Raw & Rabid, Sofia Zarzuela’s “Pleasantville” Is Not So Pleasant

Words by Willa Rudolph / Photos by Alexis Kleshik

Singer/songwriter Sofia Zarzuela is the frontwoman of her own self-titled band, which today releases a new single entitled “Pleasantville.” With an evocative title that will immediately remind many of the cookie-cutter perfection, revealed to be totally sinister, in the 1998 film of the same name, Zarzuela’s song may provoke emotions before you’ve even heard it.

However, after listening to the equal-parts chilling and fiery track, the emotions you felt at first will have shattered and bloomed again a thousand times over, as Zarzuela’s voice tumbles between aches and moans, screams and whispers, songbird delicateness and guttural rage, through the nearly five-minute long song. 

Written at the tail end of her college experience, Sofia dug into the well of emotions she’d been thrown into during her years there. When asked about the small, remote liberal arts school she attended, Zarzuela says, “It oftentimes felt harrowing, claustrophobic, and genuinely haunted, with a malignant, Twin Peaks-like evil force.”

I asked my friend (and mud wrestling sparring partner) Sofia a few questions about this release, as it is her first new song put out in, like, two years. (A dope-ass music video will accompany the song in two weeks) – This is our conversation: 

WR: When was “Pleasantville” written?

Sofia: I wrote “Pleasantville” in May 2022, the end of my senior year of college. I wrote it in part because I needed to, and in part because I was asked to play at an open mic and I wanted to make people uncomfortable.

WR: What inspired its lyrics?

Sofia: Not saying! Lol.

WR: Ok, secrets! How long have you been with your band?

Sofia: I started playing with a band two years ago when I was at school. Dylan is the only person from that lineup still with us–he’d been floating in and out as a substitute bassist for a while before I gave in and decided to have two guitarists (even though everyone knows five pieces are inherently lame). Stav (guitar) and Billy (drums) have been around for a year and a half, and Joe (bass) a little under a year.

WR: How long have you been writing music?

Sofia: I’ve been writing music my whole life! I come from a family of musicians, and my dad has been really nurturing since I was a little kid. He started recording my songs with me when I was eleven or twelve. I went to LaGuardia High School for classical voice (hated it) and spent most of high school really entrenched in the New York indie scene, back in the day where you could see a Frankie Cosmos/Alex G/Girlpool lineup for $15. I was super inspired by that era of DIY bandcamp music and started uploading my own music when I was fifteen. The first thing I ever put up was an EP I wrote from the perspective of Bonnie Parker (of the famous lovesickcrimeduo Bonnie and Clyde.)

WR: If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?

Sofia: I can’t imagine not doing music. I went to school for film so I would probably be making movies. But if you want to think I’m a really good person then I would say become a doula. 

WR: Who are some of your musical inspirations?

Sofia: My #1 absolute forever inspiration is Hole’s Courtney Love. I think she’s perfect and a genius. My performance style is really indebted to her and KatieJane Garside (of the 90s bands Queenadreena and Daisy Chainsaw, the latter of which opened for Hole on their Pretty on the Inside tour.) She’s not super well known, but she’s this perfect little blonde ragdoll of a woman who would pour wine on herself and strangle herself with a microphone cable and hum and scream over these really crazy metal and grunge songs. I also love all the pioneering girl-rockers: Indigo De Souza, Fiona Apple, Liz Phair, Mannequin Pussy… Lyrically, I’m really inspired by Nicole Dollanganger (Tumblr veterans will remember) who put out these really DIY, soft sung and raucously horny white trash anthems in the 2010s. 

WR: Where did the concept for the music video come from?

Sofia: The song name “Pleasantville” is in reference to the 1998 film with Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. It’s about a sibling duo who get trapped in a 1950s sitcom via a magical TV repairman. The movie is just okay. But there’s a scene where they’re trying to escape the town of Pleasantville and they walk all the way down to the end of Main street, only to find themselves in a loop, at the beginning again.

Sofia (cont.): I went to college in a rural town in the middle of Ohio (it’s called Oberlin, and if you want to get a sense of it you can listen to “Batmobile” by Liz Phair or watch an episode of Lena Dunham’s Girls, the best alumni a girl could ask for!) It was extremely beautiful and formative in a lot of ways, and has informed the bulk of my work as a musician and filmmaker (my last EP, 121 Elm Street, is named after the address of my sophomore year dorm.) It also oftentimes felt harrowing, claustrophobic, and genuinely haunted, with a malignant, Twin Peaks-like evil force. I lived on Main street in my senior year. When I wished I could leave I would walk all the way down until I hit a small wooden sign saying Welcome to Oberlin and a busy highway. Then I would turn back around. I called this feeling Pleasantville, and the song was born through that. 

The music video, directed by my childhood friend/fellow Oberlin alumni/absolute genius India Gray, and shot by total savant Syd Villacortabuer, is an attempt to conjure up those feelings. Being watched, being drunk, being stuck. My guitarist and drummer, who both work construction, built the dollhouse from scratch in like forty-five minutes. Men are so wonderful sometimes…