Try to Reach Me

Sofie Fatouretchi is a California-born DJ and songwriter who relocated to Vienna in 2017 and wrote a handful of songs that became her debut solo album, Cult Survivor. She didn't intend to write an album but being away from her musical community in LA gave her the time and space to write down the songs that were suddenly flooding her brain. One of them was "Try To Reach Me," a wistful piece of European pop. When asked about the song's meaning, Sofie told the Songfacts Podcast in 2021, "I think any art that I make - whether it's painting or music or writing lyrics - it's just a way of me processing existence. It's something we all have to deal with, and inevitably that will make its way into my art and output. That song has a lot to do with perception, and other's perception of one's self and one's own perception of one's self."

As a teen, Sofie studied classical violin at the Vienna Conservatory and performed at a number of opera houses and concert halls. Although she decided against classical music as a career, she still performs in orchestras. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she played with the Wiener Akademische Philharmonie.

Sofie loves to sing, but it took her a while to get comfortable with her voice. She told the Songfacts Podcast that her violin training actually helped her with vocal training. She explained: "After this first album I started taking vocal lessons, and I told her, 'Listen, I am not a singer, I have no inherent knowledge of anything.' And she was like, 'Well, you kind of do. You know how to breathe because you've played an instrument. If you play a violin, you take breaths at pretty much the same musical note cues that you would when you're singing. So you kind of think you're totally starting from scratch, but that would be unfair to say.' But obviously I realize I don't have an American Idol voice."