SOPHIA STEL - How To Win At Solitaire

In the wake of her debut Ep, "Object Permanence", which with the addition of the unreleased track "I'll Take It" and three remix versions effectively became her first album, Sophia Stel was already plotting her next move. Having pocketed compliments from A.G. Cook and Troye Sivan, both of whom declared themselves fans from day one, Sophia shut herself away in the basement of Paradise, the Vancouver venue where she works as a bartender, turning it into a makeshift night-time recording studio on weekdays, cranking the volume up and experimenting with sound, blending guitars and electronic backing tracks. She was processing the end of a relationship, and by mixing her personal diary with reflections on the everyday lives of her peers - fusing apathy with the search for possible connections to others, alternating guitars and autotune - one new song after another began to emerge.

What's happened over the past few months has made her one of the most promising next big things on the Canadian indie-pop circuit. First came three singles released in rapid succession - "Everyone Falls Asleep In Their Own Time", "Taste" and "All My Friends Are Models" - each accompanied by self-produced videos, solid foundations on which to build the new Ep "How To Win At Solitaire", rounded out with three further unreleased tracks. But it's not just about the music - there's more to it: Sophia is also making moves in the tangled world of fashion, from her role as a spokesperson for a well-known skateboard brand, another of her great passions, to her first runway appearances and a few photo shoots wearing garments from some very major labels. Sophia really does seem like the right person at the right time: everything appears to be falling perfectly into place.

Extremely long hair, the inevitable tracksuit, the equally inevitable lit cigarette, the sulky gaze: watch her closely, then listen to her voice, and you'll be stunned - an urban Ethel Cain, with none of the southern gothic roots but just as introspective, the Ethel Cain of "American Teenager" and "Crush", with the beats needed to win her a place among the trendiest clubs. But the musical influences are numerous: common ground can also be traced to the pc music scene and to the recent work of the much-admired Oklou. On "How To Win At Solitaire", the more vulnerable sides of her personality (in the shadowy "Taste", "I'd Rather Be Yours Than Mine" and "Solitaire", which also absorb elements from "Folklore" and "Evermore") sit alongside the indie-(electro)-rock surges of "Everyone Falls Asleep In Their Own Time", the Ep's standout track, and "All My Friends Are Models".

These are intense days in which time is flying by for Sophia, with so much happening: her first European mini-tour last autumn, kicked off by an appearance at the Pitchfork Festival in Paris, a featured spot on the opening track of John Beltran/Placid Angles' comeback record, "I Want What I Want", a collaboration with Sees0000 ("Nemo", released at the very start of 2026), and a new version of "I'll Take It" - her most significant indie hit to date - shared with Mura Masa. Her fanbase is growing, even though Sophia avoids being overly swayed by social media (there's no trace of the young Canadian on Facebook, just a handful of images on Instagram), and she's ditched her smartphone for an old-generation phone, as shown in one of her self-directed, improvised music videos, which share the same blurred realism of old photographs and each of our most cherished memories.

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18/01/2026