Ears Wide Open: Skofee

Kevin Bronson on July 25th, 2022

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Skofee is the nom de tune of pop singer-songwriter Anna Marie Scholfield, who was reared in Kansas, schooled in Colorado and at USC and made an auspicious debut with her aptly named EP, “Polished,” in 2020.

“The EP title is sort of ironic,” she acknowledged at the time about the EP, made with producers Jamison Bakin (aka Jameson) and Devan Walsh, “because the songs have been polished and produced but the lyrical content shows a lot of dysfunction. It’s also about learning to love your shortcomings and go easy on yourself as you make mistakes and discover the ugly sides of yourself.”

Possessing with one of those voices with which you share secrets and doubts, Skofee’s new release is a tag-team affair with Dutch singer-songwriter-producer and recent L.A. transplant Cimo Fränkel. “Where Do You Hide Your Love” originated with Fränkel a couple of years ago, but was re-imagined as a duet. “When I heard Cimo’s original song, I was immediately struck by not only his incredible voice, but the lyrics,” she says. “When I write sadder lyrics, I love tempering them with a ‘happier’-sounding track. That’s one of the things I love most about writing music – combining complicated lyrics with production that makes you want to dance. I felt the original ‘Where Do You Hide Your Love’ had that perfect balance. When I tried playing through it myself, however, the song came out as more of a ballad, and I started to hear the background vocals as lush and layered and haunting. For a potential duet with both of our vocals, this felt like the best way to sonically reflect Cimo’s original lyrics.”

The new song is the follow-up to last year’s “QVC,” which captures one of those nighttime moments right down to the “Mmm.”

||| Stream: “Where Do You Hide Your Love”