SOAK is nineteen-year-old Bridie Monds-Watson. She released her intimate, critically acclaimed debut album, Before We Forgot How To Dream, last summer via Rough Trade Records. 2015 was a banner year for her as the album was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize – with SOAK the youngest female nominee in seven years. She was also nominated for a Q Award for Best New Act, and she won both the Northern Irish Music Prize and the European Border Breaker Award. Bridie Monds-Watson started writing songs when she was thirteen years old. An early demo of “Sea Creatures” made the rounds and got the attention of BBC Introducing and also saw numerous A&R folks board the next flight to Derry. Bridie rushed into nothing, continuing to find her confidence as an artist, and as a young woman. She came out unremarkably to her parents at age fourteen, got her first (of nineteen, and counting) tattoos at age sixteen, and divided time between studying, a skateboarding obsession and her songwriting as SOAK. “a sharp chronicle of heartbreak, parental strife, and bullying that explores how growing up can be universally challenging for all ages” – O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE.
“Soak exposes longings, fears, traumas and resolve — sometimes elliptically, sometimes with disarming bluntness.” – NEW YORK TIMES
“the confessional singer-songwriter we can’t stop listening to” – TEEN VOGUE