On 24th April, Korean-American artist Margaret Sohn (Miss Grit) released their second album Under My Umbrella, documenting an ongoing journey of introspection. The New York-based artist is known for their eclectic sound engineering, building the foundation of their imaginative world with riffing guitars and synths. From feeling isolated with their half Asian identity to embracing independence, Sohn talks about breaking that mould, a result of their self discovery after performing solo across the country.
We spoke to Miss Grit about the album, musical inspirations, dream collaborations and staying afloat in the bustling city as an introvert.
Interview by Anggi Pande
Photos by Hoseon Sohn
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I just want to say congratulations on your album! Is there a particular message you want your listeners to take from it?
Not a specific message, but I think my hope for this record was just that I could give the listener a deeper look into my feelings and what was going on for me at the time, without getting too specific about details. I just hope that the feeling I was trying to convey comes through and is relatable. I think with the last record, I put up a wall trying to conceptualise the record in a way that protected me. But this one, I feel like I was trying to be more vulnerable, trying to be more honest with my writing and what was going on for me at the time.
The album 'Under My Umbrella' is a reference to a Rihanna lyric. Who else has inspired your music, and especially this album?
I think for this album, I was really inspired by Portishead at the time, and Massive Attack. FKA Twigs has always been a big influence, too. I was also starting to listen to more electronic and techno music, so the drums and instrumentation of that kind of music was especially inspiring.
If it's someone's first time listening to you, what song from the album would you recommend as an introduction to your music and why?
Maybe 'Tourist Mind', it’s the first song on my record. Just because I feel like it is the middle ground between the rest of this record and my last record. I feel like it is a good representation of the overall feel of my music. I think it is also not too heavy of a song, and a lot of the other songs get a bit darker or more moody. So it's a bit lighter.
I definitely get that from listening to it as well. You also had your close friends working on the album with you. How has your community influenced and inspired the inception of this album?
It was honestly a really big inspiration, because I hadn't really invited people to collaborate with me before. So, in between the last record and this record, I met a lot of amazing artists throughout that middle period. I really admired these musicians and really trusted them with what they do, and the kind of magic they add to the music, and I just fell in love with it. I think when I was writing this record, I tried to spill out what I could at first without filtering it too much. Then I would hand it off to my friends and just tell them to add whatever they wanted, then they would send it back and I would finish it up. It was really helpful, I think, in my writing process to not have a phase where I'm trying to manipulate it too much, and maybe other people contributing kind of helped the momentum of the songs, and helped it over the finish line and everything.
The whole album centers on the notion of 'not overthinking it', so you produced as you went without editing too much. How has your approach to music changed since your last album compared to now?
I think for my last record, I was really focused on trying to mould it into a concept record. I feel like I was trying to create a narrative, but one that was also relatable to what I was going through, or real things that were coming up for me. But I think in the end, the relatability, at least for myself, fizzled out because it was overpowering. So I think with this record, I just wanted to try to be more transparent about what I was writing about. Not trying to mould it too much, and instead trying to trust my stream of consciousness a bit more, and what was naturally coming out.
How has being transparent in your music been? You’re being quite vulnerable, so I imagine it might be a little scary.
Yeah, I think at first it was scary, just thinking about it. But it's actually been a lot more rewarding, I think. I found just as I'm starting to play this album live, it feels like it's much easier to connect with myself when I'm performing, and I don't know, it just feels very cathartic and it's still very meaningful to me, so I think that has been really special. I feel like the connection to the record has remained pretty strong, even after a good amount of time has passed since I've written them. So I think that it's still relatable to me, even after two years has passed since I've written this.
The fact that I've still been able to connect with it now when I'm performing, that's really special to me, because it's kind of rare to happen for me. I guess the more transparency I was trying to have with this record was what helped, and being able to channel that when I'm performing, recreating the energy from the record.
How different is the process of writing your lyrics?
I was always scared of lyrics because of the vulnerability and everything that comes with it. I usually always leave the lyrics for last and procrastinate them a bit. But with this record, I tried to edit them less and stay true to what initially came out. That was the case with the instrumentation of this record, the songwritting and production too. As opposed to the last record, where I was trying to anticipate what was going to come out, or what was going to be written. I think that anticipation kind of guided it in a specific direction that wasn't so realistic to me. Or maybe it felt less relatable to me, at least when performing it.
For your previous album, you toured alone, and it changed your artistry quite a bit. How has it influenced this album?
When I was touring and doing all those shows alone, I think the thing that was anchoring me was the performances. I think I did find myself longing to release a different kind of energy than what the songs were being performed as. When I was writing this record, I did have the live show more in mind, and just wanted to release energy in the way that I wanted to. That felt good to me, in the sense of performance and stuff. And I think it was a very introspective time, having all the time alone and having long car rides and stuff. I think it just helped me get more in touch with myself.
Your music revolves a lot around your identity. And I wanted to mention your half Korean heritage, which plays a big factor in your music. How is this subject incorporated in this current album?
I don't think I necessarily referenced it directly in this record, but I think it is always influencing how I generally feel things or experience them. I think, maybe feeling a bit disconnected from a community, in the sense of being mixed. I guess feeling like a bit of a loner, having the inner turmoil that can happen when I feel like I'm being split into two. Maybe just struggling to find my footing, or feeling grounded.
Do you feel more grounded now?
I think so. Maybe this record helped me come to terms with who I am more. I think in terms of identity, it's been a bit of a journey to try and accept myself as I am, I think because I'm someone who isn’t super bold or loud or anything. So, feeling a bit timid about where I belong, or who I relate to is something that's always on my mind. Feeling lost, in that sense, for a really long time, because of identity, like not being really sure what exactly I'm supposed to be in the context of this world. I think being honest with my feelings in this record, and being able to reflect on that has helped me accept the things that unsettled me, or the kind of subject matter that I wrote about.
I think it’s interesting, growing up half Asian you felt quite isolated, but in ‘Under My Umbrella’, you express solitude and enjoying your time alone and embracing your identity. Is there someone you’re addressing in these songs, especially in lyrics like 'Waste Me', 'parasocially attaching'?
It's definitely about a relationship I was in at the time, and it was also more symbolic about how I feel in the grander scheme of things and how I relate to other people too. Feeling kind of misunderstood, but also not really putting myself out there to be understood. Coming to the understanding that everyone feels the same way. There's always a feeling of being unseen for who you really are and feeling like you're not accepted for it. So, that song is written more about a specific relationship but also how I feel in the grander scheme of things.
Do you have a favourite lyric or one that resonates the most with you?
I think it is in 'Waste Me', there's a lyric that goes, ‘I'm a real slow book / And a lot is left unsaid / Most things go through me / So I barely exist.’ I think about what I don't know, it's kind of hard for me to really see who I am, or what kind of person I am. Just being able to look in the mirror figuratively, and see what other people see, so in that lyric I was trying to understand myself in a way that made sense to me that felt accurate. Also how I experience life, so just being able to convey that I'm a shy person that’s slow to open up. Also admitting to that, I think I experience a lot of things pretty passively and let them happen. The sense of things going through me, or not really experiencing them by avoiding it, and not interacting or engaging with things in life. Maybe for fear of being rejected.
How has living in New York City changed you as a person or affected your music? I feel like in a very big metropolitan city where it’s so fast-paced, and nobody chances a second glance at you, it’s different for someone who is shy or passive.
I live out in Queens right now, which is pretty far away from Manhattan or Brooklyn. I did move out here to get some room from the busyness of things, and where things were happening. I guess that's indicative of my usual habits, or where I lean towards: Removing myself naturally, or isolating myself naturally. But in a way, giving myself that space has been an acceptance of that part of me. At the same time, since I've given myself that patience and space for myself, I feel like I've given myself the grace to settle into a true version of myself. One that I felt comfortable with. I feel like now I'm able to show up in busier places, or be more myself in the music community. Whereas when I was living in Brooklyn, right in the busyness and the scene, it was really hard to take time to myself and really feel grounded in myself first before engaging in all the busyness. That ended up making it hard to feel like myself. I guess I connected with myself more.
Do you have any exciting things we could anticipate from you after this album?
Yeah, I'm planning on touring in May. I'm not positive if it's confirmed yet, but I am playing some live shows around my album release. With the current climate of everything and budgeting, I think I’ll be doing it alone again. It’s the best way for me to do it, just because I can’t afford any other way. But I do really enjoy it, it gives me time to connect with myself, and it’s helpful in getting my message across in the way I want it to. I really hope to do more things like play a lot more live shows this year, and experiment more with things that I haven't done much before. More DJ sets, or maybe more remixes or collaborations with other artists, just trying to have more fun with what I've created.
Do you have any names in mind?
Well, one of them was on my list, it was Gilla Band who I actually ended up collaborating with the guitarist [Allan Durgan Borges] from, so that was a dream come true. We put out a song on his solo project called ‘The Null Club’. But artists that I would love to work with, I really admire this band called Model/Actrizz, they’re a really awesome group out of New York. Also having more fun with electronic pop artists could be a really fun experience, it would be cool. And FKA Twigs [laughs].
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You can listen to Miss Grit's album, Under My Umbrella, where ever you get your music.
New York–based musician Margaret Sohn - aka Miss Grit (they/she) - is a fearless experimentalist known for sculptural textures that blur analogue and digital, guitar and synth. Their acclaimed 2023 debut 'Follow the Cyborg' imagined a futuristic, non-human search for liberation beyond gender and genre binaries. On its follow-up, however, Sohn powers down the android and turns inward. 'Under My Umbrella' reveals the Korean-American artist’s internal world, tracing anxiety, heartbreak, and self-reckoning from the past two years.
