When Luvcat holds the vinyl copy of her debut album Vicious Delicious for the first time, she can hardly believe it’s real. “It was the first day of holding my vinyl today,” she says, still sounding a little dazed. “It was a crazy experience.” With only a week to go before release, she admits to feeling “a little bit ill thinking about it,” the mix of excitement and nerves that comes from years of work finally crystallising into something tangible.
Luvcat is the alter ego of Liverpool-born artist Sophie Morgan, who’s undergone a striking transformation from her folk roots into a gothic pop provocateur. Through this persona, Morgan has built a world that’s theatrical, darkly romantic and unapologetically feminine — a universe that comes vividly to life on Vicious Delicious.
That tangible connection has been the theme of her recent record store tour — the kind of intimate meet-and-greet run through HMV and Rough Trade that she’s long dreamed of. “It really feels real when you’re sitting behind a desk, meeting fans and signing,” she says. “Often, things can feel so separate from your audience. It’s nice to unite it all.”
The tour caps off a whirlwind year that’s taken her across 18 countries and 39 border crossings. “It feels like it’s been nine years in one,” she laughs. “We recently played in Istanbul — I never expected to be playing in Turkey, even before I had an album out. That was truly surreal.”
That sense of disorientation runs through Vicious Delicious, an album that swings between strength and vulnerability, light and shadow. “I like that you saw it as empowering,” she says when asked about its overarching mood. “That’s how I feel — a strong and sexy woman. There are definitely moments of sadness and melancholy and spookiness in there, but the overarching thing is being empowered by my femininity.”
The title, she explains, embodies that duality. “It’s like a pendulum swinging between two sides of a coin — innocence and eroticism, love and addiction. That’s why I called it Vicious Delicious. Those are the two words that sum it all up.”
Death, too, stalks the record — in tracks like “Matador”, “He’s My Man” and “Dinner @ Brasserie Zédel”. “Death is my biggest fear,” she admits. “It’s strange to make light of it, but in a way it’s poetic to think of love in the realms of death and immortality. I’ve always been drawn to that underworld — probably because I grew up in love with artists like Nick Cave and Robert Smith, and even My Chemical Romance, who made a whole album about a patient dying of cancer and turned it into a theatrical record.”
If Vicious Delicious is a map of moods, its cities of origin — Liverpool, London and Paris — are the coordinates. “Liverpool is where it all began — it’s my home, where I was figuring it out,” she says. “Then I ran away to London. My dad was a punk, and I ended up living in this punk/post-punk area with a thriving scene. I was dating a punk at the time, going to gigs every single night, then playing in those pubs myself.”
Paris, on the other hand, represents escape. “Paris is the dream,” she smiles. “I’m always dreaming of being whisked away there — the Moulin Rouge, the decadence, the swirling Can-Can. It’s that part of the album — the romance. I think the album is romance and grit.”
That fusion of the romantic and the raw is captured vividly through her collaboration with producer Oli Barton-Wood. Their partnership began in chaos — a viral single she needed remixed quickly, with grouped backing vocals she couldn’t separate. “I didn’t know him,” she recalls. “I rang Oli one evening and said, ‘I’m desperate, I don’t have much time — it’s a nightmare.’ And he just said, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’”
Their chemistry clicked instantly. “For the next song, we recorded in this old mill in Manchester, with all the boys standing in a circle. Oli made us do it live — maybe thirteen times — until we found the magic take. That’s what the record’s built around — those imperfect, baggy live moments. Oli became a close friend. He made people leave the room so I’d tell him all the details behind the songs. I felt very safe and respected.”
Luvcat’s visual world is just as important as the music itself. Each video has been a collaboration with her longtime friend and co-director Ollie Bradley-Baker. “He’s been making my videos since I was a teenager on a shoestring budget,” she says. “I’d call him up with a weird and whacky idea, and he’d say, ‘Yeah, I think we can do this.’ We still do everything with a tiny crew, and I think that gives the videos their charm.”
Social media has also played a major role in her ascent. “When I first started on TikTok, I’d just leak a lot of songs,” she says. “It helped me not slip into being a ‘TikTok artist’. It built a grassroots fanbase who cared about the stories and the b-sides. It’s a great way to test things — often it’s unexpected. ‘He’s My Man’ was never supposed to be a single, but it went viral, and I got to have my way of putting it out.”
Lyrically, Vicious Delicious teems with vivid imagery, from gothic romance to tender sadness. One of its standout tracks, “Laurie”, contains the line, “From the comfort of a coffin, do I really have to die to see if you cry?” — a morbid reflection on secret love. “It’s a sincere, sad moment on the album,” she says, “but it’s not just all feisty, fiery, sexy-lady vibes.”
Her favourite moment on the record is “Emma Dilemma”, a track she can’t wait to finally perform. “It’s my favourite song I’ve written, I think,” she says. “It has this unhinged waltz that falls apart on the hinges at the end. It’s going to be so much fun to play with the boys — it spirals into this mania on stage. I’ve been holding it back so the fans have a little surprise on the album.”
Before the Luvcat persona emerged, Morgan spent years grinding on the folk singer-songwriter circuit. “I never lost hope, but I did start thinking, ‘Jesus, am I ever going to make a living from this?’” she admits. “I just kept my head down, kept grafting, still in love with music no matter who heard it. I loved being in a room with my mates and doing it — it was never about fame, just making a living. I’m so glad I had that struggle, because I appreciate everything now. I’d maybe accepted that I was going to have to be a florist or do something else.”
Reconnecting with her darker instincts was the turning point. “I think I just needed to return to my true spirit,” she says. “I was always more theatrical and gothic, and I’d diluted that over the years because I was enjoying listening to so much Nick Drake. Then one day I woke up and said, ‘You’re an emo kid — what are you doing? Put down your acoustic guitar.’”
That rediscovery has led to surreal full-circle moments — like shooting the video for “He’s My Man” with the legendary Dr John Cooper Clarke. “It was such an honour,” she says. “He’s otherworldly — so cool, so clever. He kept us all entertained in the cold with his stories.”
Back home, she still finds inspiration in Liverpool’s vibrant underbelly. “Visitors should go to the Jacaranda Basement for their Rock ’n’ Roll Circus nights,” she insists. “It’s grimy, loud, full of Rolling Stones tunes. Then The Kazimier Garden — I’ve sung about those places because I find them inspiring. And of course, go down to the Albert Dock. We even have a beach! I wouldn’t advise swimming, but it’s nice for a walk.”
We hope that Australian fans will not have too long to wait. “We’re hoping it’s not too far away,” she says. “Everyone in the team wants to — it’s just about when it’s financially viable. I’d love it, even though I’m terrified of flying. We once did eight flights in a week and I swore, ‘Please never make me do that again.’ I thought I’d be clever and take the train from England to Montreux — it took two and a half days, sitting on the floor next to a bin. I thought it would be like the Orient Express!”
She laughs — a mix of exhaustion and disbelief at how far things have come. For an artist once busking to stay afloat, holding her debut vinyl in her hands feels like the most delicious victory of all.
Vicious Delicious from Luvcat is out now – grab a copy HERE. Vinyl and other merch bundles HERE.
Luvcat is about to kick off her huge run of UK, EU and US tour dates in celebration of the album – full tour dates HERE
Header image credit: artist supplied
