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It tells a story. It’s about the life of everyday people. The occasional heartbreak notwithstanding, it has no negativity. It’s raw, relatable, authentic and uplifting.
That’s largely how 25-year-old Sofia Claire describes country music, a genre she has chosen as her profession.
Sofia Claire’s talent for music was evident when she was a child growing up in Redwood City. The story goes that her mother, while doing the laundry, happened to hear her 7-year-old daughter sing while playing with Barbies. She turned around and asked her where she learned to sing like that. An unsuspecting Sofia Claire said she learned it from her music teacher at school, but her mother knew she had heard something special.
“She immediately started looking for avenues for me to cultivate that,” said Sofia Claire, crediting her mother for setting her on her musical journey.
Sofia Claire signed up for her first musical when she was in the fourth grade. “At first I didn’t really like it,” she said. It was more like a children’s theater show with a lot of acting but not much music.
But things changed when she switched schools in the sixth grade — from Roy Cloud to St. Pius — and got involved with the musical theater program and parish shows there.
“My mom signed me up for ‘Annie’ and it was like pulling teeth to get me to that audition,” she said. “I started singing one day in rehearsal and the director made a funny face. She cocked her eyebrow and said ‘Do you think you could sing a little bit more without anybody else singing behind you?'”
That’s how Sofia Claire landed her first solo performance. “I remember the day I got on stage in front of an audience and just never wanting to look back,” she said. “It was very powerful.”
She continued doing shows all through middle school. At Woodside High School, she got involved with community theater and regional companies like Broadway by the Bay. Eventually, she found her niche in country music.
Last year Sofia Claire released “Forever Ago,” a single she believes is the best representation of her writing so far. It’s a ballad about what it feels like to be loved and then left. “I went about that knowing I wanted something powerful and deep and descriptive,” she said.
The inspiration behind the song is “1883,” a TV drama series about American settlers in Montana. Sofia Claire had been a fan of the show’s predecessor, “Yellowstone,” a neo-Western story about a disputed cattle ranch, set in the modern era. Though “1883” was released after “Yellowstone,” it was created as a prequel that took the audience into the ancestry of the characters.
“When I got in the writing room at Nashville with two of the other writers on the song, we were all talking about what a great story it was,” she said. Once every few months she goes to Nashville to write and record her songs.
Besides the visual aesthetic of the show, Sofia Claire specifically identified with the character Elsa Dutton, played by actor Isabel May. “She’s such a passionate, strong woman, deeply in love,” she said about her favorite character. “‘Forever Ago’ is about heartbreak. Elsa had to deal with her lover dying — so I felt like I could make something out of that connection.”
That’s how inspiration works anyway. It comes from unlikely places and touches artists in surprising ways. For instance, it was a heady blend of her upbringing in Redwood City and dozens of Italian summers that helped Sofia Claire segue into a career in country music to begin with.
Her father is from the small Italian town of Cagli. Her mother was born in California to Cuban and Sicilian immigrants.
“Spending a lot of time on my grandparents’ and uncles’ farm in Italy has influenced my music a lot — country music is about agriculture, farming, riding horses,” she said. “I felt like country music very much reflected my own roots and identity which is about tradition, family values, religion, faith.”
She found similar landscapes here in California in places like Arnold and Red Bluff. “There’s a lot of farming land up there,” she said. “And a country music audience too.”
Inspiration came from other places as well. Growing up, getting into her mom’s or aunt’s car was nothing short of a lesson in country music — they loved listening to singers like George Strait, Keith Whitley, Kenny Rogers and Shania Twain. In fact, the first concert Sofia Claire ever went to, as an 11-year-old, was Toby Keith. “I was so upset when he recently passed,” she said.
In general, her two elder brothers inadvertently played a role in steering her towards music, an unconventional professional choice for “somebody of my demographic.”
“I was used to be being ‘Enzo and Oki’s sister’ and not ‘Sofia’. I found my individuality in music,” she said. “I found myself and found my femininity in creativity.”
Sofia Claire has a busy life outside of music. After studying musical theater at San Diego State University for a year she spent another year at Foothill College, before getting a degree in business marketing from Menlo College. She presently works as marketing manager at Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company.
She is also a pageant enthusiast; she finished as second runner-up at the recent Miss California Volunteer pageant at Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles, and holds the title of Miss San Mateo County Volunteer.
“Everything I do needs to help me with my overarching goal of being successful in my music career,” she said. For instance, her degree will help her market her skills better in the competitive world of music.
“Music is something I’ve never stopped wanting,” she said, insisting that everything she does is in service of the little 7-year-old girl who was serendipitously discovered by her mother. “I would regret letting that girl down.”
Her next performance is in Redwood City at Club Fox on March 1. It’s special not just because the show is a local staple but also because this is the first time Sofia Claire will be headlining it.
“I feel most fulfilled on stage,” she said.
Sofia Claire Band with special guest J. Canchola plays March 1 at Club Fox, 2209 Broadway, Redwood City. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15-$20. clubfoxrwc.com.