Sophie Auster – Blue Team

Sophie Auster is a singer-songwriter and released her first album
at the age of sixteen. It featured her own lyrics and poems set to
music by her father, Paul Auster. Sophie is his and Siri Hustvedt's
only daughter and for a long time she struggled with the writer
couple's fame and the fact that many people projected things on
her. Yet with her warm, expressive voice and her melancholic and
tender songs, she has long been a household name on the
international indie music scene. Her song “Little Bird” won her the
top prize at the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and in Spain she
was named “Singer of the Year” by Cosmopolitan Magazine in 2017.
She attracted attention as an actress starting as a child, and most
recently appearing in “The Zurich Affair”. She is currently on tour
in Europe with her latest album “Milk for Ulcers”. For FREIHEIT
DELUXE, Sophie and Jagoda met in the studio the day after Sophie's
Barcelona concert - their encounter resulted in an unusually
intimate conversation. Sophie talks about the memory of her father,
the “ultimate defender of the family” and how much it means to be
part of the “Blue Team” - in other words, to be one of the people
who are where they are needed. Together with Jagoda, she reflects
on how she has learned to embrace her family history instead of
constantly separating herself from it. However, the great love of
her parents and their inspiring relationship could not save her
from some of the dangers she had to face alone as an adolescent.
And finally, she describes to Jagoda in honest words what has been
bothering her since the “Orange Man” returned to power in the
United States… Here you can hear, how Sophie Auster finds freedom
on stage (4:43) what kind of difficulties she faced during
adolescence (12.16) what it feels like to have a baby and losing
someone at the same time (29:37) which song she wrote for her dad
(38:17) how she feels about being labelled “Indie” (47:44) the way
she thinks artists should take a political stand (54:44) how come
she picked music as her choice to become an artist (1:07:50)
Sophie’s revelation about her mysterious album title “Milk for
Ulcers” (1:14:55) FREEDOM DELUXE with Jagoda Marinić is a
Hessischer Rundfunk production in cooperation with the German
Publishers and Booksellers Association. Editorial team: Andrea
Geißler, Juliane Orth, and Christoph Scheffer. You can reach us by
email: freiheitdeluxe@hr.de. Want to hear and learn more? Here's
our tip: https://1.ard.de/D3000_Evelyn_Weigert?cp1