'Being Queer has always been thread throughout my life.' - Interview with Sophie Holohan

In the past month, Sophie Holohan has gone viral for a millionth time with a Sims 4 music video for her new single, Alien Vacation, created by herself and her sister. As a simmer, this caught my attention and I had to immediately reach out to Sophie. Now, we're friends and it is safe to say she is one of my absolute favourite musicians. Alien Vacation is a brilliant song with a beautiful meaning, here's some insider info about it:

ME: What inspired the sims music video?

SOPHIE HOLOHAN: We've had this song for a year and a half, at the time I was signed, now I'm not. My producer had the idea to get my sister who loves the sims to make a music video with the sims. She had a concept straight away and we spent two days together non stop working on it, and I love how it turned out.

M: In general, what inspired alien vacation?

SH: My producer literally said to me, what if u make a song inspired by pinterest picture? So I opened Pinterest and saw this picture of this alien couple living this like perfect married life. I began projecting on these aliens, assuming the female alien was living a small life, when in reality that was me feeling like that due to not actually being bi.

M: How does virality feel in regards to being a musician?

SH: I went to school for music and then went viral at 18. I thought, great, that's it, I'm going to be successful, but then it dies off and trends change. I try not to chase it, but it's a great thing if it does happen, you of course want it to happen to everything you post!

M: What can we look forward to from you next?

SH: Yes, a new song this week called Pineapple Hill, which is based on when my mom dragged me out with her and I didn't wanna hang out with old people but I ended up having such a good time. We've decided that since I write so much and so quickly, that we will have a 'b side' for every song with a less produced song, a bit more stripped back.

M: What's been your favourite reaction to alien vacation coming out?

SH: Honestly, it's been so rewarding in general. Having people relate to it at all is so validating and lovely, and crazy, I always think 'what?!' when I see people sing back lyrics at a gig or tell me what a song meanst to them.

M: There's a lot about this song representing women who love women, was it important for you to showcase that?

SH: Yes, I had to because it was scary and being queer has always been thread throughout life. For example, when I was younger and I would play moviestarplanet, I would play as a boy so I could date the girls. after this last year of growth, I wanted it to be like hey I'm gay!

M: Will you be doing gigs any time soon?

SH: I would love to, someone just needs to take me!

M: What’s your favourite part of being a musician; the making of it, the audience, the performing etc?

SH: Honestly, it's crazy it's my job, I have to remind myself when I'm just singing and playing guitar that I'm not being lazy, that I'm working and being productive. I've always loved telling stories and it's always been the writing over the singing, you know, I've been writing since I was literally 5, but I do love the visuals and then performing. Having a one time experience, connecting in person when I went viral during covid, it's all really special and important to me.

M: What's your next big goal for your music?

SH: I would love to put out an album. The idea of a debut album has always scared me since it's something I've been working up to for so long but I'm hoping within the next year we will get it down!

M: I like to end on a fun one - if you could create a game for your music, what would the game be like?

SH: Oh this is such a great question, definitely like a fantasy version of stardew valley! It would be like a soundtrack of my music to it, there would be fairies, that kind of thing - I would probably need to write happier music though!