Sophie Hunger

by Jason Birchmeier Sketches on Sea Armed with an acoustic guitar and an indie folk sensibility, Sophie Hunger is a Swiss singer/songwriter from Zurich whose independently released studio album debut, Monday's Ghost (2008), was a critically acclaimed chart-topping success in her homeland. Born Emilie Jeanne-Sophie Welti Hunger on March 31, 1983, in Berne, Switzerland, she spent parts of her youth abroad, living in England and Germany. She began her recording career as a member of the band Fisher, where she billed herself as Emilie Welti. The band released one album, Fisher (2005), before she embarked on a solo career as a singer/songwriter, changing her performance name to Sophie Hunger. Her full-length solo album debut, Sketches on Sea (2006), was a home-recorded effort that steadily became an underground sensation. It helped, of course, that Hunger was an engaging live performer. Her renown as a live performer led to an appearance at the 2008 Montreux Jazz Festival, among other high-profile appearances. The positive word of mouth and glowing press coverage for Hunger was such that her studio album debut, Monday's Ghost, debuted at number one on the Swiss albums chart upon its release in October 2008 on the independent label Two Gentlemen. The album, sung in English as well as German, was licensed for international release by Universal Music in 2009, and Hunger toured Europe in support of the album's major-label re-release.