Margaret Sohn – the New York-based, Korean-American musician who records as Miss Grit – sees no point is reducing sound to mundane characterization. Their work doesn’t fit into any specific genre, nor can it be labelled as the occupant of some manageable trend – it’s a product of unbounded creative expression, burying itself deep into the wiggly crevasses of your amygdala. They collect sonic elements, breaking down their influences into smaller adaptable building blocks and rearrange them – using guitars, synths, electronics, and assorted other musical ephemera – into songs which speak to self-discovery through transitional movement, to realization through historical documentation.
This line of thinking and personal actualization was evident across their debut album, 2023’s Follow the Cyborg, a collection of hook-filled songs which examined the fluidity of self and of the transitory nature of identity. The record also happened to be a hell of an emotional gut punch, a congregation of her deepest vulnerabilities feed through vivid arrangements augmented via syrupy melodies and their need for situational understanding. With the release of Sohn’s latest album, Under My Umbrella, they continue this course of amorphous construction, blending sounds from all rhythmic geographies while trying to live in the moment as much as possible.
This new collection was born from long stretches of touring, driving alone across North America, finding inspiration on empty roads and remembering the unrestrained energy that they developed on various stages and wanting to channel those frenzied manifestations into each song. Developed mostly within their Queens apartment, the album was consciously built from first takes and the occasional spontaneous eruption, which allowed Sohn to focus more on what was happening at each moment and less interested in what could be edited later. Musically, it further refines their sense of melodic eclecticism, drawing disparate sounds together which could only find proper realization under her careful guidance.
Under My Umbrella is, up to this point anyway, the best representation of Sohn’s multi-sonic perspective, a vibrant and affecting series of landscapes which form a loosely woven narrative filled with excitable stories of intimate revelations resulting in their embrace of purposeful catharsis. It’s a bold and cinematic look into their creative and emotional processes, and we’re quickly caught up in the tidal motions of her imagination.
Sohn has offered to walk us through the welcoming and supportive architecture of her new album, giving us a glimpse into the structures of each song. Check out her thoughts on each track below.
1. “Tourist Mind”
“Tourist Mind” was the first track I wrote after touring my last album a lot. I had been having this yearning to be able to access a particular energy during performances and so I made it my mission to make a track that could do that for me. It feels like a really classic Miss Grit track to me but I think does a good job of preparing for the departure the rest of the album takes.
2. “Mind Disaster”
“Mind Disaster” might be my favorite track on the record. Mainly due to the contributions from my collaborators Lucci, Sae, and Eva. Lucci recorded the most amazing piano part on this, after he sent it back to me, I couldn’t stop listening to his part just solo’d. I’m particularly happy with the chord progression on this track. It never really gets old to me and that’s something really rare when it comes to songs I’ve written.
3. “Won’t Count on You”
This track makes me sad honestly every time I listen to it. It’s about being let down by someone, and instead of having their lack of care affect you it’s important to be there for yourself. I really love the second half of this song. It was my first time playing around with Arturia’s Acid vst which is modeled from Roland’s TB303 and I became so obsessed with the sounds this thing could make that I ended up incorporating it on a lot of the tracks on this album.
4. “It Feels Like”
I owe this track a lot to my friend Sae aka mmph who really helped make this track come to fruition. I started it off with the first part that happens before the explosion and just let Sae know where I was hoping to take it and he really took it there and beyond. I really love the bass synth in this song especially and its presence and rhythm within the song. It makes me happy every time playing it live although the song is kind of sad. It Feels Like is something I have started saying a lot, and maybe have always, but I think there is so little that I really know for sure and especially when it comes to relationships, I can only really go off of my feelings and sometimes they’re not always reliable.
5. “Where is My Head?”
This was the first track I wrote on this album. It was written a whole year before the rest of the tracks were started and in a lot of ways helped pave the path for the record. It was the easiest and quickest I’ve ever written a song and felt very organic in its formation. I kept trying to recreate that feeling of ease and minimalism, but I think it ended up being a pretty unique track on the album.
6. “Stranger”
This track started from a drum machine loop my mixer and co-producer on this track, Aron, sent me. I knew I wanted to build something on it and so I was super happy when he let me go wild with it. It’s my first track where I swear on it, and I know that sounds kind of childish to point out but it really cuts for me in a way that feels so good every time I sing it live I’m really happy with my swearing choice.
7. “You Will Change”
This song is about embracing change. For me personally I’m trying to embrace the fact my body is changing and aging and interfering with my body’s natural aging process isn’t going to stop the end from coming. At some points in this song, I’m addressing someone directly who was in my life at the time. This person was so so stubborn to change, part of this track’s purpose was to try and frame change for them as a friendlier concept and to let them know that we’ll persevere through it.
8. “Overflow”
“Overflow” was written super quickly, and it basically came together because I just couldn’t stop writing after “You Will Change”. I really loved this drum part that Preston Faulkes came up with and so I just continued riffing on it and made up this whole other track around it. The name really rings true for me on this one. I think it was one of the last tracks I wrote and I kind of just put in all the things I felt like I didn’t get a chance to put on the rest of the album. This one also is a favorite to play live. I had been getting pretty sick of trying to sing and play guitar riffs at the same time I wanted to just be able to strum and enjoy singing.
9. “Waste Me”
I almost didn’t include “Waste Me” on the album. It felt really different from the rest of the record to me, so I wasn’t sure if it belonged. I ended up running the record by a bunch of people with “Waste Me” on it and everyone kept coming back to me with “Waste Me” as one of their favorites. I think I had been nervous about the lyrics being particularly personal/vulnerable for me, but it felt nice to know that it really hit with people. The album’s general theme was trying to be more vulnerable and let more people in so I kind of felt like there was no other choice but to include it.
Under My Umbrella is out today on Mute Records. You can order the record here. Follow Miss Grit on Facebook and Instagram.
