Dimensions Weekly Mens Lifestyle Magazine

Although Sophie Carpenter was born and raised in St. Louis, and now lives in her “Little House” on the Missouri River, hers is a life on the road. This adventurous singer/songwriter travels back and forth between her home base in St. Louis and her musical collaborators in California a couple of times a year in her custom renovated RV. With plenty of relatives and friends to visit along the way, Sophie relishes this way of viewing the incredible scenic beauty of America.

Sophie set out for the first time back in the summer of 2005 with nothing more than her guitar, some unfinished songs, and a dream. Since then she has established her creative partnerships, recorded several CD’s, and realized her passion. Sophie’s journey has been both figuratively and quite literally, a long and winding road. The title of her latest CD, Gypsy In Control, reflects the hard won confidence and accomplishment of this constant traveler.

DW sat down to chat with Sophie Carpenter while she was enjoying a short break in San Diego, California.

DW: What prompted you to buy an RV and set out to California?

SC: I guess it was about six or seven years ago my neighbors had this old RV that had been sitting in their driveway for a long time. I just kept driving by it thinking, gee, I’ve really got to get that. I was sort of imagining this trip in my head, so I finally bought it and fixed it up. Then in the summer of 2005 I decided I was going to get my guitar and my notes of unfinished songs, and I was going to see what this singing and songwriting dream of mine was all about. So I said, look, I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’ve got to do this thing, and I just took off. My mom didn’t get it. She kind of freaked out, but since I didn’t have kids or a family of my own it made perfect sense to me.

DW: What was it like to make a trip like that by yourself?

SC: It was amazing and definitely a growth experience for me. Fortunately, I have a lot of friends and relatives all over the country so I never felt very far away from someone I knew. But I also got to meet some truly wonderful strangers. You know, for the most part, people really are so nice and so helpful. I honestly never felt unsafe or threatened.

DW: What happened when you finally got to California?

SC: I met up with a friend of mine. After she listened to my demo CD, she recommended that I get together with a musician friend of hers in Santa Cruz. That turned out to be Marty Atkinson who is a great producer and songwriter. We really hit it off and decided to do a CD together starting in January of 2006. So I drove back home to St. Louis for Christmas, and then back to California in January to get started on the CD. That was the real beginning for me. We both enjoyed it so much that we decided to do another CD right away.

Making a CD is my favorite thing in the world to do, besides performing. The creative process is amazing, but it is intense, and after that second CD we both really needed a break. So I drove back to St. Louis again. This was now Christmas of 2007. I used that time to update my older material – re-recording, remastering, and getting everything onto CDs. I also wrote a lot of new songs so I was really prepared when I hit the road again in October of 2008. I was so excited and eager to get back to California. Marty also was excited to get back to work, which made me feel great. When I got there we started right away and worked straight through until it was done. Actually, I was back in St. Louis again by Christmas.

DW: Your albums have been labeled variously as folk, country, pop, and jazz. How do you describe your style?

SC: It’s really a hybrid of all those things. I guess the bottom line is that I write ballads. I find relationships to be a deep pool of inspiration – usually broken hearted relationships, but I always try to put hope in my songs. Obviously, I also get a lot of inspiration from my travels, and that really influenced by latest CD, Gypsy In Control.

DW: In describing this CD, you refer to a “beautiful and freeing journey.” Tell us what you mean by that.

SC: On the one hand, I literally am talking about my RV journeys across this beautiful country for the last five years. But also, I’m talking about accomplishing what I set out to do, which was to see if songwriting was really my thing. I bypassed this other life that I really wanted of having kids and a family of my own. But I always had this dream of becoming a singer and a songwriter so this journey really has been creatively freeing.

DW: You really went for it. You took a big chance and made some major, life-altering decisions. Are you happy with the way things have turned out?

SC: Oh my God, yes! I’m elated! It’s been an incredible experience, and it’s still going. I have more that I want to do and new goals to shoot for.

DW: So what is next for you?

SC: I’m going back up to work with another collaborator, John Novello, on my next CD. Then I’m going home for a couple of weeks. After that I’m off to Nashville to knock on some doors. I would love to have a well-known artist discover my songs and record them. Reba McEntire, Wynonna Judd or Faith Hill would be wonderful. The idea is to keep going, to keep writing, recording, and performing.

-DW | Entertainment