Australian pop artist Sophie Koh has today unveiled a stunning and empowering video for her single ‘Tiger Not The Hare’, taken from her fourth album Book of Songs.
Set inside a dark boxing gym, the video (directed by Tom Chapman and Cesar Rodrigues) stars talented dancer and choreographer Lilian Steiner, also Koh’s cousin, and plays out the story of two figure of the Chinese horoscope, the Tiger and the Hare.
According to Koh, the song focusses on female empowerment, “about not apologising for letting your inner-tiger surface for all to see”.
Koh is also a classically trained pianist and so, with Book of Songs, she marries her classical training with her pop fascination, taking in influences far and wide, from Chinese poetry to Western classical music.
“Musically, ‘Tiger Not the Har’ was inspired by one of my favourite classical composer, Bela Bartok,” Koh tells Music Feeds. “He wrote in a quirky but accessible rhythm, true to his Hungarian folk roots. My challenge was to see how I can integrate that into a modern pop song.”
“This is the first ever music video that I’m not in,” she adds. “I had always imagined someone dancing to this song, like my previous clip ‘Lo-Fi’. I was post-baby so it couldn’t be me! I kept it in the family, with my talented cousin, dancer/choreographer, Lilian Steiner standing in. Coincidently, her mum is Chinese and father Hungarian so it just all came together.”
