Sophia Anne Caruso Polyester interview 2026 — It’s an unseasonably warm Thursday morning in October when Sophia Anne Caruso calls in from her loft studio in NYC. It’s the first morning in a month the multihyphenate has had to herself between rehearsals for her new off-Broadway show, *Memoirs of An Amorous Gentleman*. Based on Moyoco Anno’s manga of the same name, the show opens exactly a week after this conversation. “I go into rehearsal around ten every day. I'm usually the first actor to get to the theatre and the last person to leave, so I get home around midnight,” Caruso says from the comfort of her home, the mental math showing on her face.

Despite the gruelling hours, she seems delighted to be playing Parisian courtesan Colette, the show’s protagonist, whom she describes as “a con version of Sally Bowles.” She took on the role because her longtime friend, famed singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik, asked her to. “It started as a favour, and then I fell in love with the character and turned it into a vocal playground for myself.”

Unfortunately, between the time the show was written and previews started, Sheik passed away, making Memoirs of An Amorous Gentleman his swan song. “People come to see the show to hear his final works, and to be the person voicing them is an honour,” Caruso says. “It's a gift to lend my voice to singing his songs. It’s emotional. Some songs are challenging to sing because they're very sad; I know they were personal to him as well. It's hard, but ultimately, I'm just grateful to do it.”

Sheik’s passing also coincided with the release of Caruso’s debut album, On Ecstatic, a project she had been working on since March, leaving her like a funambulist, toeing the line between crescendoing excitement and “overwhelming grief and pain.”

On the day the album came out, she took to Instagram to announce that the album’s eighth track, “another life,” which she deems her best, would honour Sheik. “It only felt right to dedicate a song to him because of the marquee he made for me as a songwriter and as a friend,” she explains. “He always championed me. He was a role model for anyone who does theatre and doesn't really fit inside the standards or boxes set up. I'm really sad he didn't get a chance to celebrate the album, but the song's sentiment felt fitting for the circumstances. Because maybe in another life, or maybe from somewhere else, he can experience this song.”

However, On Ecstatic isn't a record made for sorrow. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: a joyous, raucous celebration of love with a strong hyperpop core. Nowhere is this more palpable than in “Higher State,” the project’s first single, which Caruso penned to sing with her partner, Sky Lakota-Lynch, whom many will recognise from The Outsiders.

Growing up, Caruso says she always dreamt of collaborating creatively with a significant other, so when the chance to include Lakota-Lynch arose, she took it. She knew people would be intrigued, and since she hadn't released original music in a while (her last single, “Thing Like That,” came out in 2022), she leaned into the fan service. “I wanted to reengage my fans, and I knew he and I shared a fan base, so I wanted to give people a little of what they wanted.”

The opportunity was also meant to give Lakota-Lynch a taste of Caruso’s world. “He's so talented, but he had never released his own music. I wanted him to see his potential as a recording artist. Just because he's also an actor doesn't mean that his voice can only exist for characters.”

The rest of the album moves around hedonism, radical acceptance, permanence and longing. Like her previous releases, Caruso released the project fully independently, “sort of stubbornly,” as she puts it. She knows the perks a label can offer, and though they might seem tantalising to many, she’s unwilling to let any force steer her creative vision. “I always say I'm grateful for just knowing that I'm not a psyop,” she says, a faint smile escaping her. “I know my fan base really likes listening to what I make, and I know none of it is artificial, which makes me feel really good.”

“I always say I'm grateful for just knowing that I'm not a psyop. I know my fan base really likes listening to what I make, and I know none of it is artificial.”

Charts and numbers are the preferred weapons of today’s fandom wars. Caruso is proud to say she is not interested in “the fame element of pop stardom or pop music in general.” In fact, one of her only qualms about On Ecstatic was that it fell under the hyperpop category. “I think the punk inside of me just thinks pop is for popularity, and I'm very anti that. I’m not making music to take part in a popularity contest,” she says. “I make whatever I want to make. And then whatever genre or category it falls into, that’s what it falls into.”

Looking at her sonic references—Arca, Sophie, Björk—it's easy to see why the dissonance worried her. But, ultimately, Caruso wants people to dance, forget their woes even if it’s just for 32 minutes, and tune out the noises of the world, much like she appears to do on the album cover.

“I'm genuinely interested in expressing myself and capturing an emotion or a feeling more than I am in showing off,” she explains. “On On Ecstatic, I don't completely utilise my voice, but I use it to the degree needed to express the feelings that I was getting at, or what served the songs. I could go and riff on all those songs, but it wouldn't sound good. That's not what it called for.”

“I'm genuinely interested in expressing myself and capturing an emotion or a feeling more than I am in showing off.”

Knowing when to let loose and when to restrain herself speaks to Caruso’s poise as an artist. Part of that disposition is the belief that there’ll always be room for more. That’s why her Broadway credits sit alongside projects like Netflix’s One Piece on her résumé. That’s why she has a dedicated zone in her loft just for painting, one of her creations proudly hanging in the background of our call. And that’s why she’s also now filling her time writing songs for other artists. She refuses to put herself in a box.

“I like exploring,” Caruso proclaims. “That's how I live my life. I'm constantly curious about things and how to express them in the different mediums I can use. I feel that not having curiosity is death for the artist. If you're not a curious person who wants to learn and experiment with things, then what are you doing?”

Sophia Anne Caruso on Broadway, Staying Independent, and Her Ecstatic New Album

“I always say I'm grateful for just knowing that I'm not a psyop. I know my fan base really likes listening to what I make, and I know none of it is artificial.”

“I'm genuinely interested in expressing myself and capturing an emotion or a feeling more than I am in showing off.”

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