How evil can you be on the Eras tour? Sofia Isella is carving a dark new lane in pop

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It’s a brave move for any teenager to perform on stage at a packed Taylor Swift concert in front of an audience who doesn’t know their music. But it takes real confidence to then play deliberately challenging songs – raw, intense rock and electronic music about difficult topics like sexuality and losing faith.

Sofia Isella, a 20-year-old singer-songwriter, had the incredible experience of opening for Taylor Swift on the Australian leg of her Eras tour last year. Isella, who grew up in Los Angeles, said Swift was incredibly supportive. She wished she could have captured the feeling of being on stage with Swift, but surprisingly found performing for a massive crowd less stressful than playing for a small audience. She described the large venue as almost surreal, making the experience feel distant and unreal.

Isella’s music feels detached and dreamlike – unsettling, even, and capable of stirring up complex emotions. However, her impressive musicianship and creative arrangements suggest she’s poised for larger venues – like the Fonda Theater on November 16th – even as the world around us becomes increasingly difficult.

Isella described their current project as incredibly intense and challenging, saying it’s so difficult that the only way to cope is to find humor in it. They explained, ‘It’s like, the only way to stop screaming about it is to have a moment laughing about it.’

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After releasing the somewhat chaotic album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ last year, the popular singer is back with a more polished project, created with the help of producers Max Martin and Shellback.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Isella was raised in a family with connections to the entertainment industry, which made pursuing a career as an artist feel possible. Despite this, her parents allowed her the freedom to develop her skills in her own way. Her father, Claudio Miranda, is an Oscar-winning cinematographer known for films like “Life of Pi” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” and her mother is author Kelli Bean-Miranda. Isella fondly remembers a childhood filled with music and support, a stark contrast to the digitally-focused lives of many of her peers.

Isella explained that she was homeschooled her entire life. Her mother would playfully hide poetry books for her to discover, and her father would give her hours of unstructured time with musical instruments using the GarageBand program. She didn’t even get a phone until she was sixteen. When she first joined TikTok, she noticed everyone seemed to have a similar personality, likely because they were all heavily influenced by each other. Being around other teenagers for the first time was a strange experience; she had mostly grown up around adults and initially felt like they saw her as one of them, rather than someone different.

When Isella’s family briefly relocated to Australia during the pandemic, and she started independently releasing her music, it quickly became apparent how uniquely talented she was. Her music blends her classical training with a love for raw rock and electronic sounds, creating a style that evokes the moody elegance of The Velvet Underground and Nico, the dark, artistic metal of Chelsea Wolfe and Lingua Ignota, and the intimate, unsettling gothic pop of Billie Eilish’s early work.

Her first songs were marked by a sharp, cynical wit and a questioning of society, like the tracks “All of Human Knowledge Made Us Dumb” and “Everybody Supports Women.” Despite disliking social media, her music quickly gained popularity online – she has 1.3 million TikTok followers! This led to opportunities to perform alongside artists like Melanie Martinez, Glass Animals, and ultimately, Taylor Swift. She’s now set to open for Florence + The Machine on their arena tour.

The 2024 EP, “I Can Be Your Mother,” features songs like “Sex Concept” that blend a dark, emotional intensity reminiscent of poets Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath with the unsettling, provocative energy of Nine Inch Nails. The lyrics are boldly suggestive and confrontational, as seen in lines like, “I’ll bend him over backwards, give him something to believe in,” and “We’ll play the game, both go insane and then we’ll call it even… I’m the only god that you’ll ever believe in.”

Isella described her first EP as representing a kind of self-creation, a powerful and expansive inspiration. She explained that the music didn’t feel personally authored, but rather channeled from a strange, almost revered source.

Her May 2025 release, “I’m Camera,” explored how being suddenly in the spotlight can make you feel disconnected from yourself. The song “Josephine” vividly captures the exhausting side of touring, comparing it to a slow descent into emotional distress—she sings about feeling vulnerable and lost, remembering only the pain of what she’s given up: “I’m sock-footed, sick and selfish holding strangers’ hands … I lost something, I sold it, I only remember the ache.”

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At just 20 years old, Shane Boose has quickly become a rising star with Sombr, thanks to popular songs like “Back to Friends” and “Undressed.” He admits the sudden fame has been challenging, saying, “I’m still getting used to it. I’m incredibly thankful, but it’s really tough having your life scrutinized.”

Isella is cautious about the music industry, preferring to remain independent – a rare choice for an artist gaining attention from Taylor Swift. She’s careful about what a record label would ask of her versus what benefits they could actually offer. “I’ve talked to many major labels, and the people are great, but I really value being independent,” Isella explained. “I might change my mind eventually, but I want to fully understand what a label does and how it helps artists with things like social media before I sign anything.”

Her latest work, including haunting music videos like “Muse” that recall the art of Francesa Woodman, seems to capture the current anxious atmosphere in Los Angeles and across the country. It feels like we’re facing an unavoidable decline, almost like something out of the Bible. Her September song, “Out In the Garden,” has a similar dark, Southern feel to Ethel Cain’s music, but with a unique undercurrent of sharp, sad understanding. She sings about feeling a little jealous of those who completely believe someone will always love and care for them, and that there’s a purpose to their life.

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Even when things are tough, Isella has a dark, wry sense of humor – her current tour is even called “You’ll Understand More, Dick.” But this recent taste of fame has shown her that while people may want something from you, you ultimately have to rely on yourself.

Isella explained that blind faith lacks substance and genuine meaning. She’s channeling her frustration with religion into her next album, feeling particularly angered by it, but acknowledges the comfort it can provide. She finds the idea of a loving, forgiving father figure to be a powerful and beautiful source of hope, especially for those who have struggled. Having had a fortunate and secure life herself, she understands how incredibly appealing that belief can be for people who haven’t been so lucky.

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2025-11-13 22:32