Review Fix Exclusive: Sofasonic’s Michael Wilson Talks Origin and Upcoming European Tour

April 17, 2017 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with Sofasonic frontman Michael Wilson to find out about the band’s origin and upcoming European tour.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Michael Wilson: Sofasonic are me on Guitar/Lead vocals, Niall Turner – Guitar/Backing vocals, SJ Manarin – Bass/Backing vocals and Elliot Manarin – Drums. SJ started the band way back in 2007 and Elliot joined a couple of years later. I drunkenly invited himself to an audition back in 2010, Niall joined in 2013 and we haven’t looked back.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Wilson: As a band we do gel quite well together. Our best tunes have usually spawned from mucking about at breaks in rehearsal with a guitar riff. Elliot will then join in with some drums and we work on getting that into some form of structure. We add bass, lead bits and vocals/melody all at the same time as we sort of ‘loose jam’ until we’re happy with what we’re hearing! The deepest part of the process is the lyrical side where we pick a theme for I to get to work on. The meaning behind the lyrics is quite dark but we try and counter that with having upbeat, toe-tapping music!

Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?

Wilson: That’s a tough one to choose but we’ll go with our title track for the album called Get Made. This is the song that changed the band so it quite a big effect that we still feel today. The song started life with I actually writing the whole thing acoustically. He recorded that onto his phone as a demo track, and brought that to rehearsal for the band to turn it into what it is now. First up the drums were added, and then the guitar and bass elements were joined on. Once we’d worked out backing vocals, the song has grown into what it is now and is one of our crowd favourites!

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2017?

Wilson: We’re off on our first ever European Tour over Easter and have 6 gigs in 10 days in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. Even bigger news is that our first album ‘Get Made’ will be released on the 26th of June, and if you happen to be near one of our gigs pop in and say hello! Also all of the gigs will be on our Facebook page being streamed live so check us out if you’re about!

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Wilson: We want our music to grab people’s’ imagination and take them away from their daily life. Just having people want to hear our songs over and over again, singing along to a riff or a melody that they can’t get out of their heads. That would be amazing!

Review Fix: What’s next?

Wilson: Once we’re back from tour, we’re hitting as many festivals as we can to get the new album out there. It’s a challenge getting your own music out there but we love it! We have the launch party to plan and promote for the end of June, so hopefully some of your readers will be there to grab a copy! It’ll be on all the usual online channels but there is something about holding a physical album so hopefully people will dive into the whole experience with us.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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