A Few Words from Harmony Woods about Nothing Special
“A couple of years ago, I felt embarrassed that a time capsule of my teenage feelings was available online for anyone to access at any time,” established emo rock niche micro celebrity Sofia Verbilla shared with Wormbrain, when prodded about Nothing Special, the 2017 debut full length release from her band Harmony Woods. “Now I see it as a blessing. I’m no longer petty or resentful toward my younger self. I adore her. I admire how she chose to live and create when it would have been easier to stay wrapped up in darkness. Nothing Special brought an abundance of love and light into my life, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Originally released five years ago this month by Worcester, MA based label Honest Face Records, the coming-of-age album was the first stepping stone for Verbilla, matching her youthful wonder and optimistic naivety with the harsh, beautiful, crashing teenage realities that eventually come along with merely having to exist.
“It’s necessary to look out for yourself, but lovely surprises can only occur if you allow space for them.”
“I wrote these songs at 16 and recorded them at 17, and around then everything felt so new and almost magical,” Verbilla told us. As if looking back at a high school yearbook half a decade after graduation, Verbilla finds new meaning, a touch of cringe, and catharsis in reflecting back on the public documentation of her adolescent experience. “I was coming out of a very long, very turbulent time at home and it felt like my life was actually beginning. There was a lot of bittersweetness and cautious optimism and confusion, fleeting bouts of euphoria and overstimulation. Have you ever felt so much that you couldn’t process any of it at all until years later?”
“I’ve felt pangs of similar nervous excitement when releasing our later records, but Nothing Special was different,” they admitted.
With a handful of well received albums to their name at this point, it would be understandable if the nerves or novelty of sharing your songs with the world had lost their power, or if the memories were long buried by new claims to fame, yet Verbilla said, ”I was 18, but mentally and emotionally I was a kid. There was so much happening, but I wasn’t yet at a place in my development where I could truly take it all in. I’d gone from finding solace in my favorite band to making music with them. After its release there were moments when I felt like I should have been happier, but in clawing for those ‘appropriate’ feelings, all that turned up was empty.”
Photo courtesy of Josh Pelta Heller.
Rather than brush Nothing Special under the rug in lieu of new(er) releases, instead Verbilla tells us that she "[has] a soft spot for ‘The Best Things’ and I make sure we play it at every show. One of my favorite facets of songwriting is how songs can take on new meanings over time. It was first written as a love song to a person who didn’t exist; a projection of what I so desperately wanted to feel. Now I see it as an anthem for cautious optimism. It’s necessary to look out for yourself, but lovely surprises can only occur if you allow space for them.”
“‘Renovations’ and ‘Negro y Azul’ are ones we get asked about that we haven’t done in awhile,” she said, on other fan-favorite live holdovers from this era of Harmony Woods. “I’d really love to rework them with my bandmates.”
Cross your fingers, readers, because you just may hear these callbacks sometime soon — additionally, Sofia Verbilla teased, “Harmony Woods will be touring this summer. We have new songs written that haven’t gotten me this excited since I was a teenager. All will be revealed at the right time.”
An Open Letter to Sofia Verbilla (2017) from Sofia Verbilla (2022):
“yoooo young sof!! it’s old sof >:) weird right? anyways i know you wouldn’t take in any of this if literally any person were to tell you but since i’m you maybe this will be different. you (we?) have nothing but time. i know it feels like you need to speedrun adolescence in order to catch up with your peers, but please listen to your body. if you’re feeling anything less than ‘fuck yes,’ it’s a fuck no. firsts are overrated. you WILL find your people. ask your doctor about wellbutrin. also, call your grandparents more. i love you.”
Photo courtesy of Josh Pelta Heller.
Wormbrain World had the chance to ask Sofia Verbilla of Harmony Woods to say a few words about their album Nothing Special, looking back on releasing it five years ago, and each of the songs on it. Here is what she said:
W.W: Nothing Special
SV: I never thought this could happen.
W.W: 1. Vignette #1
SV: Hot people scare me.
W.W: 2. The Best Things
SV: It’s always when you least expect it.
W.W: 3. Jenkintown-Wyncote
SV: A love letter to SEPTA.
W.W: 4. Negro y Azul
SV: I still haven’t finished Breaking Bad.
W.W: 5. Vignette #2
SV: There’s such a thing as too comfortable.
W.W: 6. Speckled
SV: Be present, if you can.
W.W: 7. Parking Lot
SV: It’s all too much sometimes.
W.W: 8. The Worst Things
SV: You can’t save anyone.
W.W: 9. Vignette #3
SV: Just like it was nothing.
W.W: 10. Renovations
SV: I had to put myself first.
W.W: 11. Vignette #4
SV: Silence is all we had left.
W.W: 12. Equinox
SV: Enjoy what you can before it’s gone.
W.W: Honest Face Records
SV: Thank you for believing in me.
———
W.W: What is Wormbrain?
SV: A bright hot pink light that never burns out, baby!!
W.W: Thank you for sharing with Wormbrain.
Harmony Woods’ Nothing Special is out now everywhere on Worcester, MA label Honest Face Records.
