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middleton
bio
It was hard for Sophie not to be a musician, having been raised in such a musical household. Music filled the air, from Louis Armstrong to Led Zeppelin, from The Beatles to Bach. All types of music were welcome in the Middleton household. Her father, formerly a career musician, is a music enthusiast and plays as many instruments as he can lay his hands on and has encouraged Sophie to do the same. She was enrolled in Kodally music classes as soon as she could walk, which helped to instill a good foundational understanding and feel for rhythm and melody. Sophie's heart, however, lay in dance, a passion that she has pursued tirelessly. This, of course, only served to reinforce her sense of rhythm and time.
Almost by osmosis, Sophie found herself playing the guitar in spite of failed attempts by her father to teach her. Finding time to play and practice was always difficult for her because she always had a lot on the go. However, in the spring of 2004, a dance injury provided a golden opportunity for her to channel her energy into her music. She entered her school's talent show to sing Don McLean's Vincent, accompanying herself on guitar. Two years later, at Mount Doug Secondary, she won the award for best vocal/instrumental performance with her first self-written song Arrows. Since then, Sophie has written more songs of an unusual originality, songs with intriguing, mysterious, and at times even cryptic lyrics which absorb easily into a melodic flavour and rich voice that are ear-catching and enchanting. In recent months, armed with her original songs and some carefully selected favourites, she has ventured out to play open stage engagements, enabling her to test-drive her songs and strengthen her live performance.
A summer vacation on Hornby Island in 2005 afforded Sophie the opportunity to record for the first time. Some songs finished and some unfinished, the recording was engineered by a family friend who was in the process of building his home and studio on the island. Each song was recorded in one take, and the album was deemed complete in a matter of hours. The result was a recording which was aptly named Half-Built House, describing both the place where it was created and the songs that were produced. It was a snaphot of a moment in time, a work in progress.
The future is open-ended but one thing is for sure - Sophie Middleton herself is a work in progress with a wealth of promise.