A.G. Cook has shared a tribute to his late friend and longtime collaborator SOPHIE, who died earlier this year at age 34. “I’m still processing Sophie’s life… her nature, her work, her beauty,” the PC Music leader wrote. “She was laser-focused and exceptionally intelligent, but also sensitive and perceptive. It didn’t matter whether we were talking about people or relationships or materials or music—she approached every topic with the love, care and intensity of someone who has truly lived.” You can read the full tribute via Cook’s website.
In his post, Cook looks back on his friendship and creative partnership with SOPHIE, which dates back to 2012. He recalls meeting the influential producer for the first time after hearing a demo of ‘BIPP’ on Soundcloud, and discusses their collaborations with other musicians within the PC Music orbit – including Charli XCX, who penned her own tribute to SOPHIE. “Sophie had her way with people – she could be critical, demanding, laid-back and mischievous all at the same time, an approach that turned everyone into a potential collaborator,” he wrote. “I know she made an enormous impression on the variety of people who (one way or another) became part of PC Music, and she would often raise people up, imploring them to pursue their individuality. Around that time, I also got to know the rest of her family: her sisters, her brother, her mother, her grandmother, all of whom matched Sophie’s warmth, sweetness and intelligence.”
Cook also recounted the last time he saw SOPHIE in person before the pandemic, which was a “typically LA late night car ride to go get frozen yoghurt at the The Bigg Chill,” as well as their last conversation after she had moved to Athens, about “her new studio setup there and how inspired she was feeling.”
At the end of his remembrance, Cook wrote, “I’m still processing Sophie’s death… This was the first paragraph that I started to write in what became a long eulogy – but I think I’m closer now.” He concluded:
There’s a weird trick that I do all the time when I’m writing music, which I don’t often talk about. I think of friends of mine, people who I’ve collaborated with a lot, and I think, “What would they do?”. How would Charli flip this melody? What note would Noonie add here? What chord change would amuse Finn? How would Alaska turn this image into a lyric? Through everything, the easiest persona to summon has always been Sophie. I can ask her anything really – as long as its about music – and she’ll answer right away. Now obviously these funny avatars, these bootleg copies of friends that I hold in my mind are consistently inferior. The real Charli can effortlessly out-topline my own Charli simulation. But now for the first time I’m trying to access someone who has passed away, and I worry that her special voice might fade. Despite that, and with a weird certainty, something tells me that the voice might now be more real than ever. Maybe it really is her suggesting that I try recreate that sound using a different oscillator or make that lyric a bit more fun. Maybe she’s here right now, visiting from a place with no rules and no limitations. Maybe she’s become a part of me, a part of everyone who loved her in their own way. It’s indescribable, to have lost a friend who was so caring and so real, and whose presence was a constant affirmation of life itself. And it makes me feel just like we never said…
— A. G. Cook (@agcook404) April 25, 2021
