SOFI TUKKER shares enlightening ‘DANCING WITH THE PEOPLE’ EP ahead of RIP Shame world tour
When Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern began their genre-defying duo as SOFI TUKKER, their goal was to bring an inclusive and global perspective to electronic music. After playing for massive crowds at Coachella and receiving Grammy nods in both Best Dance categories, it’s safe to safe they are well on their way to achieving that mission. Weird, quirky, and wildly original in their live sets, they are constantly looking for new ways to propel themes of liberation, unity, and self-empowerment on stage.
In service of continuing their mission, SOFI TUKKER now releases their highly-anticipated EP, DANCING ON THE PEOPLE. The EP is a collection of songs in English, Portuguese, and Spanish that expand their global vision of dance music with songs full of adventurous ideas and joy. It’s also a reflection of their life experiences over the past year, both celebratory and challenging.
“We started this body of work a year and a half ago, after a really inspiring weekend on the beach in the Dominican Republic,” the duo stated of the EP in a press release. “We were so inspired by the environment and by the people we met and we were inspired to translate that feeling and make music for our live show. We had started playing in front of bigger seas of people and we wanted to create those epic and nostalgic moments that made people want to dance and cry all at the same time.”
From the poetic Portuguese lines of the Cacal-assisted track, “Swing,” to the EP’s pinnacle point on “Purple Hat,” which the duo says was inspired by their Animal Talk parties, to the nostalgic cool-down track, “Fantasy,” the entire project is surprisingly refreshing and inspiring in it’s beautiful verse work. More than anything the pair have released to this point, DANCING WITH THE PEOPLE has an ethos of enlightenment, showing off how SOFI TUKKER truly internalizes their experiences with people around the globe.
To pair with the EP’s release, the R.I.P. Shame world tour will bring the duo across North America and Europe. The tour’s name rests on “a mission to kill shame one loose dance party at a time,” with Australian dance outfit Haiku Hands and DJ/producer LP Giobbi supporting all NA dates. Whereas past tours have raised money for Planned Parenthood and the Trevor Project, the R.I.P. Shame world tour will be supporting The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
Tickets for all tour dates are on sale now on SOFI TUKKER’s website.
Photo Credit: Ekaterina Belinskaya.
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