Sans Soucis Tickets

Sans Soucis (she/they) makes music that invigorates the soul. Born out of a desire to reconnect with the uninhibited joyfulness and authenticity of childhood that all of us lose as we grow older, their music is a radical act of reclamation. Free from the constraints of genre and with a wide gamut of sonic touchstones - from the effervescent electronics of Little Dragon, Solange Knowles's alt-R&B, the emotional edge of Joni Mitchell and the robust pop melodies of Rihanna - Sans Soucis's world is one overflowing with vibrant musical textures pertinent lyrics and refreshing dose of hopefulness.

By definition Sans Soucis means "without worry". It's why the name felt right for Congolese-Italian singer, songwriter and producer, Giulia Grispino. That and her grandmother used to call her that when she was a child. "I had this fond memory of my grandma calling me Sans Soucis," they say. "I was a very easy-going child. I was outgoing and talked to everyone. I wasn't judgemental and was very much myself. I think my grandma captured a moment in my life with that name that feels so fragile."

Giulia was born and raised in Italy, a country that they say informed the development of Sans Soucis: "The culture around food, the culture around music and the beauty that you're constantly surrounded by helped shape me as an artist. I remember writing this letter to my country, just something for myself, saying, 'Thank you for the beauty.' It set up a standard in my brain. I love that."

Her parents raised her on a diet of Madonna, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, although they were also surrounded by classical music, especially the music of Luciano Pavarotti, who was her grandpa's favorite singer. "My father was also a songwriter," Giulia adds. "When we were on day trips or when he would drop us at school, there would be a constant loop of Italian music on the radio. Italian music is very ballad-based and it has beautiful, visual lyrics. It's quite poetic as a language in itself."

While she trained as a classical singer, Giulia and her sister always played around with contemporary music, putting on mini-festivals at home. "We'd make a schedule and everything," they recall fondly. "She had a good repertoire. I was improvising all the time, but she had stable songs that she would sing."

Giulia's tastes developed further in their teens. "I started to get more interested in R&B," they say. "I was finding my own voice outside of classical music. I'm a huge Beyoncé and Rihanna fan. At that time in my life, I felt like they represented me in a mainstream world where there weren't a lot of Black people, especially in Italy. I had seasons and obsessions with different kinds of music. But my teenage years were very R&B driven."

Raised with an academic mindset, Giulia realized that if she wanted to pursue music she would need to study. Staying in Italy, however, was off the cards. "At the moment, I think there are quite a few issues which would make my life a bit difficult if I had to live in Italy. Systemic racism is at a point where the country is slightly behind compared to somewhere like London," she explains. "I don't think I would want to live in Italy right now, but I still have such fond memories. I do love the country."

Initially, she scoped out studying in the US, although the prohibitive costs of tuition and visas meant that London was Giulia's ultimate landing place. Just 19, it was something of a culture shock. Along with the UK's apparently indeterminate approach to seasons, the people weren't what she was expecting. "From the outside, the UK is portrayed in such a different way compared to what I understand London to be now," she says.

Two weeks after moving, she strolled to Denmark Street with a friend and bought her first guitar. "I just wanted to play an instrument so I could write songs for myself," she says. ". The guitar felt accessible and so for the next six months I spent every night teaching myself how to play it and writing songs."

It was a dark period in Giulia's life. "At the very beginning I was really depressed. I think that's why I had all that time to stay by myself and play guitar," they say. "I felt like I lost my voice for a little bit, which is why I put so much of my time into music. I just couldn't communicate with people in a genuine way that felt representative of my personality. Also, I was 19 and still figuring out who I am as an adult. Those two things merged into each other and put me in a weird space."

Music provided them with an avenue to wrestle with these feelings. While they experimented playing with other musicians, they felt like in order to create art that felt most honest to them they needed to produce it all on their own. The result of this burst of solo creativity resulted in The Lover EP, a stripped back collection almost entirely built from Giulia's naturally soothing vocals and guitar.

The pandemic provided an opportunity for Giulia to develop the Sans Soucis sound further. Sequestered away during the initial lockdown, they started experimenting with electronic textures, loops and samples. "Ever since I decided I wanted to take the lead on producing my own project, my goal has always been to try different things that feel right to me at the time that I try them, and to learn as much as I can," they say. "I didn't really think about it too much, but it felt exciting and like a new development. It was very natural for me to move to what I like at my own pace."

The fruits of that period make up her second EP, On Time For Her, an eclectic mix of experimental R&B, ambient electronica, glorious pop melodies and luscious atmospheric production. "On Time For Her is the end of my victim mentality cycle. I feel like I wasn't really there for myself, at least not for the person that I think I can see now," Giulia says of the record. "It's a collection of things that I identify with and approaches to life that I had to adopt in order to move forward and see myself in the mirror. So when I say On Time For Her, it's really about not leaving myself behind. When I think about the title, I think about my five-year-old self and the space where Sans Soucis was born."

Creating On Time For Her helped Giulia to be truly present for the first time since she moved to London. It also allowed her to confront issues and stories from her family's past, approaching topics such as the nature of post-colonialism and racism on the deceptively bouncy "Games".

"My mother is a politician, activist and also a doctor, and so ever since I was a kid, I've always been very aware of the reasons why my mother had to move away from Congo to study in Italy, including the fact that she started pursuing politics because of experiencing racism in Italy," Giulia says. "It was normal in my family to talk about how resources like coltan were exploited in Congo and that's the reason there is a civil war that's been going on since 1996."

It also kickstarted a spree of creativity that's still on going. With the help of their manager, Giulia ventured into different songwriting sessions and worked collaboratively with a wider group of producers. Once again, Sans Soucis's sound grew and evolved, pushing further into the world of dance music and electronics.

Take "All Over This Party", a bubbling bass-driven celebration of getting ready with your friends before a night out and self-confidence that echoes the early work of Disclosure and AlunaGeorge. "I'm an introverted extrovert," Giula says, "So the best time for me is not actually going to the party, because the party is often a let-down, but actually just getting ready with my friends. If the whole build-up of expectations stays in that room, it's actually quite beautiful."

On "I Know Your Present", a song Giulia wrote to act as a conversation with sister about their shared traumas, she experiments with four-on-the-floor beats and watery sonic textures, whereas "Merchants" is all warm synths and fizzing '00s pop melodies. This effusiveness is matched on the sun-shiny and gloriously bouncy "Lost When I'm Around You", a song that addresses societal inequalities, especially the discrimination faced by people who have periods. And with "Siamo Tutti", an ominous Italo-disco delight, Giulia explores themes of queerness and addiction.

"The thread of these songs has always been about not feeling ashamed," Giulia says. "If I am moving through trauma and I'm ready to be there for myself, I feel like at this stage, I want to talk about things that would normally make me feel uncomfortable. Things like addiction, periods, a conversation about trauma with my sister; I feel like I owe it to myself to access this space in a very empowering way and talk openly without feeling ashamed. That's how I perceive Sans Soucis in my head. I was much more introspective before and now I feel more outspoken."

Giulia says that there is an album idea marinating in their mind, and they are desperate to tour. They've been inspired by the high concept tours by artists like Rosalia and Solange Knowles, who have created immersive live shows. "There are so many things that pop into my head," Giulia says of their live ambitions. "I want to work with more people in the future and make the show a full-blown experience."

Along with such ambitions is a desire to make art with intention and joy. "I feel like if I hadn't done this in my life, I wouldn't know so much about who I am in this life right now," Giulia says. "And when you're very present, you're able to pause and feel the joy within yourself."