New Release – Thistle by Sophie Janna

Sophie Janna is a songwriter from the Netherlands, who toured the world for years with her duo The Lasses before she dared to share her own songs on the stage. Janna’s disarming stage presence and trad-rooted songwriting has earned her international repute; she recently opened for Lisa Hannigan and Florist. Her EP ‘Wide World’ was released at the end of 2021. ‘Thistle’ is the first single from her upcoming album.

“When I had just become a mother, I stayed with my parents for a few days. It was May or June then, as it is now, and I was admiring all the wild flowers around my parents’ house. I was worried about the quickly changing world that I had brought my baby into – would he know all the flowers that grew around me when I grew up? I wasn’t hopeful about what humans could do to counter all the damage they had done. When I picked up my guitar, I found myself singing to the flowers, asking them to please stay.”

“The artwork for this single is a cyanotype made with wildflowers, including thistles, made by my sister Anneke ter Schure. The cyanotype process is an old form of photography where you only preserve the outline of the image. If we don’t act now, that might be all that remains of nature: pictures, outlines, drawings. Hopefully that will never come to pass.”

“I recorded this song in Studio Doornenburg, located in the middle of a beautiful area of the Netherlands: de Gelderse Poort. It was early in the morning and the sun shone low through the windows. The golden light formed the perfect setting for this quiet song. I love recording everything in one take, so that it’s a snapshot of our common experience that early morning.”

‘Thistle’ is out 16th June. Pre-save here.