Tag: Sophia Bel

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sophia Bel Shares Atmospheric and World -Weary “Rat Race”

Montréal-based artist Sophia Bel exploded into the local and national scenes with her angsty full-length debut, 2022’s Anxious Avoidant, an effort released to praise from Le Devoir, Le Canal Auditif and EUPHORIA, and landed on the year-end lists of several media outlets, including RANGE Magazine, Exclaim! and CJLO.

Bel stepped away from the rat race to recuperate from tech fatigue and the relentless pressures of social media. After a few years away from the spotlight, the acclaimed Canadian artist will be releasing her highly-anticipated sophomore album, When The Cows Come Home on May 7, 2027 through Bonsound.

Drawn to the spaces between chaos and stillness, the Montréal-based singer/songwriter explores what it means to be human in an increasingly distracted, modern world. Pairing intimate songwriting with dreamy, organic soundscapes, Bel transforms seemingly mundane, everyday moments into quiet reflections on identity, connection and meaning. In a world driven by instant gratification, constant stimulation and productivity, her work is a gentle reminder that stillness, vulnerability and reflection are not indulgences — but are necessary to our humanity.

When The Cows Comes Home‘s first single “Rat Race” is a slow-burning tune that features an atmospheric arrangement of twinkling keys, gently padded drums and a supple bass line beneath Bel’s ethereal and world-weary delivery. And while subtly channeling A Storm in Heaven and No Come Down-era The Verve, “Rat Race” is anchored in an unvarnished honest, vulnerability, expressing a deep-seated exhaustion and a desperate desire to finally slow down.

Directed by Bel, the accompanying video for “Rat Race” follows the Montréal-based artist on top of what appears to be one of those double-decker tourist buses in a shirt, tie and trench coat through the city’s Central Business District –to my eyes, it looks like Boulevard Rene Levesque — with a briefcase and old-fashioned cell phone. But we see her get fed up with it all, throw the cell phone down, take the trench coat off and loosen her tie. Maybe some of us should do the same.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montreal’s Sophia Bel Releases a Sultry, Genre-Defying Banger

Born to a Quebecois father and a Dutch-American mother, the rising Quebec City-born, Montreal-based pop artist Sophia Bel grew up fascinated by trip-hop and drum ‘n’ bass — during the era of The Spice Girls, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera. Bel’s work often finds her unafraid to cover vastly different sonic territory with the focus on capturing the right feeling in that particular moment. Interestingly, for her, pop is one of many aesthetics that she commonly pulls from and not a goal to achieve.

Along with pop, Bel plucks from underground electronic music, skater punk, guitar folk and even Quebecois hippie music to craft a rich, difficult to pigeonhole soundscape that has received praise from Wonderland, The Line of Best Fit, Complex and Clout among a growing list of others.

The rising Quebec City-born, Montreal-based artist has always been slightly out of step with her immediate surroundings. Her black fingernail polish made her the target of bullies at her suburban Quebec City school, earning her the nickname “Princess of the Dead.” Her recently released sophomore EP Princess of the Dead, Vol. II finds Bel reclaiming her identity, while marking her first release through Bonsound Records.

So far two singles have been released off the EP, “You’re Not Real You’re Just A Ghost” and “Voyage Astral.” The EP’s third and latest single “No More” is a slickly produced, breakneck,. meshing of alt pop, trap, house music and contemporary electro pop centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, explosive industrial clang and clatter, skittering beats and Bel’s plaintive and ethereal vocals. The song is written and produced to capture an intense and particular sensation: “I wanted to explore the dark emotions that come when learning to assert oneself, Bel explains. The anger, the bittersweet nostalgia of a lost fantasy. The mysterious tones of this song are paired with a drum ‘n’ bass inspired hook that creates an exhilarating rush of intensity.”

Directed by Jean-François Sauvé, the recently released video for “No More” places Bel into an empty and abandoned warehouse, where she’s imprisoned and watched over by an AI that attempts to capture every vacillating of its subject. The visuals manage to crackle, jolt and lurch with a seemingly brash,. supernatural energy while throwing the viewer into a dark and uncertain universe that kind of feels like our own.