“Let me try and do this in a concise way,” indie-folk singer-songwriter laughs as she contemplates her biggest achievements of the last three years. “I mean… just so much has changed, even just internally. It’s felt like such a journey, in a sense of gradual growth and milestones – which I’m really grateful for…” she pauses, and laughs again. “Did that answer your question?”
It’s understandable that the 26-year-old south Londoner has a hard time summing up her journey so far. When NMEfirst spoke to her in 2022, she had just scored viral success on TikTok with the release of her airily candid single ‘Lover Boy’, which took her from making music alone in her bedroom to being praised by Billie Eilish, confronting her nerves around performing and collaborating in studios with others. Since then, she has toured alongside Searows and Matt Maltese, collaborated with synthstar-turned-scientist Professor Brian Cox, and landed a writing credit on one of NME’s top albums of 2025, Rosalía’s ‘Lux’.
Sophie May on The Cover of NME. She wears a look by Hot Tramp Vintage and Pristine. Credit: Lo Harley for NME
“It’s been a lot of confidence-building to get to a point where I’m like, ‘OK, I’m ready to make an album’, for the first time in my life,” she says. “And I guess that’s all just attributed to just doing it and learning along the way.”
May’s creative output, as well as technical skill and knowledge, has expanded with each of the three EPs she’s released so far. “I felt like my mind was blown after each project, thinking, ‘How could I not have known this before?!’, whether that meant being a better songwriter or learning more production tips.” Her debut album – the 11-track ‘Stars And Teeth’, due for release in March – is a natural accumulation of her work to this point. The Carole King-like melodies and Joni Mitchell-esque lyrics of her earlier work are still there, but its dynamism is in its lyrical and sonic textures – a mixture of indie folk pop and romantic bossa nova feel. May excels in writing sincere, thoughtful lyrics and accompanying them with celestial sounds and dramatic production; think The Ronettes, Olivia Dean, or Celeste.
Credit: Lo Harley for NME
“I always have the same taste lyrically, but with production that can vary slightly. The crux of any song I write is to get to that deep, innate human feeling, and even just finding out along the way what a song is actually about. Once I’ve written the lyrics and I think, ‘OK, I connect to that, so hopefully someone else will’, I can do whatever I like production-wise. It can be big and airy or far away or creepy or anything, because ultimately the human part is the lyrics, and that’s always there.”
Much like the title implies, ‘Stars And Teeth’ draws connections between the gigantic, existential questions we have about meaning, death, and the universe (‘Real Life Angel’, ‘Another Song For The End Of The World’, ‘Devils Land’) with the tiny, intimate moments we experience as humans (‘Touch Me’, ‘Dog Body’, ‘Animal’). Moving between sultry, tongue-in-cheek and apprehensive, May’s lyrics pack a punch in their plainspoken simplicity. ‘Real Life Angel’ is about watching someone you love struggle with mental illness: “Your sick little face looked into my eyes / and I didn’t know what to say / but I’d really prefer if you didn’t die / and you said you’d try your best that day”.
“The crux of any song I write is to get to that deep, innate human feeling”
The emotional vulnerability in May’s songwriting is, in part, what caught Eilish’s eye after she posted a snippet of her track ‘Lover Boy’ in 2022. From this, her popularity on TikTok, where she had begun posting her music during lockdown, skyrocketed. She says she has “no qualms being thought of as a TikTok artist”, though she acknowledges that it can give artists a bad rep, with people believing an artist only makes “surface-level music” if they’re gaining popularity via the social media site.
“I guess it’s just a marketing platform that I get to use for free,” she muses. “It’s a bit of a monster, but I still think it can change people’s lives, and it changed mine. I didn’t have any connections in the music world, or knowledge or anything, so being able to post a video of a song and then suddenly get 15,000 followers and people that would come to your gig is incredible.”
Sophie wears a look by Elisha’s Closet. Credit: Lo Harley for NME
It’s certainly been a robust launch pad for May, a further tool for that confidence-building and allowing her vulnerability to shine through her writing. In 2024, she released ‘Tiny Dictator’, a song that exposed the intrusive thoughts caused by her OCD, an anxiety disorder characterised by horrific, persistent ruminations and compulsive actions that attempt to make them go away. “Can’t have sex without thinking of my own mother’s face / Can’t get drunk, what if I black out and fuck everyone?” she sings frankly on the stripped-back acoustic track. Since then, she’s reshaped her life with professional help and channelled her “awful feelings” into songwriting, so that OCD no longer controls her.
“Songwriting to me is like peace on Earth, and writing was such an outlet during that time. I feel that as I’m playing or writing, it’s almost like you’re allowed to say all these awful thoughts and awful feelings,” she explains. OCD thrives by spotlighting a person’s shame, so it’s particularly difficult to talk about the thoughts and feelings that accompany it. When May wasn’t ready to discuss her anxiety openly, she channelled those feelings into songs on more palatable topics. “I look at it now as it made me who I am, in a sense. It doesn’t define me, but it does run alongside me.” She adds that, when she started struggling with OCD, “it actually kind of cracked my world open”, because she became “so aware of how awful I felt that it gave me a lot of empathy instantly”. In turn, that made her a better songwriter: “It’s helpful to understand the very dark parts of the human condition.”
Sophie wears a look by Aww90s and Vintings. Credit: Lo Harley for NME
May uses every experience she has as an opportunity for learning, for growth, and faces challenges head-on, even if she finds them nerve-wracking. This dedication to her craft and commitment to living a full life have led her to some amazing moments. “So much changes even every six months,” she says wistfully. May often finds herself lost in thought during conversation, pondering questions in dreamy intervals before grounding herself and spiralling through a million tangents. “I’m definitely someone who loves to learn and improve. I like being in rooms with people who are a lot better than me at things; I’m like that with my friends and partners, too. I always like being around people [who are] cleverer than me. It’s just something that really fuels my fire.”
Accepting an invitation to her first writing session in Los Angeles – which would have been a terrifying prospect three years ago – led to May earning a writing credit on Rosalía’s ‘Magnolias’. “It was very random, and I have no doubt that there was a little bit of luck involved,” she reflects now. “We had a session booked in, we wrote a very short song, and then we forgot about it for a couple of years. Then at the start of 2025, we heard whispers that Rosalía’s team might be interested. I didn’t know she was gonna make this crazy, classical, insane alternative album, so I was like, ‘Oh, is she gonna chop it up?’” she laughs.
“Songwriting to me is like peace on Earth”
As exciting as the prospect of landing a writing credit with such a renowned artist was, May didn’t let herself get too carried away “because 99 per cent of the time it doesn’t come true”. Months later, though, she was sent a mix of ‘Magnolias’ before its release. “Listening to it was probably the moment I cried,” she says. “That moment always meant more to me than when it was actually out because it was like hearing this secret, incredible song that she had completely reworked and made into something amazing. She really shone her artistry on that track, and I just felt really lucky to even be in the same sentence as her, and all the other writers on that song really.”
It’s moments like these, and the impending release of her debut album, that put into perspective how far Sophie May has come in the three years since her viral breakthrough. “With everything I do, I feel one step closer to being a ‘proper’, grown-up musician,” she concludes. “So much of the beginning is feeling lost, there’s so much questioning, but I guess that’s also to do with just being in your twenties.”
With more experience under her belt, though, the singer-songwriter is enjoying being able to “relax into things” more. “Even if it’s still scary being in a room with a really great writer, it’s invigorating to feel like there’s still more to learn as well,” she explains. “I think where I am now, I feel really confident in just writing songs. I’m very excited just to keep writing and improving. I feel like it’s an everlasting journey.”
Sophie May’s ‘Stars And Teeth’ is out on March 16.
Listen to Sophie May’s exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover below on Spotify or on Apple Music here.
Words: Tilly Foulkes
Photography: Lo Harley
Styling: Erica Welhenage
Stylist Assistance: Marilena Angelides, Rafael Azevedo
