As the first month of the new year comes to an end, it’s easy to feel like we’ve all fallen victim to time again. It’s a slightly nauseating feeling that maybe we’ve been sitting still for too long and then the insecurity creeps in. Will I waste another day? Another week? Another month? Fail to do something that should’ve been done last year? The faults we faced in 2018 don’t disappear in 2019, so as humans we do what we can; we try to catch up, move on, and take advantage of things we may have slept on. Musician, Sofia Wolfson is no stranger to this time crisis sentiment.
The 19-year-old is Los Angeles native who’s been playing gigs since she was just 13-years-old (and I can hardly stand public speaking at the age of 22). With a hunger for creating music and an obvious talent for it, Wolfson’s ready to get the ball rolling. She was raised on 60s folk and rock, resulting in a knack for fusing guitar-forward, alternative rock with the tenderness found in folk songwriting. With an EP and a few stray singles under her belt, Wolfson’s already on her way to perfecting the sound that best represents her.
To kick off the second month of the fast-moving new year, she’s got a new release from a forthcoming, untitled EP. “Nothing’s Real,” clocking in at just under three minutes, is a single that laments over the insecurity of productivity and how there are never enough hours in the day. While attending college in Boston, Wolfson wrote the short, to-the-point tune during her “first flu winter week.” The lyrics came to her during a period of time where she felt “unproductive and wasn’t able to catch up,” and also touch on the mundanities of life as she sings, “going through the motions and spinning like a wheel.” Though it sounds bleak, sometimes it’s easier to “go through the motions” and keep your head above water rather than freaking the hell out about what you’re not doing.
“Nothing’s Real” keeps a steady tempo throughout, lines like, “really been extra hard on myself lately,” hit home as the tune chugs along trying to fill in the blanks where life gives us too many questions and not enough answers. The song never reaches a climax and that speaks perfectly to the I’m-trying-to-figure-my-shit-out tone. Things aren’t exactly “figured out” by the end of “Nothing’s Real,” but Wolfson sounds ever so slightly more self-realized.
With the help of producer Marshall Vore, who you may recognize from working with her contemporaries—most notably fellow LA-native Phoebe Bridgers—the song is a great sampler of what the budding artist is capable of. I liken the song to the last cigarette in the pack because though you wish you had more, it was still absolutely satisfying. I’m excited to see what Wolfson has in store for the future as she’s quickly falling right into the ranks of the all of the badass ladies taking over alternative rock.
For more from Sofia Wolfson, follow her on Instagram.