Sofia Jarrard: The Fleeting Nature of Life and Lyrics

When I first called Sofia to schedule the photoshoot, the first thing I noticed was how open she was about sharing her inner world and where her music comes from. We hit it off immediately and through our conversation on the direction we wanted to go with the photography, I found out that she makes collages. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I proposed a collaboration with my photography and her collage-making skills. We each did our own thing, and the results were a very welcome surprise.

I sat down with Sofia prior to starting the photoshoot, and this is our conversation about art, inspiration, and the way songs work as a mirror into our own lives.

‍

Francisco Ramos: Welcome Sofia! Can you please tell our readers a little bit about who you are and what do you do?

Sofia Jarrard: Hi! I'm Sofia Jarrard. I'm a singer-songwriter. I'm from Houston, Texas. I write songs from the heart that are just like authentic stories. I write about mental health, a lot about love and falling in love and heartbreak.

Francisco Ramos: You mentioned a wide variety of sources of inspiration. When do you feel most inspired to write music?

Sofia Jarrard: Honestly, after a breakup. That's when I feel most inspired because it's like I'm full of sadness or sometimes it's like relief. Sometimes you're glad it's over. When something that big happens—like when you're with someone for so long and then it ends—that can be fuel for a lot of songwriting. Some of my best songs are written post-breakups.

“I think a lot of writers end up writing themselves into the story.”

Francisco Ramos: How do you tap into that creative energy when you don’t have a breakup to draw from?

Sofia Jarrard: Yeah! Sometimes I'll write from my imagination. One of my favorite songs that I've written is called "Where the Mountains Touch the Sky," and it just started as a story, almost like I was writing a picture book or something. Like writing a story for kids. It’s about this character named Annabelle who runs away from her small town without really saying goodbye, and she's following her dreams and she's just driving down the road. The lyric is "I don't know my kind, but I'm going to the place where the mountains touch the sky." So she's driving onward endlessly and it ends up being this fairy tale where you don't know where she ends up. So when I don't have a breakup or something tangible in my life, I just create stories. But it's interesting because looking back at that story, I've realized it's actually kind of about me because I'm searching for belonging. And a lot of times in my life I have run away from home. I’ve gone off to college or moved towns to find who I am. At that moment it felt like I was writing a character. In hindsight, I was like, "Oh, I think this is just me." I think a lot of writers end up writing themselves into the story.

Francisco Ramos: Do you see yourself as primarily a storyteller?

Sofia Jarrard: Yeah, I like to just tug at people's heartstrings. To tell a story—beginning, middle, end. I like to use detailed imagery and paint a picture in the listener’s head. I like a line that I have in this song—I have a song called "Run to You"—and one of the lines is, "I still have the t-shirt you gave me and the necklace with the silver heart." It's painting images like that so that the audience can picture what you see.

Francisco Ramos: Like adding texture to the song. Things that they can see and picture and feel.

Sofia Jarrard: Yeah.

“Sometimes you feel emotions that you don't really know how to process, but then you hear a song that perfectly puts into words exactly how you're feeling.”

‍

‍

Francisco Ramos: I resonate with that a lot as a fellow writer. I write for film, and part of that process is finding out that the characters are made up but they say a lot about you. What do you think your music reflects?

Sofia Jarrard: I try to keep it real and write things that people can relate to. I've played songs for people or sung for people and had them start crying because it touched them in some way. And that's what I want to do. Sometimes you feel emotions that you don't really know how to process, but then you hear a song that perfectly puts into words exactly how you're feeling. You feel like, "Oh my gosh, how were they able to write that? That's exactly how I feel." And I love being able to do that for people.

Francisco Ramos: Yeah, I think that's the best feeling ever. When you see people have such a reaction to your work. How often do you intentionally chase specific reactions from your audience?

Sofia Jarrard: There are two different ways to write—and these aren't the only two categories—but you can write for your audience or you can write for yourself. If I think: "Oh, I want this to blow up on TikTok or Instagram," or "I want this to resonate with people immediately," that thinking limits creativity. It turns out that I resonate most with people when I write for myself. When I get in touch with my feelings and I let the lyrics flow out of me in a kind of flow state.

“It was the song where they just let everything out and did not hold back at all—that's done the best commercially. People can feel the authenticity when they hear it.”

Francisco Ramos: By exploring the deeply personal, you reach universal subjects. Subject matter that people can connect with.

Sofia Jarrard: Yeah. I watch a lot of musicians' interviews on YouTube. Songwriters will often say that it was their vulnerable song that did the best. It was the song where they just let everything out and did not hold back at all—that's done the best commercially. People can feel the authenticity when they hear it.

Francisco Ramos: What song do you feel the most proud of?

Sofia Jarrard: I have a song called "Wildflowers.” I wrote it for a school project my freshman year of college. We had to go outside to, like, this piece of land. It was for an environmental studies class, but it was a liberal arts school, so they were really hippie-dippie and artsy about it. We were supposed to go out to this piece of land and find a spot and sit there and journal every single day for fifteen minutes. And then at the end, we used the experience to create an art project of our choice. I wrote a song.

I picked this area with a bunch of beautiful purple flowers. Most of the time I would just draw the flowers. And then maybe on the sixth day, I went and all the flowers had died. They'd all disappeared. I was devastated. I felt like I had lost a friend. It was so crazy. I was like, "Where are the flowers?" And I wrote this song as a metaphor for grief and losing a loved one. One of the lines is, "Life is but a dream, fragile and so fleeting. Death brings about life, but is there any meaning? I wish you were alive, I wish you were still breathing, but I can't control how the flowers grow." It's so insane that I was able to connect to this plant almost as if it were a human. But it just reminded me of the fleeting nature of life and how really nothing is permanent.

That’s one song that my listeners will connect with. They’ll cry. It’s cool because it has that double meaning. Recently my grandfather passed so when I play that song I'll dedicate it to him. I didn't write it about him. I literally wrote it about these flowers. But the song helps you access and process grief. So that's probably the song I'm most proud of.

Francisco Ramos: That’s amazing. It sounds like your connection to nature is also a big source of inspiration.

Sofia Jarrard: I love nature. I love a good hike. I love going to the beach. I'm really fortunate to have been able to travel around the world and see a lot of different beautiful landscapes. It's unfortunate that there's not a ton of nature around Houston. If you want to go anywhere and be totally immersed, you have to drive at least an hour. But I love nature. The woods and plants and flowers. All of it.

“While music is not always fun, I don't want it to feel stressful or feel like it's another job.”

Francisco Ramos: Well that love comes through in your writing. Final question. What comes next for you?

Sofia Jarrard: What comes next? Honestly, that's a good question. I love music and it'll always be a huge part of my life. There is also a need for balance. I want to dedicate time and energy to music, but I don’t make a living from music. I have other work. I'm about to start grad school. And while music is not always fun, I don't want it to feel stressful or feel like it's another job. In an ideal world, I graduate and start making enough money to afford to produce. I'd love to do a full album. I'd love to shoot a music video. It would be really fun to put more time and energy into a fully finished professional product. That’s the next step for me.

Francisco Ramos: Awesome. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today.

Sofia Jarrard: Thank you!

‍

Photography by Francisco Ramos for In Bloom. Collage work by Sofia Jarrard.

Edited by Diego Frias