“Where’s my gold star?” cries Ethan Ramon on ‘Goldstar’, the intriguing title track of The Sophs’ forthcoming debut album. Not only does it u-turn from tense flamenco into distorted garage-rock – think The Strokes’ 2005 single ‘Juicebox’ – at the click of his fingers, but Ramon’s pleas for recognition and validation have arguably manifested in reality. Since penning the LP across eight sessions in guitarist Seth Smades’ home studio, The Sophs have signed to Rough Trade, earned a spot in this year’s NME 100, supported Shame, and secured a slot at Primavera Sound.
“The whole thing is the gold star is intangible: it doesn’t exist, and it’ll never exist,” responds Ramon, when NME asks how he feels as the band begin to gain attention. “That’s not to say we’re not grateful for the acclaim and recognition, because how can we not be? In a landscape this competitive, where you have so much accessibility to every artist’s stats, it’s actually quite easy to feel insufficient. So, we still definitely have yet to find our gold star.”
Measured ambition is something that The Sophs have in bucketloads. Ramon, who’s wearing a grey PJ Harvey shirt, is laid back, but answers all of NME’s questions with immense conviction and precision. Joined today by bassist Cole Bobbitt in Los Angeles, the frontman’s uncompromising determination was key to The Sophs’ breakthrough. In one “giant blast”, he used an email finder subscription in 2024 to contact the CEOs of 30 independent labels, pitching the project from the songs down to the font size. Two replied.
“I had always been into cold DMing, and I still am, to be honest,” Ramon recalls. “Artists that I like, labels, agents, managers. I would never hear back, but that doesn’t really matter to me. It’s the act of doing it. I heard back from Rough Trade the day after, and Secretly Group wrote me a very nice rejection email.” Geoff Travis said that his Rough Trade co-founder, Jeannette Lee, would be passing through LA in 10 days – and he instructed The Sophs to arrange a show.
Calling in a favour from the doorman at Pasadena’s Old Towne Pub, Bobbitt squeezed The Sophs onto a four-band bill, while Ramon navigated the “stressful but gratifying” 10-day build-up by visiting a sensory deprivation chamber and going sober. This was not an opportunity they were going to squander. “We locked ourselves in a practice space for six hours a day,” the frontman reveals. Rough Trade got on board, endorsing Ramon’s faith in the “undeniable” quality of ‘Goldstar’, which was already finished in its entirety.
“Every time that we switch genres, it’s done so in a desperate attempt to get the world to understand us, which is a distinctly human experience” – Ethan Ramon
In 2023, Ramon moved from Phoenix, Arizona, to LA with school friends Smades, Austin Parker Jones (guitar) and Sam Yuh (keyboards). As they juggled other projects, the four formed The Sophs on the sidelines, creating music that they were only partially invested in, but eventually, everything else faded. “The Sophs was the only thing we were left with, and decided to put our nose to the grindstone,” Ramon explains, leading to an uptick in quality and eventually, an album. “The album was done, we were really proud of it and adamant [it couldn’t] fall on deaf ears… we had to be pragmatic.”
Bonding with LA native Bobbitt over their love of “bars, socialising and whiskey”, their friendship blossomed by begging bars on Hollywood Boulevard to let them in at 4am, as Ramon introduced Bobbitt to the other Sophs and their early demos. “When you hear [the music], it sells itself,” declares Bobbit. “It’s too good to throw on the back burner.” Ramon actually grew up a drummer, but delegated duties to Devin Russ after realising “singing was something I need both hands for”.
Underpinned by the frenetic urgency of their live show and the sextet’s core friendship, the alt-rock sound of The Sophs is disorderly and immediate. Knee-jerk genre changes give ‘Goldstar’ a distinct pub-rock feel, like you’re listening to Cage The Elephant or Fidlar demos, while Ramon’s effortless, almost lazy vocal delivery could lace the shoes of Julian Casablancas. Naming Elliott Smith as his gateway into a “Sophs-adjacent headspace”, Ramon says the thematic throughline steered ‘Goldstar’ forward before the instrumentation.
“We don’t really care about the coherence or consistency of sonic landscapes throughout the record, as long as we have the message,” he clarifies. “A pretty distinctive theme throughout is lack of identity – a person wearing a million hats because they’re really uncomfortable with showing the top of their head. Every time that we switch genres, it’s done so in a desperate attempt to get the world to understand us, which is a distinctly human experience. I wanted the narrator of ‘Goldstar’ to be frantically switching hats, switching genres.”
“Once you’re a few weeks removed from your rock bottom is when you make your best art” – Ethan Ramon
A time capsule of the “unbridled chaos” that was Ramon’s 2024, ‘Goldstar’ sees him critically engage with his behaviours following his move to LA. “What good’s an honest man who’s accepted he’s lost?” he asks on ‘Death In The Family’, trying to find his feet. “Once you’re a few weeks removed from your rock bottom is when you make your best art,” he explains. On ‘Blitzed Again’, he commiserates his inability to emulate Frida Kahlo or Marina Abramović and create a “melancholy masterpiece” out of heartbreak. Instead, he wallows on his couch, washing his hands of the task: “Don’t look to me to do it”.
Such unapologetic honesty shines through on ‘Goldstar’. “If you’re being totally honest, you verge on being provocative,” he continues. “I’ve always been a bit of a prick and used that brutal, provocative honesty to protect myself, so people wouldn’t feel the need to dig any further. It’s like that scene in [2002 film] 8 Mile with Eminem: ‘Tell these people something they don’t know about me’.”
On their recent US tour with Shame, the provocative nature of The Sophs’ sound bled through to new audiences. “There were some people that were definitely caught off guard,” suggests Bobbitt. “Being provocative is a tool you have to treat with a lot of respect,” chimes in Ramon. “[Creating] art with the sole purpose of being provocative is cheap, and you shouldn’t do it. Provocativeness exists best when it’s a side effect of your honesty, not the main goal.”
For now, the main goal – in the spirit of that Pasadena audition – is to grab the opportunity by the scruff of the neck. They hope to release their Soph-omore record, which is already finished, in 2027. “We have a pretty big year planned… not to fuck it up would be great!” Ramon jests. “We’re incredibly ambitious, and we want ‘Goldstar’ to be a launching pad. To bring us to the next level, where we have a bit more leverage every time we talk to a promoter or label. I crave a power that I don’t quite have yet.”
‘Goldstar’ is out March 13 via Rough Trade Records