Sofia Wolfson

Stumbling down the narrow hallway of her family’s Los Angeles home, Sofia Wolfson took her first steps to her dad strumming “Norwegian Wood” on his Taylor Guitar. She was surrounded by music from the beginning: the rooms and hallways always lined with a variety of instruments from guitars to dulcimers, basses to shakers. Wolfson picked up the guitar at age 6, began writing her own songs by age 9, and played her first show when she was thirteen, a pimply high school freshman singing about homework woes, boy troubles and the overwhelming feeling of growing up. During her years at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, though a theater major, she continued writing and performing music, taking lessons learned from her department about performance and delivery.

Raised on a crowded West Hollywood intersection, Los Angeles has always been a central character in Wolfson’s music, whether she draws her inspiration from her morning hike up to the Observatory with her dog Gulliver, or from conversations she overhears while walking through her neighborhood. Her musical influences range from Joni Mitchell to Blake Mills, The Band to Fiona Apple, music she was introduced to by her dad on long car rides north to visit family.

When Wolfson was 15, after a few years of monthly shows at her local spot Genghis Cohen, she began recording her first full-length album, Hunker Down, which was released in 2015. After taking some time to apply to college as an English major, she met up with producer Marshall Vore the summer after she graduated high school to record Side Effects, a 3-song release, before moving to Massachusetts for school.

The good feeling of the Side Effects sessions led her to record her second EP Adulting between school semesters with Vore, released in March of 2019. These 6-songs sprung from her first year of college, touching on topics of isolation, independence and the growing pains of adulthood. The single “Nothing’s Real” is a song about disassociation. About feeling out of place, unable to relate to your surroundings or fit into a community. About finding yourself stuck in the same patterns. About fearing you can’t keep up. Like the world is changing so fast around you and even though you try, you can't adapt. The EP overall paints Wolfson’s first year on the East Coast through laid back drums and distorted guitar tones, sounds she continues to explore live.