In several Slavic languages, including the one her father grew up speaking, sova means owl. Sophia Vastek took it as her new artist name after years of thinking about how to present herself, a choice that shortens her given name and nods to her father’s side of the family. Her new single carries a title she put far less thought into.
“Heavy Shit” began as a chord progression Sova recorded on her phone and labeled with the first words that came to mind. The label stuck because it was accurate: “It felt heavy, and that was the mood I was in.”
The instrumental starts from that progression and keeps adding weight. Warm layers build around tightly wound neoclassical writing, and a touch of distortion roughs up the edges so the polish never smooths the mood away. It widens the approach of her 2022 album In Our Softening, where, after a career spent mostly interpreting other composers’ classical works, she played her own music alone on a battered 1902 upright piano. Her new album Alight! brings in collaborators including cellist Clarice Jensen and fretless bassist Spencer Zahn, with her husband Sam Torres producing.
The track works because the build never loses the feeling captured on that phone. Her classical training gives the composition its tension, and the light distortion keeps the original heaviness audible all the way through. Sova chose her name for its wisdom and kept this title for its honesty, and the music lives up to both.
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