Although Sandra Davalos lives near Lowest Greenville, she claims to have never been to the wildly popular Mudsmith coffee shop when we meet there for a chat. “I don’t really have friends,” she says. “I spend a lot of time reading and writing. I really like poetry.”
She also spends her time at home recording. In less than a year, the 22-year-old has posted online many hauntingly beautiful pieces of music under the name Moth Face. The tracks are mostly melancholy, with titles such as “Nothing Mattered to You” and “Sick of It.” Moth Face started when Davalos fulfilled a lifelong goal of purchasing a drum set. But it eventually became an entire recording project, complete with synthesizers, vocals, and her quietly pleading lyrics. Her homebody ways and lack of formal training have paid off. Her sound is unlike any other singer-songwriter working in the city.
“Everything I’ve learned, I have had to teach myself,” Davalos says. “I think if you have it, it’s inside you.”
This article will appear in the February 2015 issue of D Magazine.
