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CJ Sooy and the Colonial Mullica River Names Still Making Music
- claire
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
From Acclaimed Session Guitarist to a Psychedelic Indie Folk Spellbinder: CJ SOOY Steps into His Own Light with His Debut Solo EP, ‘Is Anything Real’
New Jersey-born, ventnor-based artist CJ Sooy has spent a decade sharpening his subversive sonic signature from behind the fretboard and songs of others, and is fully stepping into his own light with his debut EP, Is Anything Real.
After penning, recording and producing three studio albums, playing across countless projects, working alongside Jon Gilbert (Mt. Joy, Jack White, The Lumineers) as session guitarist, becoming a session guitarist at Paramount Studios and performing at North 2 Shore Music Festival in Atlantic City, his pedigree has become impossible to ignore.
His alchemical ability to liquify experience and emotion into infectious aural feeling, has armed the singer-songwriter with a swoon-worthy existentially sweet sonic sensibility to go with the retro, sun-kissed glow to his synthesis of melodic 90s indie and rock.
His voice converges the eccentricity of Zappa, the consolation of Jack Johnson and the emotional range of Elliott Smith, twined with a sweetly semi-psychedelic mesmerism that nepotism can’t buy.
After his seminal single Stormy, submitted to the 2026 NPR Tiny Desk Contest, exhibited how his intuitive songwriting works in synergy with his soulfully mellifluous command over fretboard and keys, his debut EP is destined to swathe the alt-indie rock scene in seriously scintillating cinematic weather.
A&R Factory Said:
“CJ Sooy summons the kind of hazy psychedelic summer hues that instantly colour your world in a kaleidoscope of soul. Is Anything Real, in all of its existentially dissociative glory, puts emotive songwriting right back where it should be in the music industry – in the heart of it.”
About the artist
CJ Sooy is a New Jersey-born, Philadelphia-based recording artist, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist who started writing and recording his original music at age 16 in 2014.
After playing in bands throughout his early twenties, Sooy began shifting towards releasing music under his own name, bringing years of studio work, instrumental fluency and hard-won songwriting chops into sharper focus.
Influenced by 90s alt-rock, Elliott Smith, Goo Goo Dolls, Fiona Apple, Foo Fighters and David Lynch films, Sooy commands exclusive control over his records, playing almost every instrument while pairing sincerity with a refusal to shy away from unconventionality.
stay in the know with the launch of late summer: https://www.cjsooy.com/
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