Sophia Stephens is a teenage singer songwriter who has just hit my radar thanks to her debut EP, which has just been produced with help from her family. It’s called Remnantal.

By Graeme Smith

Growing up, Sophia experienced the loss of a friend and a teacher to cancer, and both her parents suffering from critical conditions. These tragedies inform her song writing, so there is a touch of the melancholic about the songs on Remnantal. The EP opens with Shadowlit, which broods with heart-breaking, poetic lyrics and a gentle acoustic guitar and piano arrangement. Sophia has a distinctive voice, and an impressive range. You can’t help but be instantly gripped when listening to her.

Submerge is a delicate, atmospheric number. Its piano melody, composed with the help of Sophia’s younger brother Jackson, gives it a touch of the classical about it before it builds to a sweeping pop chorus that makes good use of metaphor. Never Spoke gives us a heavier side of Sophia’s sound with some rock guitar and pleading, soulful vocals.

Familiar closes the EP with a contemplative, experimentally-textured arrangement. It soars powerfully, hitting a cinematic climax in the chorus. There’s a brilliant use of loud and quiet deployed as the track progresses and there’s a memorability to its pop melody that makes it a highlight.

It’s a rare and wonderful thing to stumble upon a truly unique artist like Sophia Stephens. Having written over three hundred songs already, Sophia has three albums already in the pipeline, expected to be produced in the coming years. If they’re of the same quality of what we’ve heard on Remnantals then we’re in for a treat. She’s clearly a prodigious talent and one to keep an eye on. She could easily be the next big thing in acoustic pop.

You can check out Remnantal below.