Having transcended the nightclubs, several radio-friendly dance music tracks came to soundtrack the summer of 2000. Sonia Clarke — AKA singer, producer and DJ Sonique — was among those dazzling success stories, gatecrashing the charts with It Feels So Good.
‘I’ve never been overly confident face to face,’ she tells M 25 years on. ‘I’m actually quite shy and awkward, but I do feel I can express myself through songwriting. That’s where I can really be myself.’
Sonique became one of 2000’s breakout songwriters, with It Feels So Good finishing as the UK’s third-best selling single of the year (two of her other tracks, Sky and a cover of I Put A Spell On You, also breached the top 10). ‘Even now, when I pinch myself, my success surprises me,’ she adds. ‘I remember it was when Stevie Wonder wanted to meet me that I realised everything was getting serious. I was at the MTV Awards having already met U2, and we got on really well. People often think you’ve come from somewhere easy [in order to have success], but I was the same person who had been lining up at the dole office a few months ago.’
Initially inspired by her love for the futuristic disco of Donna Summer, the start of Sonique’s creative journey in the early ‘80s was shaped more by circumstance than deliberate design. Fari, a reggae band that Sonique got involved with at her local youth centre in London, came to her with a proposal.
‘I asked what they wanted me to sing,’ she remembers. ‘But they didn’t have any of their own songs — they thought I was a writer. That’s how songwriting started for me, as I was on the spot and had to come up with something. I went home and started to write songs about my feelings. I had plenty to draw on.’
Fari may have eventually faltered, but the endeavour sparked Sonique’s own musical ambition. Her single Let Me Hold You, released via the Cool Tempo label in 1985 when she was still a teenager, broke into the charts and led to further collaborations with other songwriters and producers. It was a meeting with S’Express’ Mark Moore, though, that catapulted her career even further.
‘Let Me Hold You did well, but I was really young and wasn’t rushing to be successful,’ she tells M. ‘I actually wanted to learn more, write and collaborate. Then someone told me that S'Express were looking for a singer and asked me if I wanted to give it a go.’
'I do feel like I can express myself through songwriting. That’s where I can really be myself.’
Sonique’s time with the group showcased her talents, including memorable moments on tracks such as Nothing To Lose and Find 'em, Fool 'em, Forget 'em from the band’s Intercourse album.
‘Mark Moore is brilliant: he’s a star. I felt like this little girl who was coming on the scene to learn from him,’ she explains. ‘He’s such a clever, incredible artist, and working with him helped me find out who I was as a songwriter.’
Mark was also the person who bought Sonique her first turntables and mixer, which opened up further opportunities for the latter. After leaving S'Express to go it alone, Sonique dedicated herself to learning how to mix and master the art of DJing. With the dance music scene exploding, she became a regular at many of the UK’s most infamous nocturnal spaces, including Cream, God’s Kitchen, Sundissential and the Cross in London.
‘The whole dance scene took off around me,’ she says now. ‘Although I’d taken a step back from songwriting, I was still learning how songs worked, what people and dancefloors move to, and the way tracks flow together. It informed my music, that knowledge of how to take the dancefloor on a journey.’
It wasn’t until 1998 that Sonique started releasing her own music again, initially with a cover version of I Put A Spell On You. Designed for the clubs, the cover came about through a friend’s ambition to launch their own label. ‘That’s when things started to get crazy,’ she adds. ‘We released I Put A Spell On You and it went into the top 40. I was still an underground artist, so to have a record do so well felt like getting a number one.’
Under pressure to release a follow-up single, Sonique delved into old recordings. It Feels So Good, an unreleased track originally written as a drum’n’bass tune with Linus Burdick some years before, was among them.
‘I had this bag full of cassettes — I used to record on them as I didn’t have enough money for a proper machine,’ she remembers about rediscovering the song. ‘So we went into the studio and started working on a new version of [It Feels So Good]. The song itself is about someone I met who was successful in the music business. We were seeing each other, but he was concerned that I only wanted him for his status — which wasn’t true. I wrote this song to tell him that I loved him, that I wanted him for who he was rather than his job or the way he walked and talked.’
On its initial release in November 1998 via Serious, It Feels So Good climbed to a respectable number 24 on the UK chart. With Sonique DJing in the US by this point, though, momentum started building as the track began to pick up traction in the clubs and beyond, eventually leading to a bigger deal with Universal. Following its re-release in May 2000, It Feels So Good claimed the top spot in the UK and charted inside the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
‘At the time, I was so busy that it was hard to comprehend what it meant,’ she laughs now. ‘You’re running around everywhere not taking anything in, and you can't really celebrate as you’re so preoccupied. It’s not easy to deal with — and there’s no manual to teach you — but it’s life and you have to learn.’
The year 2000 also saw the release of Hear My Cry, Sonique’s debut album. Featuring a mix of old songs and new offerings like Sky and Cold and Lonely, Sonique remembers being ‘really pushed for time’ when assembling the record.
‘I was taking inspiration from anywhere for my music,’ she continues. ‘When it comes to songwriting, I never felt you had to go to writing school. You just need to interrogate your own thoughts and keep it as simple as possible.’
'When it comes to songwriting, you just need to interrogate your own thoughts.'
It Feels So Good was named International Hit of the Year at The Ivors in 2001, following swiftly on from Sonique prevailing in the Best British Female category at that year’s BRIT Awards. But even with such lofty plaudits to her name, Sonique believes that retaining her masters and music publishing rights are two of her most important achievements.
‘I only knew how important it was as I’d already been involved in two previous bad deals,’ she recalls. ‘Having those experiences taught me a lot about the business and what not to do.’
That control has allowed Sonique to operate independently, build her own studio and write her own music without having to rely on a label. It's no surprise, then, that this piece of advice is something she regularly shares with emerging songwriters: ‘Your songs are your babies, and you shouldn’t just give them away to someone who will exploit them to the point that you’re sick and tired of them. It’s important to have control.’
With Hear My Cry celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Sonique will perform the record with a live band on a UK tour throughout October and early November. It Feels So Good continues to be its centrepiece, with the track even enjoying a new lease of life last year thanks to a reworked version with Matt Sassari and HUGEL.
‘It always comes back to the music,’ Sonique reflects. ‘When I started my career, I wasn’t thinking about 25-year anniversaries. It’s almost as if the music has kept me going, spurring me on. It’s a great relationship: the music is constantly telling me to speak for it.’
