LESS IS NOIR

Gothic singer-songwriter Sofia Isella opened for Taylor Swift but the 20-year-old is quite a different proposition. Ahead of her UK shows, she tells Hannah Ewens how she got here

- 

“I got called demonic by someone online for the first time the other day,” says the alt musician Sofia Isella, who is not annoyed but in a blissful reverie. “There were other compliments within her message: I have ‘the most ominous aura she’s ever seen in her life.” I wouldn’t say these things about the 20-year-old LA native goth at all but I might say she’s mysterious. Across the cafe table from me, she’s completely obscured by a big hood and steampunk glasses. I’m trying to interview her but every question I ask is countered with a softly spoken question. ‘Do you remember what you learned in math class?’ ‘What is your least favourite modern word?’ ‘But what do you think about that?’ As she calmly knits herself a fingerless glove - while wearing it — all I can think is that I’m not surprised that this curious person is a curiosity to 1.7 million people on Instagram. She likes to learn about other people, she says, although this sometimes comes across as passionate debate. “I’m going easy on you...” she adds.

In person, Isella is gentle and thoughtful, but that spikier side exists in her music: acerbic whispered poetry set to Nine Inch Nails-style beats. On the distinctive piano-led track “The Doll People”, she is a dark Regina Spektor, explaining in ironic ASMR tones why women are best enjoyed beautiful and mute: “Art does not interpret itself / There are men with a day to save / We are paintings with legs”.