Establishing herself as an actress, who has made appearances in films such as Beautiful Kate, After the Dark, Adore and Road Kill, as well as TV series such as The Slap, Once Upon A Time In Wonderland and the US TV series, The Returned, Sophie Lowe is also a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter, whose initial releases under the moniker S.O.L.O. have received attention across her native Australia and internationally.
Originally, Lowe recorded under the moniker SOLO to differentiate her music career from her acting career — but recently, Lowe decided that she should record and perform under her name, essentially tying her music and acting careers together. Her latest single “Understand” is a sparsely arranged song comprised of stuttering percussion, ominously swirling electronics, and gently undulating synth chords, paired with Lowe’s ethereal yet sultry cooing to create a contemporary pop song that draws heavily from the days of analog synths but with a dark, seductive feel; in fact, the synth chords sound as though they were inspired by Kraftwerk — in particular, I think of “The Model” among others.
The recently released music video was co-directed by Dean Francis of the production company JJ Splice and Lowe, and it continues a collaboration that begun when the duo worked together on Road Kill. Shot at Sydney‘s renowned Redfern Gym, the duo explained the video’s concept in press notes. As Francis explains “The ‘Understand’ video explores the translation of anger into creative energy. We used a lot of old-school rock video techniques and a schizophrenic editorial style to juxtapose divergent facets of Sophie’s personality and create an intense psychological journey. Sophie’s vision for the clip was very strong and clear from the outset . . .” And as Lowe explains “With the ‘Understand’ video clip, I really wanted to capture the build up of the frustration and anger that I talk about in the song. One of the main things I wanted to express with this clip was the explosion of emotion through release. I thought a boxing gym would be a perfect place to show case all those emotions. Dean and I wanted to create a heightened reality for the clip because it is more about what is going on inside the character’s head.”
