Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Jane Paravalos.
Sophia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in Norton, Massachusetts and began my musical journey at age 5 when my Mom signed me up for a piano lesson at the local music store. In complete honesty, I remember crying in the car on the way to my lessons every Saturday until a year later when I actually started to enjoy them! Still, thank my mother to this day for putting me in piano lessons! In 2006 my Mom got a job for two years in London, UK, so me, my brother and my parents all moved across the Atlantic for a 2-year excursion!
In London, I continued my piano lessons and also picked up the violin (influenced by my Irish grandfather and his folk/bluegrass love). Two years later we moved back to Massachusetts to a town called Westwood. Here is kind of when my music truly turned into more than just a hobby. In 4th grade when we got back from London I picked up the clarinet and have been playing classically since then (it’s my little-hidden instrument that knows one knows I really play lol).
I continued my piano lesson up through 11th grade, finishing off my last year of classical lessons here in Back Bay at NEC’s prep school. I loved the piano, but starting in 8th grade I began taking guitar lessons and voice lessons. I really only started singing when I began high school – I would always sing and write songs in my room but would insist on keeping the door shut and singing quietly under my breath.
Music has always been a coping mechanism for me through my ups and downs of anxiety and depression so I knew that it would stay near and dear to my heart as I grew older. As I began to discover the art department at my high school, I branched out more and more musically. I was an Alto and arranger in Westwood High School’s acapella group “Passing Notes”, played clarinet in the Wind Ensemble, and lead the Tri-M Music Honor Society.
During all this time I started writing my own songs in 9th grade and performing them locally at places like Hale Reservation, Westwood Day, etc.. In the Fall of 2015, I opened up for comedian Kevin Breel at a Mental Health Awareness event held at Norwood Theater by the IAM Strong Foundation. This was the first time I took the stage to share my mental health story and share my music.
Ever since, I’ve makes strides to support those around me with my music, inspire relief through music, and encourage those around me to share their stories. In the following Fall of 2016, I put on my first solo show at the Dedham Square Coffeehouse in Dedham, Massachusetts – A night entitled, ‘One Call,’ after my first song sharing my story of mental illness. I hosted a night full of my original songs and the telling of my journey with mental health. Raising over $800 for the IAM Strong Foundation, the night was a beautiful success.
As I grow with this pursuit of mental health awareness in my music, I have also grown into the Boston music scene as a whole. Last October, I opened up the Queen Treatment Only Festival featuring some of Boston’s most amazing female singer-songwriters including – Ruby Rose Fox & The Gloria Steinem, When Particles Collide, Sarah Blacker, Cruel Miracle, Chelsea Berry, The Dirty Dottys, Hayley Jane and the Primates, and Jen Kearney. It was so inspiring to get a look into the Boston female music scene and learn and talk to so many talented women that I looked up to.
In late April 2017, I ran an Indiegogo campaign raising funds for my first album EVER! I raised over 8,000 dollars to record my 5 song EP entitled Living For Now coming out this Fall 2018! I am currently finishing up the mixing and mastering steps at Plaid Dog recording in Allston Mass and can’t wait to finally share with all my supporters the music I’ve created!
Since September I have finished my first 2 semesters here at Berklee College of Music as a Vocal principle and Music Therapy Major! I will be continuing with my third semester this coming September and can not wait to keep writing and learning alongside so many talented people. I’m excited to jump deeper into the world of music therapy with a special emphasis on songwriting and the power of exhaling your thoughts and emotions into music!
In terms of the music I play, I would describe it as ‘folk-pop’ with Americana and country influences. A lot of people may refer to it as ‘singer-songwriter-ey’. The music coming out on my new EP this fall is a bit more Pop-y than my current songs I’m writing. I’ve recently been getting a lot of inspiration from bluegrass and country music so I’m excited to delve into that!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all – in fact, it’s still not smooth. It’s a bit of a winding, endless, goal changing road. What really made music stick in my life was how it supported me. As a little kid, I was always the girl crying for her mom or missing home.
This anxiety really grew as I grew. I was always just a really nervous kid and was really good at putting on a brave face, but at the end of the day was exhausted from hiding my real feelings. I remember having panic attacks at camp growing up (not knowing that that was what they were at the time) and struggling to keep up with everything going on. I really had a breaking point when I entered High School 5 years ago. I had a hard summer after coming home early from a sleep-away camp.
I remember feeling so stupid that I couldn’t be like the other girls and just stay and have fun at camp. I would be there but my mind would be elsewhere and panicking for reasons I didn’t even know. I felt sad, I felt empty, and I wanted to reach out to people but half of me also just wanted to be in bed all the time and just sleep away my pain. I became depressed during the summer of 8th grade and getting back to school freshman year was almost impossible.
I missed the first two weeks of school because of how panicky I felt and how empty and sad my spirits were. Both my parents work full-time normally but with my struggles, they had been taking time off to support me. With school starting, they would also be going back to work leaving me with a lot of alone time. I specifically remember the night before school started when my mom and I were driving home and I made her pull over into my old elementary school parking lot at the end of my street.
I couldn’t even look her in the eyes to tell her but I uttered the words, “You can’t leave me alone, I don’t feel in control and I don’t know what I’ll do to myself”. This was the lowest point in my life and I probably scared my mother half to death. But it truly takes hitting rock bottom to then come back up to surface, I started going to therapy more regularly and taking medication to help my anxiety and depression.
During this low point was when I actually started playing the guitar and writing songs. They didn’t start as songs – more like diary entries. But as I would close my eyes and strums the strings of the guitar I felt like they kind of belonged together. Every time I would write down my feelings and sing over the guitar they seemed to empty from my clouded mind and form in a musical space where I didn’t have to worry about them.
It was like spilling all your anxiety and stress on to a friend except you could do it any day at any time. I never shared these songs much with many people until a year and a half later when a girl from my high school, Isabelle, committed suicide. She was two years younger than me and had a twin sister as well as an older sister who I was friends with in my grade. She was happy. She was always laughing, a star-student, a kind soul. And then she was gone. No one knew she was suffering – she had the bravest face. She reminded me of myself.
What could have happened to me if things didn’t turn around after that car ride with my mom? The following months I began to reflect on my journey with my mental health a well as her story. With this, I wrote the first song that I was really proud of, “One Call”.
It’s the story of a girl hiding behind a brave face but truly struggling inside – a weaving of Isabelle and me. Ever since then a lot of my work has been mental health-related and this upcoming EP features several songs on this topic. I noticed when I began sharing my songs people listened. Some cried some would message me about how they related. Some got help, others cared for loved ones. No one seems to talk about inside struggles and by sharing my song it sparked some action and that’s why I continued my musical journey.
I fought so hard through times that felt like my body was trying to kill me and I’m here today to write my stories through music and get people talking about how hard mental illness is and how common it is! Everyone has some kind of internal battle and you don’t need to put on a brave face all the time. Today I still struggle to get out of bed in the morning, and sometimes I have good days and sometimes I have bad days. I continue to challenge my fears and do things I would have never done 4 years ago. This spring I’m going to Spain for 6 months and am completely terrified but it’s in those moments where you are terrified beyond belief that true art and expression are created.
I’m only 19 and still learning my purpose in life but sometimes I feel like I was put on this earth to push myself harder than ever and fight past my anxieties to then create the art only creat-able in those breaking painful moments. It’s in those moments that the most authentic and beautiful things are created that will connect us, humans, together.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I’m a 19-year old (20 in December!) singer-songwriter expressing life as I see it and putting raw emotions and stories that I experience into song. I study singing as my main instrument here at Berklee but also play guitar and piano as my accompaniment.
I really only write a song with my guitar but have been dabbling in some piano composition recently! I feel like my real specialty is folky/singer-songwriter guitar and vocal performance. I play a mean ‘coffee-house’ vibe! I’m inspired by artists like Brandi Carlile, Shawn Colvin and Jason Isbell.
I’m known for my honesty and openness about my mental health journey and it’s something I really hope to carry into my work with music therapy. When I create, I create work that has healed me in the process of its creation and its purpose is also to serve as a healer to someone else. That is what I feel sets me apart.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career thus far has been the creation of my upcoming album being released this far. My song One Call really drove the project from the start but it has been so amazing to see the response and support since releasing and playing the song out in public. In 2016 I played my first solo show at the Dedham Square Coffeehouse where I raised funds for the IAM strong Foundation in Isabelle’s memory and that was when this whole album really started rolling out. That show was one of the most authentic and proud shows I’ve ever put on.
My performance wasn’t perfect, but the stories I got to share and the people who showed up to listen and support were just amazing. I got to be my true self on the stage and sing out my heart to all the people that found a spark in me. I have this picture I keep in my room of the audience that night – teachers, family, friends, strangers. It was the first time I showed the world the raw me without my brave face and it felt so freeing.
Months later I somehow managed to raise over 8,000 dollars for my album on Indiegogo (still literally in shock). But the most amazing thing about the fundraiser was that 50% of donations were from people I have never met before. They were from people who shared my story with others. I felt supported by a world of people I had never even met before – such a crazy feeling.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sophiajanemusic.com
- Email: sophiajanemusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: @sophia_jane_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiajanemusic
- Twitter: @sophia_jane_
- Yelp: https://www.twitter.com/sophia_jane_
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/sophiajanemusic
Image Credit:
Daniel Xu Photography
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