BIOGRAPHY
Raised along the golden Chinese take away circuit of southeast England and Wales, British-born Chinese singer-songwriter Sophie Yau grew up on a mix of Cantopop, Eighties Pop and Christian Hymns. She was later introduced to the sounds of Eddi Reader, DMB, Sarah Mclachlan & Martin Sexton and later still, to Nightmares on Wax, John Martyn, Willy Mason & the ubiquitous John Mayer. She taught herself guitar while studying for her A Levels and wrote her first song while at University
After graduation, she came to London and toured the open mic circuit, scoring gigs at The 12 Bar Club, The Blues Bar, Battle-fest and Buddhafields festival. Shortly after that, she was approached by Friends of the Earth and local Amnesty Groups to play at various fund-raisers. And shortly after that and she was invited to play a live session on Zoe Baxter's show at Resonance FM, receiving airplay also on BBC Radio 6 and UCL's Rare FM.
Sophie is committed to social justice and frequently uses her live shows as a platform to promote the work of organizations such as Burma Campaign UK. She is currently working on her debut demo/EP "Some Great Union in the Sky" with fellow musician Jean-Guy Sylvestre [release date: 2009]
Sophie would like it to be known that she is and continues to be exceptionally grateful to the following people:
JADE for her green glasses and general awesome-ness
NORNA for her insane social schedule and total faith in her older sister
UNCLE PETE for his frequent reminders to get to bed early
JJ for being Managerial
DIGGI for being PR when she isn't busy doctoring
JG for being lovely
TRIVIA
Sophie was born Sylvia Yee Ting Yau at University Hospital, Camden. She has an older brother and a younger sister
She graduated from the University of Bristol receiving a BA Hons in Theology & Religious Studies.
If she was a boy, she would want to sing like Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes. And maybe Bon Iver.
She once wanted to be a journalist like Lois Lane so that she could interview a man in a red cape and generally fly around with him
She thinks Francoise Hardy is gorgeous
And also loves Battle Star Galactica Reimagined
For further information, images, to arrange an interview or review a show, please contact Jonathan Mayes at:
[email protected]
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Sophie supports Burma Campaign UK and Crisis London. For more information please go to:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/
http://www.crisis.org.uk/
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