Soccer Mommy on Playing the Pavement Museum in New York: Behind the Setlist Podcast

Through three albums of guitar-driven, melodic ear candy, Soccer Mommy has reveled in the sounds of ‘90s indie rock. So it was no surprise the band was chosen to perform at Pavements 1933 to 2022, the indie rock legend Pavement‘s pop-up museum in New York City that ran from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 and will be displayed permanently in the band’s hometown of Stockton, California. 

“It was really fun,” Sophie Allison, a.k.a. Soccer Mommy, tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “I mean, it was it was something that we were dying to do, honestly, because me and all the people in my live band love Pavement.” Allison and her band covered three songs at the Oct. 1 performance: “Here,” “Gold Soundz” and “Spit on a Stranger.”  

Although many Soccer Mommy fans weren’t born when Pavement broke up in 1999, the song “Here,” from Pavement’s 1992 album Slanted and Enchanted, got a good reaction at the Glasgow, Scotland, concert that concluded the European tour in support of Soccer Mommy’s latest album, the critically acclaimed Sometimes, Forever. “I said I was gonna play a Pavement song and everyone was really excited,” says Allison of the audience’s reaction. The band reunited in 2010 and again in 2022 for U.S. and European tours. “I think that people from my audience do really like [Pavement]. I think they’re specifically really a band that has had this huge renaissance like 20 years after [breaking up]. Even when I was in high school, everybody loved Pavement.” 

Earlier this year, Allison branched out into podcasts when Soccer Mommy scored the music for We Were Three, a podcast series by the New York Times and Serial Productions. “I’ve always been really interested in in the idea of getting to score something but I’m usually so focused either with touring or, you know, writing new songs for a record and recording,” says Allison. Finding herself with free time this summer, Allison says she enjoyed the process of writing music intended for background accompaniment – featuring guitar, bass, drums and synthesizer – to the spoken word rather than her own lyrics. “It was really fun getting to write music that I didn’t then have to write a chorus for and lyrics and a hook.”  

Now home in Nashville after performing more than 50 concerts in 2022, Allison is working on material for the follow-up to Sometimes, Forever. “I don’t have anything done. But I just want to keep keep working on new songs. If anything else comes up that’s exciting, I’ll definitely try to do it. But in the meantime, [I’m focused on] just touring and working on writing new songs.” 

You can listen to the entire interview with Soccer Mommy at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, Audible or Stitcher. 

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