John Doe

★★★★★

view Sodl's debutalbum "Sheepman" on Vinyl

listen to "Sheepman" on all streaming platforms

Official Music Video for "I am a Woman"

Official Music Video for "Father's Tears"

Anyone who mistakes Sodl’s forest-fairy aesthetic for a dreamy folk act will be in for a rude awakening with hits like I am a Woman and Mary, The Anarchist. This year’s winner of the Austrian Amadeus Music Award in the FM4 category doesn’t shy away from harsh contrasts — she celebrates them, with heavy distortion and flowers in her Rapunzel hair.

With Sheepman (2025), the 21-year-old unveils her self-produced debut album — a balancing act between fairytale escapism and feminist outcry. Amid mystical creatures, devotion, and female desire, she sings about structural oppression, about the fight for space and visibility as a woman. Musically, the songwriter wraps her poetic lyrics in the gritty sonic textures of the 1990s. Acoustic instruments and her signature button accordion meet a pulsating wall of electric guitars and drums that both pound and embrace.

Born in the Salzkammergut, Sodl grew up in a musical family. As a child, she invented melodies on the piano and began learning accordion at the age of seven. “Music has always been the most natural form of expression for me,” she says. At fifteen, she began teaching herself to sing and play guitar, and immediately started writing her own songs. Her biggest influences include artists like Alice Phoebe Lou, Phoebe Bridgers, and Fiona Apple.

Accompanied by her band — Matthias Pfaffl on drums, Paulina Scholz on violin, and Leo Weidinger on bass — Sodl toured Austria and Germany as well as Switzerland as a support act for the indie rock duo Cari Cari in spring 2025. With performances at renowned events such as the opening of the Wiener Festwochen, the Popfest, and the Acoustic Lakeside Festival, Sodl is considered one of the most exciting new discoveries in the Austrian music scene. This summer, she’ll perform in Turkey at the Sound of Europe Festival in Istanbul and Ankara, and will open for Bilderbuch.

All it takes is one of her live shows to be swept away by her explosive force. Sodl is a raw diamond — and one can only hope no one ever dares to polish her. But not to worry: she wouldn’t let that happen anyway.

Photo: Luca Celine Müller

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