New year. New noise. Hype is back on the hunt, digging through the chaos, the chatter and the late-night tip-offs to find the acts who aren’t just next up, but about to detonate.

Dork’s Hype List is our annual spotlight on the artists who’ve started to really stand out - not because they’re destined for instant superstardom, but because there’s something in what they’re doing that feels fresh, deliberate and worth keeping close tabs on.

It isn’t about calling winners or demanding overnight breakthroughs. Consider it a guide to the acts shaping the edges of what’s next: the ones we’re excited about, curious about, and confident enough to back as they take their next steps.

The Sophs’ singer Ethan Ramon has a pretty simple vision for his band. “The Sophs are capable musicians who really like each other and really like getting drunk and talking to people while we’re drunk and meeting new people,” he says in a languid manner that makes it hard to tell when he’s joking. “We consider the band a vessel to do that.”

It’s a vessel that has certainly been making waves in 2025, as the six-piece from LA have grown from a knockabout side-hustle into one of the buzziest new bands around. Newly signed to legendary indie label Rough Trade, they’re ready to show the world the idiosyncratic character and stylistic breadth that sets them apart.

The band formed quickly once they realised they had something special on their hands. “I knew Seth, Austin and Sam when I was in high school in Phoenix, Arizona,” Ethan explains. “I met the other two, Devon and Cole, when I moved out to LA in 2023. We all became friends. I’d moved out with some other Phoenix people under the pretences of different musical acts. We were all pursuing different things, but The Sophs was always this secret back-burner project going on. We amassed more people into the creative process until we had the six of us, and the quality of the music became too good to just be this secondary thing. Our other musical acts disappeared, and like kismet, that was the same week I sent the email to Rough Trade. It all fell into place within one fell swoop.”

It’s a classic origin story for a band suddenly propelled forward, and Rough Trade head Geoff Travis, a legendary figure in UK indie, fell hard for them. “Before signing, I was passively aware,” says Ethan of his knowledge of his new label, home to The Smiths, The Strokes and more. “I knew of the artists who inspired me and shaped eras in my life. Being currently on Rough Trade is an honour of the highest degree. It’s a musical honour getting to work with people who have so much creative acumen and experience. It makes you feel like you’re at the forefront, like you’ve been recommended by one of the most important tastemakers in the music business. It validates what I’ve been thinking and feeling about the music I’ve made for the past X amount of years.”

What Ethan has been thinking and feeling is simple: he knows he’s good at writing songs, and he knows people need to hear his band. “It’s more disrespectful to feign reluctance and indifference and humility in the face of all this,” he says. “At the end of the day, somebody who is actively chasing the role of full-time musician and artist, especially the singer in a band, you’re not a humble person by nature. It’s better to spare everybody the song and dance and just own it.”

For The Sophs, Rough Trade feels like the obvious next step. “Honestly, I feel like if anything, Rough Trade is the signifying stamp that shows our music is to be taken seriously.”

The band have only released four songs in 2025, but their range and dexterity already feel like their calling card. They’re not afraid to be a little pretentious or to show off the depth of their ambition. Ethan downplays their sound as “just rock music” and then immediately adds that “it fringes on Brechtian or vaudevillian at times.” He shrugs. “People don’t understand the whole picture yet. We have the ability to span so many genres of music that we haven’t fully shown the world on the four songs we have out yet.”

In the songs yet to be released, some of Ethan’s lyrical fascinations come to life. “Big cities interest me a lot,” he says. “Los Angeles interests me a lot as a spectator and a transplant surrounded by other transplants. The cultures that each community and enclave develop through time. Nobody really thinks inside their big city that there are all these other big cities in the world. We’re trapped in this thought bubble and echo chamber, and that affects how people, especially creatives, act and behave.”

A highlight of their year was the release of their single ‘I’m Your Fiend’, a feverish rush of kinetic energy. “That was a song we did just to see if we could,” Ethan says nonchalantly. “It was a sonic experiment, the fuzzed-out tones of some SoCal bands circa 2010. I’d been listening to things like FIDLAR. We just wanted to see if we could do that. It was before our body of work had really taken shape. The song doesn’t mean anything to me, but it’s a show of musical prowess, energy and strength. I think it’s fun. Thinking a song is fun is more than enough reason to release it.”

Despite Ethan’s outward confidence, he admits there’s fear woven into the band’s ascent. “Oh, I’m terrified by the whole thing,” he says, the vulnerability startling next to his self-belief. “Fear is good because it keeps you in line. I have a fear that shoots down to my very core and plants its roots in my chest, and that’s good because no matter what situation I’m in or how I’m feeling, that fear will always keep my head on straight. It’s a fear of being perceived parasocially, especially in this day and age. It’s not an easy thing. The most you can do is be honest and beat people to the punch so they don’t feel the need to punch you.”

For a singer as charismatic and complicated as Ethan, it feels like a telling insight.

Heading into the new year, things are well mapped out. 2026 is going to be huge. “We’re going to be touring for nine months,” Ethan says excitedly. “We’re going to be living on the road. Expect a lot more opinions, a lot you may like and a lot you may not. A lot more songs, a whole body of work that is unapologetic and showcases our versatility and singularity within this musical landscape. Expect a lot more of us.” ■

Taken from the December 2025 / January 2026 issue of Dork, out now.