We Are Upstate With Lyricist and Composer Elena Sophia

INSIDE+OUT is thrilled to present our conversation with singer-songwriter Elena Sophia. After completing graduate school, Elena found herself in the Hudson Valley, where she landed a job at Vassar College’s Women, Feminist & Queer Studies program. As a musician, her primary goal is for people to fall in love with the music she creates. She shares her inspiration, “… my favorite artists are people like Joni Mitchell, Feist, and Regina Spektor. People whose sound doesn’t make sense until you hear it and fall in love with it. My biggest dream is for that to happen for people with my music. I want to make people fall in love. What a beautiful thing to be able to do for people.” When asked to describe her music, she humorously describes it as “what sad white boy music sounds like when played by a queer Latina.” Let’s delve into Elena’s perspectives on being a musician in today’s world, navigating as a queer female artist of color, her musical influences, and her love for the Hudson Valley!

INSIDE+OUT: Where are you originally from, and how did you wind up in the Hudson Valley?

Elena Sophia: I was born in Germany. We lived in Germany, England and Greece till I was eight. Then, Mexico for a year and Chicago for middle to high school. My mom is from Honduras. We spent most summers there or in Mexico, where I also have family. My dad was a philosophy professor, so I would like to say I was an academic brat, not an army brat, haha! I ended up in the Hudson Valley because I got a job in the Women, Feminist & Queer Studies program at Vassar College right out of graduate school at Northwestern University’s Performance Studies Department in 2014. I taught there until 2023.

Tell us about your background in music. How did you get your start?

I’ve loved singing and performing even before learning how to be self-conscious. It’s the most natural thing to me, but it’s also taken a lot of work to get back to where I started from, so to speak. I knew I wanted to be a musician since I was nine. I went to undergrad for voice performance at Oberlin Conservatory. Still, I didn’t start writing my own songs, which is what I really wanted, until I was 27. I’m proud of how far I’ve come and grateful for my journey because my music wouldn’t be the same any other way.

Describe the style of music you create.  What drew you to this music, and who are your influences?

I am happily and somewhat defiantly trans-genre, haha! I believe that genre, like gender, is a recent invention, so I let songs come through me however they come out. It’s something that has made marketing myself challenging, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! I’ve written punk, indie, pop, and country/folk songs, all on the same record. But at my core, I’d say my influences are classical, Latin, and North American folk/pop. I’ve always known I love music that has a real intention behind it. It doesn’t matter what genre it is. I especially loved Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service in 2000, and I’ve sometimes described my music as “what sad white boy music sounds like when played by a queer Latina,” haha! I think if I had to choose a genre, I’d say indie pop or anti-folk. Over my career, I’ve resisted trying to sound like anyone else. It’s taken me longer to find my sound that way. Still, my favorite artists are people like Joni Mitchell, Feist, and Regina Spektor. People whose sound doesn’t make sense until you hear it and fall in love with it. My biggest dream is for that to happen for people with my music. I want to make people fall in love. What a beautiful thing to be able to do for people.

What is your creative process?

I think my entire life is a creative process!

Where do you record? Do you work with local studios or record on your own?

Both! Just this year, I began recording at home, and I recorded my new record, Look Up, virtually between my home studio and my friend and producer, Ru Lemer, who is based in England. But I’ve enjoyed recording and learned so much from Paul Antonell at Clubhouse Studios in Rhinebeck and Manuel Quintana at Beet Recording Studio in Catskill. I’ve also had the pleasure of recording an EP with the fabulous Ariel Shafir at Dreamland Studios. This is an amazing area for recording music!

What is your dream gig?

I love this question! I’ve always had an image of myself looking out into a giant stadium or amphitheater. So, I don’t feel like I’ve musically peaked, yet. I couldn’t imagine loving writing songs more than I do, so I’m very confident in my love for the craft. I just keep taking it step by step and keeping that as my North Star. But any gig where my music provides relief and joy to people is my favorite gig. I think music is literal magic and very healing. At least, it is for me.

What is one question you’re constantly asked or the biggest misconception about your work?

Another great question! I think when I try and talk about being a queer female artist of color, people assume I’m angry or that my music is angry. I’m really a deeply sweet (if I may say) and happy person. And I don’t think anger is a bad thing when directed towards injustice. I think about identity structurally, being trained as a social scientist–it can be hard to be heard sometimes with all the minefields in people’s minds around these issues today.

From a business point of view, what are your thoughts on being a musician in today’s world?

It’s wild. On the one hand, I’m so happy everyone is making so much music. On the other hand, it can feel impossible to be heard! It is frustrating when some people in the space want to act as if racism, sexism, etc., are over. I’ve gotten pushback, even from white liberal people in the music space here, when I offer that I’m a queer person of color. My identities are important to me. I believe people should be grateful that we’re trying to help them help us become more visible. Everyone should want to uplift us because we are so underrepresented in the music industry in the Hudson Valley + beyond! The “we’re all the same” narrative ends up sedimenting and contributing to the inequities that exist both in and outside of the music space. I’m starting a YouTube channel called “Hen in the Foxhouse,” where I discuss some of these issues. I’m grateful for my PhD training and research (my specialty was queer and trans of color theory, which is theories of intersectionality on steroids, if you will). Studying social movements, systemic power, and history has given me a lot of tools to understand what I am experiencing and a way to channel my anger. Music is the most important thing to me, so it’s going to take all my resources to advocate for myself and other queer women of color musicians. We need to build a real community in this area! Please reach out if you are a WOC artist in the area!

How do you feel about AI entering this creative space?

Bring it on! I’m more concerned that legislators and politicians will keep working on making streaming more fair for the people who create the products they’re selling. If they can figure that out, there’s a chance they’ll figure out how to protect us from AI. But hopefully, they can work on two things at once.

What advice would you give to aspiring singers/writers for breaking through?

Gosh, I don’t know. I feel like I’m still trying to figure it out myself. I’m not big on advice. I think everyone has to find their own journey, and everyone has their own answers within themselves. The one thing I would say is to find your sense of meaning from within yourself so that you’re less vulnerable to the critics. Most critics are projecting their own stuff onto you.

How do you want people to feel when they leave one of your shows?

Transcended. Refreshed. Joyful. Like they can breathe a little easier.

What about the Hudson Valley makes it unique to live + work + make music here?

The land. I love the land here; almost everyone I know feels the same way. It’s a very special place. I’m lucky enough to have a view of the river from where I live, and I feel like the river is a very special and powerful being. I feel fortunate to have lived here for the past ten years.

What are some of your favorite places to perform in the Hudson Valley?

Rough Draft, The Falcon and Bearsville Theater. I’d love to play Basilica Hudson and Opus 40 one day.

What local businesses do you rely on to be successful?

I mostly do my work in all of the local coffee shops! My day job is in digital marketing, and it’s 100% remote, so I can tour all year if I want to. I’m grateful for Half Moon Donuts Cafe and Rosie General in the Rondout, Rough Draft, and Uptown Coffee in Uptown Kingston. I’m grateful for my upstate NY-based designer, Brian Grunert, in Buffalo. He makes the most exquisite art for me – and Ani DiFranco, Bright Eyes and more, and he has won 3 Grammys!. Jem Violet is a local composer and multi-instrumentalist I rely on for advice on composing and collaborating. She’s opened for me earlier in August at the album release at Rough Draft. She’s one of the best musicians in the Hudson Valley. In midtown, I love Free to Thrift for providing affordable home goods and clothing to the Kingston Farmer’s Market for providing affordable, high-quality food. Anyone on EBT should know they have an amazing 2-for-1 deal where you can get 2X as much food for the same dollars! I feel that the area and NY state try to support people living at or below the poverty line, and I love that about our area and state.

What is missing in the area that you wish we had?

I also love this question! I wish we had a Women’s Center that supported women’s creativity in the area—like a real community center, library, creative, and performance space. I wish we had more truly community-run spaces that also were performance venues. And, as I said above, I wish all of the people who are privileged to own a music venue made a concerted effort to reach out to and support artists of color in the area, especially queer artists of color. Hopefully, I can be a part of building that.

Tell us something about yourself that people might be surprised to know.

I do aerial circus arts in my free time at Hudson Valley Circus! My favorite apparatus is the lyra hoop trapeze. People can see me flinging myself about on Instagram @heninfoxhouse and YouTube (with much more to come).

What is your current state of mind?

So thrilled and excited about the new record, Look Up. It’s taken Ru Lemer and me 2.5 years to finish it, and I’m so excited to share it with everyone. It’s 13 tracks, 12 originals, and one cover of a song by the wonderful Mexican singer Natalia LaFourcade. I’m putting my nose to the grindstone marketing-wise and going to put everything I have into joyfully performing, promoting, and marketing this record. I think it deserves to be heard. I think I deserve to be heard. And most of all, I think and hope it’ll bring people joy.

Thank you so much!

Photos Courtesy of Elena Sophia @heninfoxhouse

Follow/Connect Elena Sophia via Website  | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify | Bandcamp

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