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Photos by Isabel Dowell and Vika Brennick

Yes, the mud is real. Yes, the hair in her face is intentional. No, it doesn’t bother her, and no, she isn’t possessed by a demonic force. SOFIA ISELLA, the twenty-one-year-old California-born singer-songwriter, is affectionately known for her quirks and unique stage presence. Usually caked in mud, dirt, or substitute substances (charcoal or cocoa powder if the real thing is not available), ISELLA sings about and stands up to misogyny, hypocrisy, and the patriarchy while using her platform to advocate for those society often pushes aside. She is unapologetically herself, and being deemed the “weird girl” has led her to amass a community of fans who are just looking to fit in, oddities and all. 

Like many younger musicians today, ISELLA got her start on TikTok. Now, at just twenty-one years old, she’s opened for artists like Taylor Swift, Florence and the Machine, Glass Animals, and performed at music festivals including Osheaga (Quebec), Fuji Rock Festival (Japan), NorthSide (Denmark), and, of course, Hinterland (United States). Despite having only a few years of experience under her belt, ISELLA delivered a riveting performance at her Hinterland set. She tore at her clothes, threw her mud-stained shirt into the crowd, and even crowd-surfed for a song. SOFIA effortlessly commanded the stage and her audience. Even if you are just a passerby, you can’t help but stare in awe at the young mud-covered musician doing exactly what it seems like she was born to do. 

OnesToWatch: I've been watching you grow as an artist for a while now, and one thing that really stands out to me about you is that you're pretty fearless. You speak out on a lot of really important topics. Were you always someone to speak out on topics that really matter to you, and how did that end up in your music?

Great question. I have always been very into debating people. I love figuring out the argument and being able to argue their perspective better than they can argue their perspective, so that I know exactly my opinion and exactly where people are coming from. I can argue anti-choice super well, right? And I know what they believe, and I know what they think about it. I just think it's full of shit. I was told not to be political for a very long time when I lived in Australia when I was 15, because I talk about it at my live shows; they told me it would divide my audience and make people uncomfortable. And then Roe v. Wade was overturned, and it was when my writing changed completely. The first lyric that was in this world was “so pump us full of sperm”, and that was written by the pool. It was just not planned at all, and that just totally shifted the lyric goal… output [laughs].

Do you think that confidence has always been in you, or did it come to you as you grew older?

I was homeschooled, so I've always been very, very isolated, and I have never really been around kids my age. I wasn't bullied, really. I was just surrounded by adults. Kids can be horrible. I have a little sister going to school for the first time and I feel super protective of her being around other kids because they can just be assholes. People can be mean and want everything to be very conforming. I was very removed from that. I got bullied for the first time when I was 13, and it was fascinating. It was so phenomenal. I have heard so much about it, and I've read about it, and I was experiencing it firsthand, and I was just having so much fun with it. It was a blast to me. But I also wasn't entrenched in the community of school, so it just didn't really matter.

I also noticed that you grew up in a bunch of different places. How do you think that's affected your path?

We were in some places that didn't [speak English]. We were in Taiwan, but I also was there very little. I only really remember the places we lived in rather than the places outside. I think it's hard to answer that because I only have the experience of being who I am. I don't know what it would be if I didn't do that. I think there's a little bit of seeing the whole world and how, when I got to Australia, I got really emotional hearing the same hits that we've heard all over the world, and how even in Australia, we know the same songs, and it just feels like we're all just a big family. We all know the same songs, and it doesn't matter where you go, there's always familiarity. We're literally the same. [laughs] I really mean it, the same exact people. And everybody feels and thinks basically the same about everything.

I was walking around the festival yesterday and I met this girl named Maya. She was like, "Oh my God, my favorite artist is SOFIA ISELLA." I asked her if she had a question. She asked about your song "Numbers 31:17–18," and was curious to know what sparked that.

There's a verse in the Bible that is "Numbers 31:17-18". It says, “kill all the boys and kill every woman who has had sex with a man, but save for yourselves the young girls who have not had sex with a man.” Everyone likes to talk about context. The context is that this is God's word; God is saying this through Moses. Stop me. Literally, stop me; it's a long rant. [All laugh] There was one team that was the Mennonites or something. The women were seducing them into worshipping other idols. Always the women's fault. So then God says, go kill all those women and go kill all those men and the young boys, but you can keep the virgin young girls alive for yourselves. It pisses me off because now we're taking young girls and raping them and making them our wives. Right? And this is God's word, so God's saying it's okay. I've had a lot of rants with the Christians in my life and a lot of conversations with them. And this song was one of the things I was debating all the time. And religion just pisses me off. Then I started talking to very nice religious people. They're very cool. Eventually, if you debate them long enough, you have to defend genocide, you have to defend raping women. Because you have to hold on to God.

What is something you think people misunderstand about you when they only know you through your music or your persona online? Or something you hear maybe, and you're like, "What?"

Oh, oh, oh! People think I'm demonic. Actually. The religious people think that I have something in me. I have slurped a demon like a noodle, and now I'm corrupted. I just don't think they like me talking about their Bible verses. And so many others. Deuteronomy… I just don't think that if you desaturate your videos and you walk around with the earth on you, that means you've slurped the demon's noodle.

What's something you think you're still figuring out about yourself as an artist?

Figuring out… Figuring out… What am I figuring out? I think I got it all figured out. I've obsessed over everything. I've scanned it. Looking good, looking good. Good vibes.

Mud is a big part of your look right now. Are there ideas for future looks?

I thought that this mud thing was not gonna last very long. I did it once for "Dog’s Dinner," and then I went to a festival, where I saw my familiar friend, the mud, and I just rolled around in it, and it felt amazing.

We were literally debating it earlier. What puddle did she choose? Is it a costume, makeup mud?

Oh, there was a great puddle over there. It was phenomenal. Every single festival has a different type of mud. No, no, this is real Hinterland. Local mud. I went to Japan, and they had phenomenal festival ground mud. It was great. Really smooth. It almost creeped me out how soft it was. It was great, it was great.

I'm actually so glad we found this out.

It’s real. Sometimes I put it on my face. For the headline shows, it's hard to find dirt when it's all concrete. If I'm at a headline show, sometimes it's either literal cocoa powder, so I'll smell like chocolate, or it'll be charcoal. It's just a bunch of random stuff.

If anyone's gonna be you for Halloween…

It's very easy to be me for Halloween! Not that hard.

Have you seen anyone be you for Halloween?

I have seen somebody do the I Can Be Your Mother album cover for Halloween. Shirtless with the reverse pregnancy. That was great. I don't think I've actually ever seen someone be me for Halloween. I don't think I have. That would be sick though. It'd be sick. It's very easy. Very easy to accomplish.

Listen to SOFIA ISELLA below: