Sophie Auster

IT DOESN’T END
Artist: Sophie Auster | Words: Claudia Ippen
Als ich höre, dass Sophie Auster mit ihrem neuen Album Milk for Ulcers nach Hamburg
kommt, zögere ich nicht lange, ich möchte unbedingt dabei sein. Doch schnell merke ich:
Ich kenne sie eigentlich kaum. Ein paar Songs hatte ich mal gehört, der Name war mir ein
Begriff, doch Fan war ich vor allem von ihren Eltern. Ihr Vater, der große Paul Auster, ist
im letzten Jahr verstorben. Ihre Mutter, die Schriftstellerin Siri Hustvedt, hat mit Was ich
liebte eines meiner Lieblingsbücher geschrieben. Aber Sophie? Sie habe ich erst durch die
Vorbereitungen auf diesen Abend wirklich entdeckt. Milk for Ulcers lief bei mir rauf und
runter. Eine Stimme, klar und eindringlich, die hängen bleibt. Und Texte, die unter die Haut
gehen.
Das Interview ist schnell vereinbart. Kaum angefragt, kommt auch schon die Zusage vom
Tourmanagement: ein kurzes Gespräch und Fotoshooting am Abend ihres Konzerts, direkt
im Nochtspeicher. Und obwohl der Soundcheck deutlich länger dauert als geplant, nimmt
sich Sophie im Anschluss entspannt Zeit für unser Gespräch. Dort begegnet sie mir sehr
offen, sympathisch und reflektiert. Sie spricht ausführlich über ihre neue Platte, über
Schmerz, Geburt, Verlust und die Musik als eine Form der Bewältigung. Eigentlich hatte
ich vor, das Thema um den Tod ihres Vaters nur vorsichtig zu streifen – aus Respekt vor ihr,
aber auch, weil ich vermute, dass sie oft darauf angesprochen wird. Doch Sophie geht von
sich aus ohne Scheu und mit großer Ehrlichkeit auf dieses Thema ein. Beim kurzen
Fotoshooting zeigt sich sofort ihre professionelle Seite – man merkt, dass sie schon oft vor
der Kamera stand. Diese Professionalität zieht sich auch durch ihren Bühnenauftritt: eine
stilvolle, äußerst präzise Performerin, die technisch jedes Detail beherrscht und jeden Ton
perfekt trifft.
CYTE: Your new album Milk for Ulcers feels deeply personal and intimate. How did this
specific image – milk as a remedy for an ulcer – become a central metaphor for the music
and emotions behind it?
SOPHIE AUSTER: It’s weird, because we are talking about things that are kind of
outdated. They used to say that if you burned yourself, you should put butter on it. Now
people think that’s a terrible idea. And that you should drink milk for stomach ulcers
because it coats your stomach. But apparently, that’s really bad for you. There are all these
things that used to be considered helpful, and now we have learned they are actually not.
And I decided in that moment, I’m going to call my next record Milk for Ulcers. I was with
my parents and my husband at the time. I remember Spencer [Anm. d. Red.: Sophies
Ehemann], who’s a huge 90s rock guy, was like, that’s a cool title. And then my dad said, I
don’t like it, I don’t like it. And I thought, I don’t know. But as things started to unravel in
my life [Anm. d. Red.: Paul Auster starb 2024 an Komplikationen infolge von Lungenkrebs,
Daniel Auster, Sophies Halbbruder verstarb 2022 an einer Überdosis], I realized it was
actually the perfect title. When you’re going through really difficult
times, looking for answers, you sometimes turn to the wrong
things.

And does anything really fix something that devastating? No. But things shift.
And time can make things a little easier, for sure, but it doesn’t go away. I liked the idea of
these temporary things that might make you feel better, even if they don’t fix the issue at its
root.
Auf der Bühne wirkt Sophie auf mich, im direkten Vergleich zum Interview, kontrollierter,
vielleicht sogar etwas distanzierter, beinahe unnahbar. Zwischen den Songs erzählt sie kurze
Anekdoten – ruhig, lakonisch, manchmal mit einem leicht ironischen Lächeln. Am Anfang,
nach ihren ersten Songs Heartbreak Telephone und Don’t ask me what I do, sagt sie: Being
a musician is not the easiest thing in the world. Vielleicht ist das auch der Grund für ihre
Zurückhaltung.
CYTE: You mean that some things can start a healing process, even if a complete healing
may never come?
SOPHIE AUSTER: Yeah. We live in a world where everyone’s trying to fix everything.
There are so many messages out there tellling us we can live
forever, that we can fix this or that. That we can be 25 when
we are really 45. I liked playing with that – because the truth
is, there’s no real answer for that stuff, you know?
CYTE: You experienced a lot of extremes while working on the album: grief, loss and pain,
which I don’t want to go too deeply into.
SOPHIE AUSTER: It’s out there, so I do have to talk about it sometimes, even though it’s
hard. But in a way, that’s part of how I process things. To put it out
there, to be public about grief, and to turn it into art, into
music. And I can say this publicly, too: it doesn’t end. Sometimes in your private life,
people forget. They’ll say, oh, my God, how are you? And you’re like, well, still not great,
but, I’m okay. People really do forget. A lot of people are there for you in the first month or
so, but then they go back to their lives. They forget that grief is just this long,
hard process.
CYTE: And, from personal experience, I don’t think it ever really ends. It changes in
intensity, but it never ends.
SOPHIE AUSTER: I think it’s always good to check in on people who’ve lost someone. To see how they’re adjusting to a new life, because it is a whole new life without that person.
Yeah. It’s weird.
Ein leiser, zutiefst emotionaler Moment ihres Sets: Blue Team. Ein Song über Trauer und
den Wunsch, ein moralisches Versprechen einzuhalten. Der Song ist ihrem Vater gewidmet und greift das von ihm geprägte Bild des Blue Teams auf, ein Sinnbild für Integrität und
Fürsorge. Der Text erzählt von Dankbarkeit und dem Willen, sein Vermächtnis
weiterzuführen. Er verbindet den Schmerz des Verlusts mit Hoffnung und der Kraft
gemeinsamer Erinnerungen. Sophie sagt dazu, grief stays with you like a sweater you wear
all the time. But grief changes. In diesem Moment ist sie ganz bei sich – und zeigt sich
ehrlich und verletzlich.
CYTE: And alongside the grief, you also experienced the birth of your son. Someone very
important to you left and someone very important arrived.
SOPHIE AUSTER: You’re pulled in all these different directions. You’re really happy and
really sad at the same time. It was intense. It was hard. And even little babies – they feel
everything. So I tried to protect him from me being too sad. One
thing about having a baby is that everything is so immediate. I didn’t get a lot of time to selfreflect,
if that makes sense. In a way, it was confusing and also helpful because you just
have to push through. You know that if you don’t show up for that little guy, he’s not gonna
make it. So you have to be present. You can’t tune out. In a way, having my baby saved me
during a really hard time. But it’s also exhausting. Sometimes you just want to crawl under
the covers. But somehow, I find the energy. Still, sometimes before a show, I think, no way.
CYTE: He’s with you on tour, right?
SOPHIE AUSTER: He was with me. After Germany, I’m playing a show in Mallorca and
then in Barcelona. So now he’s with his dad and my mother-in-law in Mallorca. He’s having
the time of his life. He is very well taken care of. Right now, there’s just way too much
going on. We’re doing all the driving, and he’d be in the car for too long. I think they
recommend that babies his age shouldn’t be in a car seat for more than two hours, and we’re
sometimes traveling for ten.
CYTE: Did the extremes of birth and loss change your music or how you worked on the
record?
SOPHIE AUSTER: Yeah, definitely. I’ve gone through different phases in terms of what
kind of music I wanted to make. Before all of this happened – during Covid – I was trying to
make dance music. I didn’t want to make anything too sad. I just wanted to have fun. Even
though it was a global catastrophe, I personally just wanted to escape a little. I thought
dance music would be the right move, for when we could all be back together again, go out
and celebrate. And I think it was the right move at the time. But then, going through
something so devastating and personal, I felt like if I didn’t write about it,
I’d be running away from the biggest thing happening in my
life. So I felt like there was no other way but to be honest, to write songs that sometimes
felt like private demos. I’ve had songs like that for years, but I hadn’t shared them. This
time, I just had to.
CYTE: Your songs are so personal – so much of you goes into your texts and your music. I
can imagine that it would be quite difficult to leave these themes and feelings out.

SOPHIE AUSTER: My family cries when they listen to the record. Because it directly
deals with things we’ve all been through.
CYTE: How does your family listen to your music, especially this album?
SOPHIE AUSTER: I grew up in a house where people really
listened to music. They’d sit down, close their eyes, dance, whatever – but they
really listened. They’d really take in the lyrics. My family doesn’t do a lot of background
listening. I do. I play music all the time. But the way they do it is probably the best way to
experience a record. They’ve listened to Milk for Ulcers. Not every day, but they’ve listened
to it.
CYTE: There are moments on the album full of imagery, but also full of silence. Some
songs feel very quiet. Do you write lyrics intuitively, like you have something in mind and
write it down? Or is there a more conscious process, almost like writing poetry or prose,
influenced by your parents?
SOPHIE AUSTER: That’s a a good question. I grew up reading a lot. My parents were
very critical of texts, of what made them good or not. And they were critical of me, too. I
remember showing my mother a poem in college, and she said, it’s not good. It’s really not
good. And she was right, it was terrible. I’m glad she told me. That helped me be
more direct in how I write lyrics – to be careful with what I
say. When I was younger, I think one of my big hindrances was trying too hard to be
original. I was nervous about sounding like someone else. I wanted to be different. But that
can really hinder you. As I’ve gotten older, I just don’t care anymore. I don’t care if a song
sounds a bit like another song. I’ve had to free myself. I write what feels good
and honest. I try not to worry too much. And have fun with it.
I think, if you’re honest, it’s automatically original. I think listeners
can hear that and feel it, too.
CYTE: So what’s next? Are you already thinking about what comes after this?
SOPHIE AUSTER: I’ve been thinking about it, especially in talks with the touring agency
for next year. I’ve been thinking about how I can still play melancholic themes, but maybe
with different tempos and beats. You can certainly have sad songs you can dance to. And
also I’m a mom now. I feel like my son deserves a few songs as well.
CYTE: How old is he?
SOPHIE AUSTER: He’s 16 months.
CYTE: Oh, wow.
SOPHIE AUSTER: Yeah, he’s very adorable. And an enormous flirt. He sees ladies, and he turns around and blows kisses. He’s living his best life in Mallorca with all the Spanish
ladies – naked, flirting, eating oranges, and I think his grandmother’s giving him ice cream
every day.
CYTE: Great, grandmas have to spoil!
Vor Dollar Man dann der erste politischere Moment: Bruce Springsteen said something
about the orange man. This song is about rich powerful men. Ein Satz, der im Raum hängen
bleibt. Ihre klare Haltung wird spürbar – ohne Pathos, ohne große Gesten.
CYTE: One last question, something totally different. In Germany, every morning we wake
up and read the latest news from the US and about Trump. What do you say to the current
developments in your country? I read that Bruce Springsteen has been very political and
openly anti-Trump in his recent concerts.
SOPHIE AUSTER: And now Trump doesn’t want to let him back into the country. That
just shows you what narcissists obsess over. He’s preoccupied with Bruce Springsteen. He’s
spending time tweeting about Springsteen, about Taylor Swift, saying she’s lost her looks…
CYTE: And that Springsteen has a leather face.
SOPHIE AUSTER: Springsteen is handsome, and he’s a nice guy, too.
CYTE: His team posted a topless photo of him on his Instagram, saying he has great skin,
as an answer to Trump. I don’t know, it felt a bit off. You don’t need to go there.
SOPHIE AUSTER: It’s kind of funny though, but I don’t think you should
even respond to Trump. I haven’t been saying his name really. The very
frustrated left, myself included, is looking in horror at what’s going on. I can’t believe
it’s 2025, and we’re rolling back so much progress. He doesn’t
care about science, he doesn’t care about facts. He doesn’t care
about protecting anyone. We’ll see what happens when he gets rid of Medicare
and Medicaid. Our healthcare system is already terribble, and now he’s trying to destroy the
few good parts that exist. It’s crazy. My friends and I try to focus on local elections, like in
New York. But it’s very hard and scary. All those people who voted for him, they’ll see
what’s coming. Do you know what the head of border patrol wants to do? She wants to
make a reality TV show where immigrants compete for citizenship. It’s disgusting.
It’s like Black Mirror. You know that show? It’s like these horrible, dystopian futures – and
it’s happening right in front of us.
CYTE: I know a lot of people who can’t watch Black Mirror anymore because they feel like
it’s already our reality.

SOPHIE AUSTER: I agree. It’s here. We’re living it and it’s scary.
CYTE: My biggest concern is that even the people who voted for him will continue to
support him, no matter what he does, even if it’s against their own interests.
SOPHIE AUSTER: Many Trump voters justify it by saying, it has to get worse before it
gets better. That’s not smart. Why should it get worse? Biden inherited Trump’s tax plans
and inflation. He actually managed to cap the inflation, it wasn’t his fault. It was all Trump.
Sophie Auster ist längst keine Newcomerin mehr, doch ihre Reichweite ist überschaubar:
rund 12.500 monatliche Hörer auf Spotify, etwa 26.000 Follower auf Instagram. Angesichts
ihrer wunderschönen und gut ausgebildeten Stimme, der eingängigen Songs und ihrer
jahrelangen Erfahrung überrascht das. Woran liegt es? Vielleicht daran, dass ihre Musik
eher ein reiferes Publikum anspricht. Vielleicht auch daran, dass sich – zumindest für mich
– ein Widerspruch auftut, im persönlichen Gespräch und auf der Bühne. Ich kann nicht
genau benennen, warum.
Nach dem Konzert geht sie nicht in den Backstage-Bereich. Stattdessen steht sie am Merch-
Stand, signiert T-Shirts und Taschen. Ganz nah am Publikum. Woher also dieses Gefühl der
Distanz auf der Bühne? Vielleicht gehört es einfach zu ihr. Eine Form von Selbstschutz, ein
Teil ihrer Kunst.
Dass Sophie weitermachen wird – als Künstlerin, als Songwriterin und Sängerin – steht
außer Frage. Trotz Trauer, trotz ihrer neuen Rolle als Mutter. Ich wünsche ihr, dass ihre
Musik noch mehr Menschen erreicht. Aber vielleicht ist das gar nicht ihr Ziel. Vielleicht
geht es ihr um etwas anderes: ehrlich zu bleiben, sich verletzlich zu zeigen und integer zu
sein. Eine Haltung, die an ihren Vater erinnert. Vielleicht liegt genau darin ihre größte
Stärke.
Vielen Dank, liebe Sophie Auster, für unser offenes und sehr persönliches Gespräch. Wir
wünschen dir viel Erfolg für deine kommenden Pläne, Projekte und Musik.