With her first English-language single, the Columbian singer opens up to a whole new world.
Colombian singer Sofia Cordoba’s album, Symptom of Love, which came out on May 7, is a catchy acoustic-led song about love and loss — expect a guaranteed earworm. The title track is a breath of fresh air in today’s music landscape: Between the polished world of pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter and Addison Rae, and the resurgence of male-fronted rock bands, Cordoba seems to be carving out a space entirely her own — a distinct new wave of female indie-pop. The track was produced by Chris Deyo Braun (who produced with Zach Bryan), and mixed by Chris Tabron, (who has worked with Beyoncé, The Strokes, and Erykah Badu). The music video for Symptom of Love, co-directed by Sofia, is a joyful and innocent portrayal, and unveils the songwriter’s talent for storytelling.
The week of the release, we caught up with Sofia in New York, before she heads to LA to record new songs.
Photography Courtesy of Jimena Muguiro
10 USA: How did you first get into music?
SOFIA CORDOBA:
I got started with music when I was little. I would always sing a lot, which wasn’t super coherent because I have always been introverted and shy. I would just be insufferable around the house. My mom would call me “the singing bush.” You know, from the movie Three Amigos.
I wasn’t a particularly good singer, but my brother and I had piano lessons when we were little with this Russian teacher, and when my brother got into guitar I sort of copied him. The guitar teacher’s brother was a vocal coach, so my mom was like, “Might as well get her tuned while she’s at it.”
I was obsessed with Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse and The Beatles when I was little. My dad would listen to all of these ’60s and ’70s acoustic and rock records: Cat Stevens and James Taylor mixed with Colombian music. Columbia is a very musical country.
A: Were you around a lot of live music?
S: Yes, a lot of live music growing up, thankfully! My dad works in media and so we always got to go to concerts. And so I had the chance to see everyone who passed through Colombia. I didn’t realize what a massive privilege that was until I moved to the States and I was like, “I can’t go to any shows because it’s crazy expensive.”
A: Do you reach for Columbian culture and sounds for inspiration?
S: I think the first album I remember adoring was Shakira’s first album, Pies Descalzos. It was one of the few CDs that we had in the car, so it was playing on repeat. She was a Colombian rocker, you know? She was insane.
But I remember actually getting into American music first. When I was little I went to an American school and it was just in my ears all the time and I was obsessed with it. And then later I realized there was a whole Latin American rock movement that happened in the ’70s and ’80s, and then I became obsessed with that.
Music in Colombia’s just everywhere. You meet people by dancing salsa and merengue and reggaeton.
Photography Courtesy of Jimena Muguiro
A: What are your inspirations for songwriting?
S: A lot of different people, but mainly very strong lyricists. I really admire artists that have longevity in their careers, not by making the same type of music every album, but by the way they tell stories and the way they see the world.
So you listen to songs like Born to Die and you listen to Lana Del Rey’s last song and she’s exactly the same artist but not constrained by genre. In that way, I mean, The Beatles made so much music in their few years of playing, it’s so crazy.
There’s this Argentinian musician called Gustavo Cerati who had a band called Soda Stereo.
I think that was the biggest rock band ever to come out of South America, in terms of influencing the rest of South American rock music. And his lyrics, written in Spanish and English, are personal but general at the same time.
A: What’s the story you’re trying to tell in the Symptom of Love video, and where do these visual ideas come from?
S: I didn’t want the story in the video to be too on the nose with the theme of the song, which is basically flipping negative emotions into positive ones. For example, when you miss someone or are away from family or your partner, it just means you have a lot of love for that person.
Not that the video is anywhere nearly like it, but one of my favorite movies is Harold and Maude. It’s about a young man who has a very deep friendship with an old lady which then turns into a romantic story. They find common humanity, although they are from completely different generations and outcasts of society.
I wanted to nod to that, that’s why I have the yellow umbrella in the music video, Maude always carries a yellow umbrella.
The video is absurd: being lonely and then just starting to dance with a stranger. My favorite visuals are always a bit absurd. And my favorite books are about things that if they happened in real life, it would be insane, but it works in a movie or in a book.
A: During the writing process, do the images already come to mind?
Sometimes you’re writing and you can picture something, but not necessarily always.
And then it’s always fun to sit down after the song is written and think about visuals. It can add so much to a song to have a good visual saying something slightly different.
A: Would you like to be involved more in directing your own videos?
The reason why it took me a while to even try to direct anything is because I had imposter syndrome: “Where do you even start?”
It helped me to work with close friends on all of my past music videos and seeing that it’s not that overwhelming from a logistical standpoint — if you have a good idea and a good cinematographer and good time constraints.
I just needed to understand what moving parts went into making a music video. I co-directed Symptoms of Love with my friend Esme Thompson. It was nice to have another person who also hadn’t directed anything, having both of our brains be on the same level and draw from different things and get different favors pulled here and there.
A: Are there any movies or characters that have really shaped your visual taste?
S: For sure. The aesthetic of late ’60s and ’70s movies inspire me, like The Graduate, which I imagine is a movie a lot of people reference. The Graduate and Harold and Maude both have an insane soundtrack. The Graduate with Simon & Garfunkel and Harold and Maude with Cat Stevens. The music becomes a character as well.
A: Being at the start of your career, what are some of the things that you’re looking forward to the most?
Playing live! I’ve played live a lot by myself in very small spaces. But it’s always been myself with a guitar and there’s something about the idea of a group of people, connecting to your music that I haven’t fully experienced yet.
A: Who, who would your dream duet be with?
Honestly, I love Lana Del Rey.
A: If you had to pick three songs to listen to, like, forever, what would those be?
That three-part song by The Beatles: Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End; Te Para 3 by Soda Stereo and Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos by Shakira.
A: If you could raid any musician’s closet, whose would you raid?
Keith Richards probably has a crazy closet. For my personal style, I look a lot at British rockers from the ’60s.
A: What is it like walking into a room for a writing session with people you’ve never met?
I’ve only been to a handful of sessions so far, because of all of my music in Spanish I made it with my friend in Colombia. We had very good chemistry; I felt very comfortable.
And then when I started going to sessions, I guess just keeping it at low stakes, thinking “If anything, I’ll get to meet someone new.” And if good music comes out of it, amazing, but it’s really not in your control.
A: What’s up next for you?
I’m doing a gig with some friends of mine that have a rock band. I opened the show in September, and then I played with them as my band. They just happened to be the nicest, most talented guys. Now we’re doing a joint thing in June. [Symptom of Love] is coming out, and then I have a couple of other songs that are going to be part of an EP.
