Before She Was SOAK, She Went by the Name Max

Though SOAK never connected with her birth name [2], she did connect to the children's book Where the Wild Things Are, which is where she got her first nickname: Max. "When I was growing up I never really liked my name Bridie," she explained to The Line of Best Fit during an May 2019 interview. "Everyone thought it was short for Bridget ­— Bridget is such a granny name for me. I didn't know any cool Bridie's when I was growing up. I really liked Where The Wild Things Are, and I loved the main character, so I made everyone call me Max for two years of my life."

Eventually, Max became SOAK, and she hasn't looked back since. "I've always been trying to get away from the label of my own name and I didn't want to release music that way," she continued. "I was 13 [when I] came up with the whole SOAK thing. I wanted a new identity, because I was about to be so honest with my music and I wasn't in my real life. Doing it through the medium of SOAK felt safer."

She Suffered From Severe Dyslexia as a Child

Before winning the 2015 Irish Choice Music Prize Album of the Year and making the shortlist for the Mercury Prize, SOAK had to overcome severe dyslexia [3] as a child. "When I was really young, like five, I had severe dyslexia and they said I was never going to be able to write," she confessed to The Independent back in October 2015. "The specialists said I should go to special schools, but my parents wanted me to have the same chances as my two brothers." SOAK ended up attending an integrated school, where she worked her way up to the top set in English all on her own.

She Always Felt Free to Express Herself While Growing Up in Derry

While SOAK feels that "androgynous" is a label she feels comfortable assigning to herself, she never felt the need to define herself [4] growing up, as Derry provided a community in which she could always simply exist without explanation. "Where I'm from is a very accepting place," she explained to The Line of Best Fit. "Being gay in that environment — I've never suffered any backlash, and was supported so much by my parents and the local community. I was very lucky and privileged to have grown up there."

She grew up post-Troubles, but she still finds that people are surprised by the picture she paints of Derry. " . . . people expect me to be like, 'Bombs are going off all the time and I got shot like five times!'" she continued. "Obviously Derry had its history, but I grew up in the ceasefire [following] that era and my childhood was just lovely. I had all the freedom in the world."

She Feels Privileged to Be So Open About Her Sexuality

SOAK talks about her sexuality candidly and often in the hope of normalizing it, but also because she wants to remind the people around her that not everyone can [5] embrace their sexuality so openly. "When I was younger, I had a complicated relationship with talking about sexuality, probably because I didn't want to be defined by it — and I still don't want to be defined as a gay musician," she explained to them. "But I also think it's really important. I just talk about it normally, as I would in an everyday conversation."

However, despite having a large big LGBTQ+ community in Derry, gay marriage still isn't legalized in Northern Ireland. "I think I definitely talk a lot about gay life, though, because I have the ability to do that," she continued, "and I'm from a country that still doesn't have gay marriage. So when I can I like to make a point of just reminding people that not everyone in the world can marry, or it's more difficult for people. I guess I'm conscious of knowing that things are quite happy in my gay world, but not everyone's gay world. I'm making sure that I'm not too privileged about it."

She's Influenced by Tegan and Sara

When SOAK was 14, she discovered Tegan and Sara [6], and as well as inspiring her music, they helped her become more comfortable in her own skin. "Through associating with the school gays and feeling like I belonged for the first time, someone sent me a YouTube link to a Tegan and Sara song. (Typical, I know)," she jokingly told Under the Radar in May 2019. "I then went on to find their album The Con, it changed how I viewed music and showed me the whole spectrum of emotion that was achievable through self-expression. It remains one of my favourite albums ever."

Because she connected to their music on such a personal level, SOAK wasn't too happy about sharing her new favourite band [7] with her brother, who also admired Tegan and Sara. "My little brother is also gay," she told The Line of Best Fit, "and he was like, 'They're my band too,' and I'd be like, 'No they're not!' Every time I'd hear it in his room I'd be like, 'Turn it off!'"

Seeing The L Word for the 1st Time Was an Eye-Opening Experience for Her

Around the time SOAK was coming into her sexuality, she discovered the long-running Showtime series The L Word [8], and it was first time she'd ever seen lesbians on television. "I remember when I'd started to fall into 'the gay group' at school and was having my eyes opened wider daily with new discoveries," she told Under the Radar. "I was only becoming comfortable with my own sexuality and learning about the LGBT community when I was introduced to The L Word, a drama series about the complicated lives of LA lesbians. For me, at that moment in my life, just seeing gay people simply Blew. My. F*cking. Mind."

She Initially Wanted to Become a Drummer

Before she ever picked up a guitar and writing her own music, SOAK was actually drawn to the drums [9]. "I started playing guitar when I was like 13," she told them. when asked how she got her start. "Originally, I wanted to be a drummer, but my parents wouldn't buy drums because they were too loud. So I stole my little brother's electric guitar and he taught me how to play that R.E.M. song, 'Everybody Hurts.' I just ran with that. I started making my own music in my bedroom; it was a big eye opener for me as a teenager."

She's Critical of Her Work Because She Constantly Wants to Improve

Even with all the praise her debut album, Before We Forgot How to Dream, received, SOAK couldn't help but feel she had room to improve [10]. "I know when I've done something that I think is worthy," she explained to Evening Standard in May 2019. "But I also know when I've done something that has received niceness but hasn't deserved it. My first record — it's nice, it's cool, I'm not gonna say, 'Take these awards back!' But when it was released I did think, 'I could write better than this.'"

She Was Terrified Her 2nd Album Wouldn't Live Up to Her Debut

After experiencing such incredible success with her first album, SOAK felt burdened by the weight of expectation [11] while working on her second album, Grim Town. "When I stopped touring and started doing the new record, I was devastated by doubt and pressure," she told Vice during a January 2019 interview. "I found it really hard to work under the knowledge that people were expecting something. I think I spent those years of touring in a bubble and avoiding my personal life, so when I got home I ended up massively depressed."

Of course, she was eventually able to channel all that stress and pressure into her album. "I was in a pit of self-doubt in terms of how I worked creatively," she later added. "I didn't trust my own ideas. I'd make one note and then be like, 'No, actually I hate music!' I was feeling really negative, and the album was born out of how I felt at that time. I wanted to make my brain a location because it felt easier to process everything that was going on in that way."

She Doesn't Feel Any Pressure to Be a High-Femme Artist

More queer female pop stars are becoming mainstream every year, but largely, those artists tend to be high femme. Luckily, SOAK has never felt any pressure to assume a more feminine look [12]. " . . . when I was growing up, there weren't many butch gay people in music that I could look up to," she explained to them. "I never felt like I was represented. It's been a conscious thing for me going into this record, just to not hide any elements of myself. Like, if I don't want to wear makeup, I'm not gonna wear makeup. And I think it's important that if you're going to represent yourself and part of your community, then you have to try and do that as authentically as you can."