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: [email protected]. Want to hear and learn more? Here's our tip: https://1.ard.de/D3000_Evelyn_Weigert?cp1