“Although there’s definitely still serious stuff in there, there is a lot of irony in the new work, like via Nancy Sinatra, I guess. The producer I’ve been working with and I have been calling it, ‘spooky spaghetti western.’” Sophie Auster is telling me about her upcoming sounds, a follow-up to 2015’s critically acclaimed Dogs and Men, which she hopes to have finished this summer and out by next year. Although perhaps most famous for being the daughter of writers Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt, and her work as an actor (She was recently on an episode of Mozart in the Jungle.), Sophie Auster has been doing music professionally for more than a decade now. The New-York-based musician recorded her first record at 16 with the members of One Ring Zero, and in 2012 she released a self-produced EP entitled Red Weather, which I characterized as, “A soulful brand of blues, indebted to the best Americana, which is as sultry and sexy as it is melancholy.” Dogs and Men, however, sounds quite a bit more soulfully sassy. When I ask her what she’s most currently inspired by she tells me, “Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield, and a lot of ‘70s rock, like The Kinks and Big Star. This April Auster released a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (which you can see below). And as much as she emphasizes the irony and quirk in her upcoming work, this is as sincere and impassioned of a cover of a classic you’re likely to hear all year. Unfortunately, it seems as though most of you missed Sophie Auster’s appearance at Bourbon & Branch last month but, for those of you in, near, or willing-to-drive-to the NYC area, she has a free show this Thursday, June 9th, at the Manhattan Center, followed by a June 12th date at Pianos and a June 19th date at Baby’s Alright.
