Are you living in track pants, smoking a record amount of cigarettes, and feeling super indoor-sy? Then you’re having a Sophia Stel summer. You might recognise her name from the internet alt-pop classic “I’ll Take It”, which became the TikTok score to everything from brutally honest breakup advice to #hopecore friendship content. Her unique approach to summertime is reflected in her soul-searching EP, How to Win At Solitaire, so intimate and inward-looking that it feels like a journal for your ears.
“The idea of How to Win At Solitaire comes from when I had a flip phone and the only game on it was Solitaire,” says Canada-born Stel. “I was playing it, but didn’t know the rules. So I googled ‘how to win at Solitaire’, and it gave me an ambiguous answer, like ‘move your cards with intention’, ‘think big picture’, or something so weird. So, I can’t teach you how to win. You’re gonna have to work that out on your own. It’s you versus you.”
That “if nobody got me, I know I got me” mentality runs through her solitary, introspective sound, echoing a wider sense of emotional self-reliance among young people today. It’s embedded in her free-flowing vocals, dreamy synths, and deeply reflective lyrics. Stel taps into the quiet isolation that defines much of modern life for 20-somethings, with auto-tuned lines like “This is what you want right now, and maybe that’s OK” apathetically probing the fleeting nature of intimacy and connection.
On her new EP, Stel is not striving to be larger than life; she is trying to reflect it. Her patchwork, genre-fluid artistry draws from everywhere: blue-collar jobs, moments of discomfort, and the deep platonic love she holds for her friends. She’s making art from within life, and slowly finding herself through the process.
Below, the rising Canadian alt-pop star Sophia Stel sits down with Dazed to unpack How to Win At Solitaire and everything that brought her to this moment.
Your first European tour is this autumn. How are you preparing for it?
Sophia Stel: I’m preparing in lots of different ways, working on putting together a set that feels really good. I’ve been jumping rope to try and get my vocal capacity up, because I’ve smoked quite a bit, and I have to do some kind of cardio to be able to sing for an hour.
It’s only been a few months since you dropped your EP Object Permanence, and you’re about to release How to Win At Solitaire. What’s changed between those two projects?
Sophia Stel: I’ve moved twice since then. I’ve travelled more than I ever have. There have been lots of things in my personal life that informed this next project. But the way I make music has stayed very much the same: consistently inconsistent. There are some different instruments that I wanted to use for the second project, a bit more guitar, just to continue to challenge myself and try new things. Sonically, it’s a little bit different. This last project was the first time I’ve had more of a studio space where I could really play electric guitar and do things like that. Otherwise, all my music’s been made at home.
Photography Angela Donna
Your music videos feel like stolen glimpses into a private camera roll. How much of that is instinctual and how much is planned?
Sophia Stel: What originally inspired me to make videos that way is just working a lot of physical labour jobs. I was a gardener for quite a while, a house painter, and a bartender. It was very interesting switching between those jobs. There’s a lot of time to think and I would always notice things. Then my friends and the people around me are just so beautiful. I always want to film them. I always want to capture things.
As someone who watched a lot of skate videos, I see echoes of that filmmaking style in the creative choices you make for your videos. How has that scene and its culture influenced you?
Sophia Stel: It’s played a pretty big role in who I am as a person. About the videos, that’s very correct. I lived with a bunch of skaters for a while when I was fresh out of high school. We would watch a lot of videos and compilations. The really cool thing about skate videos is they have to rely on these unpredictable moments. They’re always filming a lot of the stuff in between, and they film hours and hours of footage for every video. A skate part that’s five minutes can be six months of someone skating. I definitely want to find those in-between moments – just film as much as possible and then find the things that feel significant.
A Sophie Stel summer is not that fun. Definitely a lot of smoking… You gotta wear track pants only and grow your hair out. Spend a lot of time indoors
How has Vancouver shaped your sound?
Sophia Stel: I’ve lived in Vancouver for like five years now, it’s where I’ve come into myself in a lot of ways. It rains so much, and that has a very interesting effect on all of the people here. A lot of people go through a seasonal depression, but are also looking for a way to get out of that. Maybe it’s corny, but I think it’s quite beautiful. People try to break out of it constantly and find places and ways to connect, throughout that season where everybody starts to really isolate. It’s also very expensive to live here, so everybody I know who’s younger works like three jobs. If they’re making art, they’re really doing it because they love it. When I sit down to make music, a lot of the time I’m tired or frustrated from the day, but at the same time it feels good to have worked hard and then get to enjoy this. Yes, it’s becoming work lately, but it’s never gonna feel like work to me.
Somebody on X captioned a picture of a border collie wearing a camo hat ‘this is Sophia Stel’. Another person dubbed you ‘drain gang Ethel Cain’. Have you ever seen a comparison that somebody made between you and another artist that you agreed with?
Sophia Stel: People will message me like ‘Oh, you’re like if Ethel Cain and 070 shake had a baby’, or something, and I’m always like, ‘Yeah, it’s kind of true actually.’ I really wish they were my parents. There are many I see that I think are good observations.
Are there any boxes you’d prefer not to be placed in?
Sophia Stel: Obviously, I don’t want to be put in a box that’s like she’s rude, or mean and ugly, or something. Who I am is for me to decide, but you never get to decide how people interpret who you are to the world. We all think that we’re one thing, but everybody else sees something else, right? I don’t mind, you can put me wherever feels best.
What does a Sophia Stel summer look like?
Sophia Stel: Not that fun. Definitely a lot of smoking. Smoking out your window if you can try and push the limits. Trying to smoke in places you shouldn’t. You gotta wear track pants only and grow your hair out. Spend a lot of time indoors.
If your music were a person, what brand of cigarettes would they chain smoke?
Sophia Stel: Belmont Kingsize.
Your music is consistently raw and vulnerable. Do you ever feel the urge to conform to a single identity?
Sophia Stel: Sometimes I do want to conform to one thing because it’s nice not to think about how you’re being perceived constantly. You have a lot of control over that nowadays. You can create a totally different person than who you are and never really have to back it up. This project is very personal to who I am. There is a little bit of a persona involved, but it’s more of a caricature of what exists around me already.
I really like smoking and smoke all the time, but it’s also because I’m awkward and prefer to have a prop. Sometimes artists create personas because they’re received better and fit into this one world. I think that doesn’t really work for me because I’m changing constantly. A lot of my visuals are made in the margins of living life – working and doing the things that I need to do to survive, like most people.
How to Win At Solitaire releases September 5. Stel’s latest single “All My Friends Are Models” is out now.
