Coming from Brooklyn, by way of North Carolina, the four-piece SoftSpot have a sound that is widely described as art rock, but if you put on a song of theirs and close your eyes it mostly sounds like a ghostly sea goddess crooning over a luxurious blend of sounds. Which I guess might be pretty arty, but it makes for an intriguing combination of both exhilarating and relaxing vibes.
Since their first release, ŸNOUSŸ, in 2011 lead vocalist & bassist Sarah Kinlaw and lead guitarist & multi-instrumentalist Bryan Keller have added both flair and permanent members to the band. Already having started to blend good ol’ fashioned rock n’ roll with folk undertones, the continuation to Ÿ NOUSŸ and duo’s first full album, Ensō (Japanese for circle), expanded on their signature sound. While touring with Ensō drummer Blaze Bateh joined the line-up and the recently released sophomore album, MASS was recorded as a three-piece. Friend of the band, and artistic collaborator Jonathan Campolo is now also part of the band as a keyboardist.
MASS is possibly the lushest album of 2014 yet, delicate with a noticeable underlying power throughout it. Tracks like “King Porus” and “Pickup Lines” find a listener inundated in an alluring soundscape that is not easily forgettable. Recording, releasing music, and touring all on their own, SoftSpot are a true independent group and one to definitely keep on your radar as they continue to develop both sonically and artistically. For more info on SoftSpot, their music, and influences check out the interview below!
For folks who haven’t heard your music before how would you describe SoftSpot?
Bryan Keller (BK): I can answer this question. Its totally dependent on who I am talking to. One time I got pulled over by a cop, who saw all the gear, and he asked, after I got pulled out the car, where I was going and I told him I was playing a show and he asked “What particular brand of music do you play?” and I said Americana with a twist of folk.
Jonathan Campolo (JC): Maybe that’s the way to always ask that question. “If you got pulled over by a cop how would you describe your music?”
But also on your Bandcamp page, my favorite tag you have is “zen as fuck”, can we talk about that?
BK: That is my imprint, fake thing, or not fake. It’s an original thing. It’s like an idea, it’s my personal philosophy, maybe. I don’t know. But it’s what we press all of our records under, our catalog number is ZAF, and even before all of that stuff, it stood for Zen As Fuck; and its just a term that I like and just came up with while I was just sitting one day having a coffee.
Sarah Kinlaw (SK): And the icon is like an eyeball with a middle finger.
BK: Its basically, like flipping off the third eye, but paying respects to it at the same time. But yea Zen As Fuck is basically the imprint under which release all our stuff. And we release all our own [records]. Its kinda the production house for our creative outlets like video production, or even when I record another band, its all done under this moniker that is our attempt at creative branding in a way. It’s our logo, it’s our slogan.
JC: Hang on, what’s that…..’SoftSpot and Prosper, Live Long In “Slack Tide” [Editor's note: “Slack Tide” is a track from Ensō]. That was my brother’s slogan for our band.
Your last album Ensō was released two years ago and you’ve just released your second album MASS; what do you feel the biggest difference is between the two?
BK: It was different on a lot of scales. It was different, from a process standpoint. First off, Ensō was written by primarily me and Sarah with the help of our friend, who was drumming with us at the time, Andrew Spalding. And MASS was the first record we actually wrote as a three piece after Blaze joined as a permanent member. They were all songs that we wrote in a closer amount of time. Where as Ensō was written over the course of a year just in our house and we kind of threw it together just as the songs were done and found a way to put it together. MASS was stuff that we had already written, we had already toured with a little bit and played out a little. And so we went and focused on it for like a period of 8 or 9 days and recorded it in a chunk of time and actually went away to do it. Where as with Ensō we recorded at home, MASS we went to North Carolina and shacked up in my grandparents cabin on a mountain and just hacked away at it. So those are so major differences, it was like process, and mood.
And Jonathan Campolo was not in the lineup last time I saw SoftSpot.
JC: No, I sort of just started, but it was really like six months ago.
BK: You’ve seen his name on everything that we’ve done.
SK: He is like our long time buddy…
Oh, wait you (JC) shot the music video…
JC: Yeah, I shot the most recent one. I’ve kinda been a member just of the collective that is SoftSpot for a while. They’ve always been really collaborative in terms of dipping into circles of friends first, before getting ahold of strangers. Because that’s when you loose control really, when you try to explain yourself to strangers and then they interpret it as they will. They’ve always been really hand on and I’ve always been there on photo shoots for album covers…
BK: Even laying out the entire record.
SK: He helped design the cover for Ensō, laid it out, did all the artwork and did the same for MASS.
The recent video for “Pickup Lines” and the one for “Black Room Blues” have an element of choreographed dancing. How do you feel that relates into the message you were trying to give in them?
SK: Well, there is movement in both videos, but the movement it totally different, because there is nothing choreographed about “Pickup Lines”. The previous video, “Black Room Blues” we did have a dance rehearsal with the moms and the aunts.
And were those your moms?
SK: Well the female leads are my mother and two aunts. The male leads that are the backing band that is Bryan’s father, uncle and great-uncle. So its all family members, shot in our home town, in a bar.
BK: They actually learned the song the day-of and they pulled it together, that day.
SK: And then “Pickup Lines” was awesome because, there was a lot of prep in terms of special effects make-up, it took six hours to get in and out of that and it was painful, especially when you took it off. But that was the only thing that was like highly curated at all. Everything else was like going out, John and I.
JC: Improv. Fun as hell.
BK: It was while we were on a trip making more recordings too. So they were juggling a lot at the same time. I think that they were out doing that on a break between their takes, while I was back recording.
SK: It was such an insane time, because we are already writing our next record.
Keller: And we are writing it as a four-piece this time, which is different.
Blaze Bateh (BB): And we’re recording it already.
SK: Yea we have quite a bit recorded. So during that recording process we were just in, what month was that?
BB/JC/BK: February.
SK: Yeah, last February, that we were filming “Pickup Lines”. So it was a pretty quick turnaround for that video.
And what store were you actually dancing in?
JC/SK: A lot!
SK: So the original intent for the video was that we would go to the mall together and we would get varied footage within the mall. And the mall thing didn’t really pan out, I think we got kicked out in five or seven minutes.
JC: Yea we did a shot outside, we came in and people sort of gravitated toward Sarah right away and started taking cell phone pictures, the manager came over right away, did something on the walkie-talkie, the head of security came over escorted us back to our car, followed us out of the parking lot with his car. So we were pushed out of the mall very quickly. It quickly became improv journeys into these very corporate, super common environments, in these suburban towns.
SK: To more specifically answer your question, we shot in parking lots, we shot in front on a McDonald’s, in a Home Depot, in a Harris Teeter, which is a grocery store, we shot in a WalMart.
JC: There is this tracking shot of us and they stuck me in a shopping cart and pushed me. It was sort of like a dolly. Dolly tracks and rig cost a lot of money, like six grand, so we were like a shopping cart will do.
SK: We kind of hit it big with like the kids. We were shooting in a parking lot next to a school, so like that worked out for us.
JC: Keep in mind they are dancing to no music at all, there is nothing going on at all.
SK: Well I was singing.
JC: Yeah but they just started dancing around this strange alien person.
What do you think that your other artistic ventures bring to what you do with SoftSpot? [Kinlaw and Campolo work on SoftSpot's videos, and Bateh is other band BAMBARA.]
BK: I think it just brings an overall openness to creativity and collaboration, and we just act a certain way around each other and we make a certain thing around each other just because we feel a certain way around each other. You know? Like with different people and different vibes you react differently.
SK: Something that we’ve all been talking about a lot is how healthy it is to be involved in many different projects. Whether it be visual or musical or really anything; it kind of widens your output and widens your perspective, lessens the load, so there is not too much pressure on one creative outlet, when you have many.
BB: I know for drumming sake I really, like playing in BAMBARA. I mean, it’s so different than how I drum in SoftSpot and I feel like I really have an outlet with SoftSpot to explore something.
BK:{to Bateh} How do you think your comedy effects your drumming?
Are you a comedian?
BB: Yeah.
BK: Blaze has a really hilarious sketch comedy show.
What’s it called?
BB: “The Blaze and Alex Show”. Season two is coming out.
JC: I would say, in terms of separate projects we are individually involved in, it’s important to differ in opinions in a lot of ways. Like as people come together for a certain project. Like the projects I am involved in musically are drastically different from one another and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Like we honestly talk about bands all the time and I hate bands that Sarah or Bryan love and they’ll say “Have you heard this?” and I’ll be like “Ugh”, because you know, it’s natural that we differ in opinion but I also think it’s really healthy. Being able to argue and being able to stand up for yourself in terms of your opinion is incredibly important because each person is brining something incredibly concise to the band.
http://softspot.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/softspotband