FACES TO WATCH SOPHIE B. HAWKINS

She grew up in Manhattan listening to records by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Her first paid gig, at age 14, was as a percussionist with Nigerian master drummer Babatunde Olatunji. She writes her music using an African drum called a djeme, and covers Bob Dylan's ''I Want You'' on her debut album, a potent, purposely eclectic mixture of pop, rock, and dance music called Tongues and Tails, due in March from Columbia. Considering the quality of such tracks as ''Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover,'' the album's first single, why'd Sophie B. Hawkins even bother with Dylan? ''That was my favorite song growing up,'' says the singer-songwriter, who once fronted rock bands called Sophie's Private Waves and the Pinkmen. ''When I was really young, I asked my father if there were anything he wished he'd done, and he said no. And I said, 'I wish I had written ''I Want You.''' Because I feel I could have written that.'' As djeme players go, though, Sophie pens pretty nifty pop songs of her own. ''This is the music that I wrote,'' she says of her album, ''so no matter what I've done before as a musician backing other people, this is the music that comes from my soul completely.''

You Might Also Like

• News Summary FBI warns Hollywood studios of terrorist threat (Dec 13, 2002) | Gary Susman