The excellent dream gazers from Sacramento, Soft Science, are at it again, and are releasing their third full length album
called Maps on June 1st. It’s not an abrupt departure from earlier
outings, but it’s immediately striking for its crystal clear sound as well as a
more nuanced approach to their art. In listening through to Maps as I write
this, I am struck by some sonic similarities to unexpected groups. For example,
the enchanting “Sooner” takes a leaf from the Single Gun Theory playbook, at
least initially. The group has a penchant for swooning, expansive soundscapes,
expertly played and helmed by the sweet, sultry vocals of the band’s friendly
singer, Katie Haley. I was lucky to meet her at the 2016 NYC Popfest, though I
didn’t get to see them play. The band is well beloved by fans of shoegaze,
dream pop, and even psych, for there’s no denying the atmospheric and
occasionally spacey vibe that runs through their music. Katie and keyboardist
Ross Levine were kind enough to answer my questions. Thanks also to Amber Crain
and Shauna McLarnon for all that you do. -- Elizabeth Klisiewicz
In
your childhood, who influenced you the most musically? Were there family
members who played instruments or introduced you to great music?
Katie: My Mom sang, never in a band, but in
choirs, and my Dad was really into music. He primarily liked 50s, 60s, and 70s
pop, jazz, soul, and country. My Mom was really into 40s big band music. Between
the two of them several decades of music were pretty much covered as there was
music playing in the house at least at some point every day. I feel very
thankful for getting exposed to a lot of music early on. I started singing in
school choirs when I was about 10 years old. In my early teens, my older brother
John (John Conley, Desario – Graphic Designer, BlkBrix) had the biggest
influence on my developing taste in music. We would watch 120 Minutes on MTV
and then proceed to the record store together to find stuff we liked. Starting
in the 1990s John and I got really into bands on indie labels like 4AD, Teen
Beat, and Sarah Records. The music seeking basically has just continued and I
still love finding out about new music that speaks to me.
Ross: There were a few Gordon Lightfoot and
Jim Croce 8 tracks around, but my parents didn't really listen to too much music.
Matt and I really got most our early musical exposure from going through our
older brother's record collection. He had all kinds of good stuff for a
solid foundation like Ramones, Sex Pistols, P.I.L, Depeche Mode, Jesus &
the Mary Chain, R.E.M. and Love and Rockets. Also, like Katie, 120 Minutes was
huge for us as well. From junior high on we had a turntable in our garage and
the neighborhood kids would come over and we'd all play records, mostly punk
rock. My introduction to "shoegaze" came when a friend of mine
recommended that I go to a show with two bands that I had to that point never
heard of that were touring together, Ride and Lush. I still consider that show
one of the best I've ever seen, it made a huge impression on me.
When
did you start thinking about joining or starting a band? How did the members of
Soft Science come together?
Katie: Well…I have been friends with Matt and
Ross for a long time. Ross and I worked at a record store in Sacramento, CA,
called The Beat, while we were both in college. This is where we met and became
friends. We were all in different bands at that time but would go see each
other’s bands play and hangout. Side note - I actually met my husband through
Matt and Ross. Eventually, we were all in a band together called the California
Oranges which also included my brother John, and Verna Brock
(Rocketship/Beanpole). John, Verna, and Ross were actually the original members
of that band; Matt and I joined later. After California Oranges broke up, Matt,
Ross, and I decided we were not done playing music and wanted to form another
band. Ross had been playing in a side band with Mason (our bass player) and
asked him to join us. Soft Science was the 4 of us for a couple years with Ross
on drums. After Detour came out, we asked Tony Cale (English Singles)
to join us on drums and Ross moved to keyboards. That is probably the least
complicated summary of our journey I have ever managed to come up with! Too
funny.
Can
you describe the recording and song creation of the new album as compared to
your earlier work?
Ross: We definitely have a clearer vision of
our sound than we used to, which helps to better know which songs to work on
and which to ditch. I also have been making more fleshed out demos so when
we work on the song as a band we can hit the ground running. Every once
in a while we'll work up an idea from scratch at practice, but it's tough for
us because we don't practice enough. We actually practiced last night and Katie
called it a "Soft Science miracle".
We self-recorded Detour in Matt's basement and it came out great considering we
didn't know what we were doing. But Maps is the first record we've done since
Tony, who is an experienced engineer, joined the band and he made a
huge difference. We tracked most of record at a nice studio (Prairie Sun
in Cotati, CA) and Tony ended up mixing it and really took it to the next
level.
Katie: Ross covered the nuts and bolts but to
add, this time around we actually felt a bit of pressure that we had not really
experienced before. Detour was better
received than we anticipated, which we still are thrilled about. We knew that
our next album had to raise the bar or at least be just as solid. Frankly, this
made the process a little more difficult especially since our producer and
engineer (Ross and Tony) are in the band. It’s really hard when you are that
close to a project like this to tell if its good, needs something else, a
tweak, or perhaps you are the one tweaking out because you are too damn close
to it. A few times along the way we had to take a break; take a few steps back
to move forward. We learned a great deal along the way and in the end refined
our process. The latest song we recorded and mixed was the NPL cover of ‘Paris’
which we managed to knock out in about a week. This too was a “Soft Science
miracle” (ha, ha). I want to enjoy Maps being done and going out into the world
soon so I am not quite ready to move on thinking about the next go around. But
I feel hopeful that at least our lessons learned on Maps will pay off for us in
the long run.
