Sophie Anderson is one of the viral success stories of 2019, as one half of much-memed pornstar-cum-influencer duo The Cock Destroyers. She talks to Pip Williams about the songs that define her.
Alongside Rebecca More, Sophie Anderson's hilarious – and extremely NSFW – videoclips have swept the Twittersphere, bringing an unexpectedly wholesome message of acceptance, self-love, and shameless sexuality onto every millennial’s timeline.
With her extreme look and over-the-top mannerisms, the acceptance of Anderson into the online mainstream took many by surprise. However, there’s more to this internet sensation than meets the eye. As Anderson selects her nine favourite songs, she unravels the rollercoaster narrative of her own timeline in order to illustrate their particular significance. Behind the sass and sex positivity, Anderson reveals herself to be a woman who has battled with homelessness, addiction, and disordered eating to get to where she is today.
Having firmly instated herself as a proudly bisexual LGBT+ icon, Anderson released a debut single titled “Driving For Dick”. The track is a pornographic Eurodance dream/nightmare, depending on your preferences, but an acoustic version made available via Spotify reveals her technical ability as a singer with a background in opera. It’s worth a listen, even if you just want to hear someone deliver the like “I wanna be your cum dump” with total precision and sincerity.
While Anderson has only released one single of her own, she states several times that music is “everything” to her.
“It has always been a really, really big thing of mine,” she gushes, “from listening to it when I was younger, then through school I was singing opera, musical theatre. I find it a really good way of escaping. I was quite shy, quite overweight, with lots of body issues growing up. I didn’t have many friends at school, I just went to the music centre and sang! It was my friend! A lot of these songs have a lot to do with when I was younger, because of having connections with my family, with music, and with dancing.”
"Let's Twist Again" by Jive Bunny and The Mastermixers
"I’ll start with my number one – here we go!
"This was actually a record – my Dad had a record player and he put it on for me and my sister to dance in the living room in our first house in Bristol. This record had Jive Bunny on the front, it was all quite cartoonish. Me and my sister used to love it, and I still relate it to us dancing around that living room. It’s so connected to my sister and to having fun!"
"One Step Beyond" by Madness
"Moving on to number two!
"The reason for this one has a lot to do with my Dad, actually. It’s of his era – he’s 61 now. He’s very energetic, very young in himself, and a very, very good dancer. I remember he used to take me and my sister to dancing club and Madness was one that he would go crazy to – 'One Step Beyond' and 'Baggy Trousers'! It was a very fun time for me when I was younger, because of my dad. I’m definitely still close to my dad and my sister, It’s awesome. I saw them the other day, so we’re still very connected."
"All That She Wants" by Ace of Base
"Around this time was when my mum left us. It was my dad who raised me and my sister. I don’t know if 'All That She Wants' actually came out around that time, but I used to hear this song play, and I could really relate to that someone leaving in my life as my mum had left. She had been a big part of my life, and then she wasn’t there for quite a long time. She just left.
"Meatloaf’s 'I’d Do Anything For Love' was one of my mum’s big songs when she came back. She loves the video. 'I’ll Do Anything For Love' really got me, because my mum had quite a few partners in her life at that time and it reminds me of her a bit. She would do anything for love, and that really really resonates with me going into adulthood.
"When she came back, she had a little flat in Bristol, and I remember she would do these dramatic moods all over her face [to this song]. It was one of the first songs I would actually sing to, which started my whole dramatic singing [career]. It’s a real power ballad in my life, fuck yeah! It’s funny, because I was just writing on Twitter, “I’ll do anything for dick”. I’ve used that theme in my own little way now!"
"Mysterious Girl" by Peter Andre
"D’you know what? I remember thinking how much I fancied Peter Andre. It’s him in the waterfall in the video – I think the mysterious girl is definitely me! Back at the time, my dad bought me and my sister the different colour versions. I got the orange one and my sister got the blue, and we were both there singing 'Mysterious girl, I wanna get close to you!' Of course, me and my sister were definitely that girl!
"Peter Andre was one of my crushes when I was younger, with his little dreads in, tanned body, y’know? I still follow him, so we’ll keep it on the hush that I still have a bit of a crush on him! I think he might get a bit shy around me now. Back when I was younger I was a bit more reserved, but now he might run away rather than being like ‘oh, here’s my fan!’"
"Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne
"At this point me and my sister had just moved from Bristol to Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire. We met a great group of mates around there before we both started at our new school, where I was going into year six. It was great fun! I’d just got a pair of rollerblades, and my sister had a skateboard! She got this album – her very first album – and we skated round the block. She had the CD, and I still had my cassette player, so I was well jeal! Then I got a little boombox, which actually had a CD player on it, and I was like 'Yeah, "Sk8er Boi"!' going round the block on my skates.
"'Sk8r Boi' is such a positive thing from the year before I started at secondary school – a positive summer! I wasn’t really looking for boys at the time, it was just all about skating! It was absolutely great. I was also finding my music at the time, and what kind of genre that fitted me. I started going into rock, and rock and hip-hop from here has been my baby."
"Crawling" by Linkin Park
"Linkin Park has been one of my favourite groups, going from secondary school and onwards.
"At this point I was at secondary school and I found it really difficult to fit in. I remember getting this album, and this was where I really started singing rock songs. Growing up here and struggling with depression, 'Crawling' was all about my body image for me. I found it really difficult to look at myself in a body positive way. I hated the way I looked, and I started to have an eating disorder around this time: anorexia.
"This music really saved me. I felt like I related to all the songs. It was so, so powerful. I used to play Linkin Park really loud in my bedroom, and my dad would come up like, 'aah, turn it down!' I’d turn it down, and then turn it straight back up again! You can’t listen to it quietly."
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
"This has to be my favourite group of all time. Unfortunately Kurt Cobain died before I got to see him in concert. Of course 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is one of my number ones. I remember being in year eight, bunking off – kids, if you’re reading this, you do not bunk off school! – but at this time I was rebelling, basically sticking two fingers up to my dad, still loving music. I was still suffering a bit inside – growing up as a teenager is hard enough as it is – but with Nirvana it was like, fuck my feelings, I just wanna rock out and listen to the music!
"It’s also great now, because I’ve got my son into Nirvana. He’s a rocker too, and Nirvana’s definitely one of his favourite groups. He is so into music, and me and him are definitely connected in that way, which is absolutely awesome.
"I’ll also put 'Come As You Are' into my number eight. Fuck it, it doesn’t matter! Anyone who doesn’t like me, it doesn’t matter, because I’m gonna come as I am, and I’m accepting myself as I am. 'Come As You Are', Nirvana, rock out with your cock out, yeah!"
"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
"When I was pregnant with my son I was going from house to house. I didn’t have anything, but I had a CD player, because music is really important to me. I remember all my stuff being in bin bags, moving from hostel to hostel. Queen was one of the CDs I had when I was younger, and I’ll always remember playing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to my son – I used to hold my CD player up to my tummy and feel him kick! It’s such a funny thing, because he loves Queen now. I do think there’s definitely that connection between music and giving birth, it’s such a great thing.
"'Somebody To Love' is another one I love, and so does my boy. For me, it’s all about when my son was born. It was such a great time – not so much as in moving from place to place, and living in hostels, but I remember Queen at a time in my life that was really difficult but so fantastic; giving birth to him."
"2009" by Mac Miller
"This album really resonates with me, because I did have a problem with addiction. This song means so much to me, because I really listened to the words. For me, this is about going from addiction to healing, which has taken such a long time.
"I’m such a positive person today, but it’s been a struggle. Whatever addiction you have – whether it’s drink, drugs, eating disorders – it can be a real struggle. Everyone feels worried, or scared, and there are so many talented people who have to use drugs or drink because they feel like they’re not good enough. I was very, very critical of myself, and I used to analyse myself. I used to think, 'if I don’t like myself, how can anyone like me?'
"This song for me is also about letting go of negative people. Mac Miller was so talented. He had a real struggle. This song just shows you how fragile people are. He really felt the pressure and turned to drugs, as I have done in the past. This song definitely hit so hard, and I think that’s why rock and hip-hop are so close to me. I really love the power of the words I listen to. You can really tell the love and the hate in the words.
"Some of the words in this song – 'I don’t need to lie no more' – really show who I am as person. I’m here as myself, whether you like me or not. Words like “I wish I took a simpler route / Instead of having demons as big as my house” – I remember when I did take drugs, I really did feel like I wasn’t myself. I had those demons there. Now I don’t feel like that. Nowadays I’m not scared anymore. I know who I am, who Sophie is."
"Driving For Dick" is out now.
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