Sofie Royer, an Austrian-Iranian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Vienna, is releasing her forthcoming album Before/After, which critics are praising for its wit and dense cultural references. Her music blends genres such as Italo disco, new wave and garage rock, and her lyrics draw on figures ranging from Andrei Tarkovsky to Kenneth Anger, reflecting an academic background in philosophy, psychology and English alongside classical violin training.

Now 35, Royer was born in the US to an Austrian mother and Iranian father, raised partly in Vienna, and later worked at record label Stones Throw in Los Angeles before becoming an early employee of Boiler Room in London. She discusses her itinerant, multicultural upbringing, her reluctance to be defined by gender or heritage as a musician, and her ambivalence about how countercultural projects like Boiler Room evolve once they gain commercial success and investment.