Free Range’s new album Lost & Found crystallizes the confusion and newness that accompanies young adulthood. 21-year-old Sofia Jensen navigates major life transitions, feeling the fear but doing it anyway. The follow up to their 2023 debut Practice serves as both a coping skill and an emissary, providing a voice for a generation searching for meaning and belonging.
While on the road with Horsegirl, I caught up with Sofia to discuss separate yet intertwined transformations, the gratifying songwriting process, and why Chicago is the best city for indie rock.
Free Range by Alexa Viscius
GILIANN KARON: What’s your musical upbringing and how did you get your start?
FREE RANGE: I grew up playing classical piano from a pretty young age. Then I started playing guitar when I was 12 or 13, which was when I started playing non-classical music and playing with other people.
GK: Your album is all about searching for connection and community. What makes you feel grounded?
FR: My close friends and spending time with others, even though I spend a lot of time alone. Reading also helps when I feel lost. I haven’t been reading as much lately because I’ve been so busy, and it’s really getting to me.
GK: You toured for the first time before writing Lost & Found, which touches on these same feelings about leaving home and growing up. How do the experiences of touring for the first time and moving away from your parents inform each other?
FR: They're pretty connected for sure – both entail experiencing the world on your own as an adult of sorts without your parents. Those two experiences happening around the same time felt both exciting and daunting. There was a learning curve with figuring out how to make it sustainable while making sure I felt good while doing it.
Those two experiences were happening as we were starting to think about the second record, so it was inevitable that the songs would be informed by being an adult for the first time and trying to figure out what that looked like for me.
GK: Figuring out adulthood is by no means a new phenomenon, but what do you think is so different and unique about doing it today?
FR: My experience with social media and the internet started in middle school, because I didn’t have a smartphone before then. A lot of my high school experience consisted of following touring bands on the internet, looking up to them, and wanting to follow in their footsteps.
I knew I wanted to be in a band and tour all the time. I think that’s a big difference about being young and alive right now – you have a clearer picture of what you want to be, even if that life is pretty unorthodox. I couldn’t wait to finish school so I could make records and go on tour.
GK: Lost & Found is about your struggle to be vulnerable and forthright. What was your process of articulating yourself for the sake of writing lyrics?
FR: It definitely changes. I have a hard time pinning down any consistent throughline for what the album really is about. I've done my best to attach meaning to certain things or try to make meaning out of what I've written. A lot of times, I’ll spit lyrics out and then make sense of them. It’s still a bit of a puzzle for me. There isn’t a clear process.
I write the chords and melodies first. Lyrics come last. I never sit down with the intention of writing something specific, it’s whatever comes out.
GK: What was the hardest song to write on Lost & Found?
FR: “Big Star,” which my band and I started on tour last year. We had written pretty silly lyrics for most of the song, and then decided to make it work for the record. It’s one of the only songs with characters and a narrative. After struggling to finish it for a few days on my own, I spent a full day in Texas reworking the song with Tommy Reed, who produced, mixed, and engineered the record, and Eric Adams, who also produced it.
It ended up being the most collaborative song on the record. Tommy wrote a lot of the lines. It was really fun and gratifying to finish it.
GK: Do you usually write things collaboratively or is it just yourself?
FR: Usually just myself. I don’t have a lot of experience writing with others, but it’s something I want to do more of.
I haven’t figured out my strengths and how to feel comfortable. It's a pretty vulnerable thing, too. I write a lot of terrible lyrics before I reach something good, and it can be hard to have someone witness that.
I can only do it with a few specific people because it’s a matter of musical chemistry and similar writing styles. It’s hard to put my idiosyncrasies into words. I’m trying to find those musical relationships where things can remain a bit unspoken.
GK: Who are your mentors?
FR: Tommy Reed, who I worked with on Lost & Found. I met him in 2021, when I was 18 or 19. I wasn't really sure what to expect from that collaboration on the first record. He was originally just going to mix, but he ended up changing and rerecording things. I showed him a lot of new songs I was excited about. We unintentionally started mapping out the second record.
The process involved putting a lot of trust in him and him trusting us, too. I felt like I'd finally found someone who I could bring songs to and he’d give me an honest opinion, whether it was reworking the songs or cutting them. I’d never worked with someone that experienced who wasn’t in the band. He’s a writer who I really respect and admire.
Same goes for Eric, too. He’s a great musician and a great person. He takes amazing photos too. It's fun to know someone so much older than me who’s had lots of time to hone their skills, which happen to be the same things I spend most of my time doing and thinking about.
GK: What are your favorite things about the Chicago music scene?
FR: The people! The music in Chicago is exceptional, but I think you can find that anywhere. Scenes are all about how its people come together, treat each other, and lift each other up. Chicago has the best community for that.
There’s also a fun mixture of people from Chicago, the surrounding area, and the Midwest in general who come because it’s a hub. It attracts really good people because it’s not New York or LA. It’s not the obvious choice for someone who’s trying to live a fast-paced or competitive life in a creative environment. It attracts people that want something a little more honest and slower.
GK: What would you say to your past self who was afraid of taking all these risks?
FR: So many things! I’ve definitely struggled with finding people making similar music to mine. Part of me has felt embarrassed about the kind of music I ultimately wanted to make – maybe it was too soft or too simple or too accessible, or not cool enough or not weird enough.
There's so much different music in Chicago. I think it’s one of the greatest cities right now for weirder rock music. In my mind, some of the best, left-field indie rock bands are all from Chicago.
I've never really made that kind of music and was freinds with a lot of people making things that were weirder and noiser. I wanted to make music that was clean and soft, but for a number of years, I felt like that was a bad thing until I met people that were writing songs in the same vein as what I was trying to do. Then I realized how much of that kind of music was here was in Chicago.
I think I would tell myself that there are people that like that and there's like an audience for all kinds of music, even if it's not right in front of you or obvious in the moment.