Modern Music That Knows No Bounds

Sophia, from Laredo Texas, has been making music since she was in elementary school. She is a graduate of the University of Texas and has played live gigs with her band The Modernettes, all around Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio. When she was around 14 or 15 she started producing her music through garageband. Inspired by one of her favorite bands, Vampire Weekend, she got the inspiration for the stage name Modern Sophia. “Their third album is called Modern Vampires of The City. I was a mega fan, like obsessed. They and Marina and the Diamonds were my favorites,” she tells me of her initial inspiration at just 14 years old. “They both layed down the foundation of what songwriting is to me. I have a lot more inspirations now, but back then they were the main ones.”

DECEMBER 2018

An earlier live performance from the artist Modern Sophia in Austin.

Once Sophia graduated from high school at 17, she moved from Laredo to Austin to attend the University of Texas, where she began playing on her own as Modern Sophia. “Being on the stage was so fun for me at that time. Thank God for the band because it gave me the confidence to start reaching out to venues on my own once I got to Austin,” says Sophia. With songs like Sleeping In Your Sweater reaching over 48 thousand listens on Spotify, Sophia has an intuitive ear for what the underground cyber pop wave is hungry for. ModernSophia has been producing sounds that are layered with synth-electric, bedroom pop beats since 2018. A recent release through Modern Sophia is IMTFY (HoneymoonBabble), alluding to the cyber pop sound that we all are loving right now and on top of that, she came out with an EP in 2023 called Muddy Demos 4 Boo, dedicated to her cat Boo who passed. Two earlier releases from 2023 that gained traction, with at least a thousand listens include the trippy psychedelic sound world brought in single Those r some eyesss, as well as iconic 2000’s inspired music sound for Phone Phlow, inspired by vintage flip-phone sounds and ringtones that we all remember and feel nostalgia for.

The Modernettes EP is expected to come out sometime within the next few months to a year, but that’s not the only project in the works for Sophia - she is currently experimenting with electronic sounds and going fully in on her music production on a more mysterious, untitled project, and get this - it’s not associated with ModernSophia OR The Modernettes. “I wanna be as creative as I can, and really satiate that inner 13-year-old Sophia,” she shares. “I really wanna get in touch with my more emotional, passionate side.

Sophia’s upcoming projects are super exciting, and she will be sharing everything through her Instagram page which you can find here, @modernsophiaofthecity.

With inspiration and a vision, 15 year-old Sophia began performing live with a band named In-Between. “It was with my sister’s high school boyfriend, we were in a band called In-Between for like a year. My sister’s boyfriend Rudy would reach out to have us play gigs at local coffee shops,” she recalls. Her first performances starting just at 15-years-old was what gave her the confidence to start making her music and perform on her own down the line. “That gave me the confidence to go solo and start doing my own thing, and I started performing with my friend Justin and some other iconic Laredo artists.” Starting in a more alternative genre, Sophia pushed for the alternative music scene in Laredo. “I look back really fondly on those times,” she says.

MARCH 2024

Album art For IMTFY (HoneymoonBabble)

With the confidence and performance experience experience Sophia has gained through her solo shows as Modern Sophia, she reveals that live performances are something she’s moving away from as new paths unfold for the artist and her band. “I love it sometimes, but I like producing more,” she shares. “My band is changing - we all are inputting ideas, so we want to call ourselves the Modernettes. My next two projects are an EP with The Modernettes, which is with my bandmates who I really respect as Musicians and friends,” Sophia says. “We want it to be alternative rock but we don’t really know how it will play out yet.