoli. It's gross. Let's start there. It's the texture. I've hated it since I was a kid. It's the stem. I would eat the leaves if my parents paid me but I wouldn't eat the stem.

5. How you exit a party.
   I'll just leave. I know that's not really proper, but I will. As I'm leaving, I'll be like, “bye everyone.” And maybe say if I have a good friend there,I’ll say goodbye to them, but I am not going to keep circling and saying goodbye to everybody at a certain point.

6. How you wanna go (either un-seriously or seriously).
   I would like to be at an old-ish age. I'd like to make it into later life. Just something quick. I would not like it to be drawn out. But, it'd be fun if it was gory. If I got my head chopped off or something. That could be interesting.