By Sarah Garrett
Back in October, after the variety show, our newspaper class was, shall we say, enthusiastic about a particular performance: Andres Sosa singing “Self Control” by Frank Ocean. At the risk of blowing up his ego a bit too much, I figured I’d check in with Andres about his musical interests.
Ever since Andres was little, he has been playing lots of different instruments. “I actually have a lot of videos of my dad and I playing songs together from when I was probably two or three years old,” he said, smiling. Both of his parents have been musical role models. “My mom was always a really good singer, so I just always was around music no matter who I was with,” he said. “I had two really talented parents.”
He started with the drums, then learned piano, clarinet, and, most recently, the guitar. He picked up the guitar about two years ago, and his dad taught him everything. “When I started playing, I really fell in love with the instrument. I felt like it was really versatile, really expressive in ways that a lot of other instruments are, but this felt very personal and I wanted to become connected to it because I’d grown up my whole life watching my dad play it,” he said.
One of the first songs he ever learned from his dad was “Fake Plastic Trees” by RadioHead. It was one of his favorite bands at the time, and he is still obsessed with it to this day. “The more I got to know Radiohead, the more I really liked experimental and “weird” music,” he said. “The stuff that pushed the boundaries was what kind of called my attention.”
Even though Andres grew up playing music, the last time Andres was seen performing at Lovett was at the talent show in 5th grade in 2016, so he was pretty nervous going into this year’s variety show. “Daniel Mann has been performing forever, so that stuff comes easy to him but I hadn’t done any type of performance since the 5th grade,” he said. “This was kind of important to me cause I realized despite music being a huge part of my life, not many people knew that side of me.”
Andres picked “Self Control” by Frank Ocean off of one of his favorite Frank Ocean albums, “Blonde.” Originally, he didn’t like the album, but about a year ago he decided to give it another listen and he fell in love with it. He explained that the album really changed his perspective on how music can and should be played. “It wasn’t normal pop or R&B, it was kind of its own thing, its own type of art,” he said.
Andres loves the message behind “Self Control.” He said it hits when you come to understand it: “That feeling of a sort of unfortunate love, not one with a poor ending but rather one with poor timing, and wanting one last chance with that love. I don’t mean to make it deep or anything, but I feel like that’s something everyone experiences at some point in their lives, and it’s such a specific feeling, and the song captures that perfectly.”
In spite of finding the song to be beautiful and “right to perform,” he was still “super nervous” to perform it. But once he got on stage, it got easier for him.
“I just kind of let things flow and it felt like the audience was really paying attention and listening,” he said. “So this kind of trance went over me, and that’s how I feel about music.”
Andres’ love for music is evident, and he encourages everyone to get out there and share their passions and talents. Even though he was super nervous going into it he told me, “It was really, really special, and afterwards I had a lot of people tell me they loved it, so yeah, that’s something I’d like to relive again.”
I’m sure some of the sophomores in my class would be there for it.
