It’s a blistering afternoon in Ibiza, and the sun feels laser-trained on the Hard Rock Hotel, where the International Music Summit is taking place. The lobby bustles with sun-splotched Balearic veterans, the mirrored sunglass lenses of industry heads glinting as they mingle in and out of panels and workshops on everything from diversifying line-ups to CDJ advancements. The hotel pool heaves with sprightly Ibiza revellers, posters for David Guetta and Calvin Harris residencies loom on the aqua skyline, and a syncopated beat thrums from the soundcheck going on for tonight’s shows. It feels like the epicentre of classic club culture and archetypal hedonistic raving, so it’s slightly jarring, then, to be meeting an avant-pop juggernaut like SOPHIE in among the scrum, and we tell her such.

“That’s one of the reasons I was intrigued to come here,” SOPHIE, the Scottish-born, LA-based musician and producer says. After a few attempts to find a quiet spot, we perch on a patio set outside some ground floor hotel apartments, and talk over iced coffees that she insists on buying for us. “I love the format of big room DJ shows, high-quality soundsystems and production values — there’s an experience like no other in the European clubs that makes you stay well into the next day’s afternoon. It’s definitely appealing to me as I consider my own work,” she tells us.

SOPHIE’s comfort zone is defined by the uncomfortable. She’s most dynamic when faced with contrast and new experience, which plays out across her creative and career trajectory. “I do tend to make those opportunities for myself where possible,” she says, laughing softly. She recalls her first real ‘SOPHIE’ gig, with about five people present, where one came up and put their middle finger in her face: “The right person was there to hear me though, so it was alright.” Whether navigating today’s ‘beefa’ experience, or early in her career, when she had to deal with dance music’s stale disdain for her and experimental label PC Music’s forward-thinking, pop-pranging sounds, SOPHIE has refused to yield.

“I first caught a very tiny snippet of a SOPHIE soundcheck in 2011,” says Andrew Thomson, head honcho at Huntleys + Palmers. The Scottish label released the artist’s first remix and debut release, 2013’s taut, glittering electro-house number ‘NOTHING MORE TO SAY’, which would have come out earlier and the wider world would have met SOPHIE sooner if, according to Thomson, distribution hadn’t been as slow. “It was enough to pique my intrigue,” he adds of his first SOPHIE experience, “and I promptly approached her for the remix, which subsequently led to a now-infamous beach party at OFFSónar later that year, where a completely unknown SOPHIE absolutely smashed it with a live set of fully-formed hits. Back then I was impressed with her confidence, and it came as absolutely no surprise that I would see her perform on the huge stage at the real Sónar in only a matter of years. To see her in the studio with Rihanna was more of an affirmation than a surprise — a matter of when, rather than if. As thrilling as it has been to watch until now, I feel like the best is yet to come, which is even more exciting.”

Dropping her bracing, carbonated pop sounds in 2013, which culminated in the celebrated ‘PRODUCT’ compilation album in 2015, SOPHIE led a new wave that obliterated all the old guard held dear — disorientating, saccharine tracks like ‘BIPP’ and ‘Lemonade’, paired with the unbridled ‘Hard’, blurred the boundaries of electronic music and its ideals. “When she sent us ‘BIPP’, I smiled for about a month,” says Calum, who plays as Spencer and runs Scottish label Numbers. Over a few months, they went back and forth on micro-edits. “When an artist has such clear and exciting ideas, it’s a pleasure to help refine them.

The collaboration on these records was built on respect and trust, but was also about doing something different, ignoring the old moulds of ‘dance music’, and instead focusing on being interesting, new and exciting. It wasn’t trying to be pop, but it was a huge influence — you can hear it. “The marriage of sound design, songwriting and hooks is so refreshing to me across all of her productions,” Calum continues. “At first, I thought she used to sound like equal parts Hudson Mohawke, Pet Shop Boys and Autechre in a boiling pot, but now, I’m unsure if there’s anyone that sounds like SOPHIE. We’re proud to be part of the family, and I doubt there will be another artist on our roster that we will drop everything to set up a silicone ‘product’ factory in the Gorbals [a Glaswegian neighbourhood] for.”