Mexican pop singer Sofish couldn't escape Ray Bradbury's “The Illustrated Man,” a collection of 18 science fiction stories where a man's tattoos come to life and share dystopian stories of the human condition. It was a book that her childhood friend recommended to her before she died suddenly during her adolescence. Months later, her mother would recommend the 1951 science fiction book to her and, eight years later, an ex-boyfriend.
“But in my universe maybe the stories don't end in tragedy,” said Sofish, whose real name is Sofía López Jiménez.
Now, on her self-released debut album, “Femme Illustrée,” the 25-year-old Francophile puts a spin on Bradbury's idea, embracing her own tattoos — or rather, love wounds — not as a warning of future disillusionment but rather as markers of a life well-lived.
Across nine tracks, the Guadalajara-born singer-songwriter transports listeners to a heavenly club filled with love, lust and longing. Switching between Spanish and French, Sofish offers a heavy dose of French house music and a funky flow of moombahton, a subgenre that combines Dutch house music and reggaeton.
Two months ago, the alt-pop diva made her U.S. debut when she performed at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, drawing crowds with her magnetic aura just as she had done at Mexican festivals Tecate Emblema and Fiestas de Octubre (where she opened for pop darling Belinda).
“I always try to make vulnerable and deep songs, but also songs that make people dance,” Sofish said. “I want a mosh pit!”
(Rocío Jiménez Barragán/Rocío Jiménez Barragán)
This interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.
Where does the name Sofish come from?
My best friend from high school gave me the nickname Sofish. I always felt a little misfit and so did my best friend, Fer. We both loved reading. He died practically overnight due to an aneurysm.
Since we took English classes together, she came up with the nickname because my last name is López. She thought it would be fun to play with Lopez's name. [pez means fish in English]. I chose that name in his honor. I try to make sure that “Sofish” is simply an extension of who Sofía is.
“The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury is essential to his album. But in his book, the narrator flees from the enlightened. On your album “Femme Illustrée” are you killing that narrator or silencing him?
In the book, the narrator's ending remains ambiguous, leaving us to wonder if he fled because he foresaw his own demise. I have transformed the narrative to focus on a figure who embraces his wounds instead of running away from them or instilling fear. I feel like we have two options: either we feel compelled to follow trends or we dare to find our own voice. In my case, we weren't sure if French lyrics or these dystopian soundscapes would work. But the point is that everyone finds their own unique combination, because we all have one.
What do you hope people notice when they listen to “Femme Illustrée”?
I began to realize what my personal pattern and cycle really was: the initial intensity, the attraction and then the excitement of having found your perfect partner. There is that moment where illusions crumble, where masks fall and what follows is disappointment.
Very similar to the song “Me Caigo”, which is why it serves as the final song of the album. It is a moment characterized by both denial and acceptance within the process of falling itself.
The song “Flashbacks” represents that longing for deep connection, a desire that leads one to fall into this same illusion. “Night” was inspired by the [2016] movie “Nocturnal Animals” and touches on that feeling of disappointment. If you listen to “Noche” you will notice that it presents interludes, short breaks that narrate this process of catharsis. It represents hitting rock bottom, starting over, destroying everything completely, but this time from a new perspective. “The World I Give You” is about self-love…. marks the point where the cycle is broken.
What song was the most difficult to write?
We were working on “Noche” before January 2025. It was a big struggle for us because it was very avant-garde electronic music. When I showed it to my distributor, they basically said, “There's just no electronic music like that in Mexico right now… this is really good, it could compete in Europe,” since that's where the electronic scene is even bigger.
for mango [Guillermo Andrés Vega Castellanos]My producer, he kept telling me that I need to write lyrics about this because the song has a lot of musical breaks, but I was like no, I can't write anything about it because the music does all the work, it speaks for itself. If I write over it, I feel like I'm trying to occupy space that doesn't belong to me.
You combine Spanish and French on this album, a combination we rarely hear in pop music. How did you learn French and why did you decide to include it on this album?
There was a lot of French inspiration in my life from a very young age. An album that marked me was the soundtrack to “Amélie” by Yann Tierse. I was quite young when it came out but I consider it a great work of sound art.
Later, the French atmosphere found me again. My uncle had a friend who had just arrived from France. I was his only French student. From the first class he told me: “I'm not going to speak a word of Spanish to you.” That's how I learned. It was like when parents throw you into the bottom of a pool.
I can't say exactly how similar French and Mexican cultures are, but perhaps it has something to do with many historical links, the numerous French communities that settled in places like Guadalajara and Mexico City, the Cake Wars. African elements are also present in Latin and French culture. There's a reason we explored moombahton, a popular genre in France. We are also inspired by Latin music artists like Major Lazer.
How did you fall in love with French house music?
I think it has a lot to do with how I grew up. The hits that were big at that time were Jamiroquai, Modjo, there was also Stromae with “Alors On Danse”. Something inside me began to resonate with that type of music. Guadalajara was influenced by Kinky, Sussie 4, Belanova.
Two tracks on this album are interludes in which you describe what an open book you are like and how your stories, as sad as they are, are also part of who you are as a person and artist. Is there any other story that has marked you as an artist?
Something I learned after Fer's death is that I have two options. Either I stay stuck in this feeling forever or I can let this [grief] consume me I can make a thousand mistakes and see them as signs that I am getting closer to the goal, or I can feel like a failure.
Many people have died in my life. Before Fer, there was another friend who died from the same thing. Then came my grandfather, who passed away from cancer after a long battle with dementia. From a very young age I understood that what really matters is the present. Because if you wait for that big day, the day you sell out the stadium or whatever great thing you've imagined, then it may already be too late.
