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.
How
extensively will you tour to support the new release? What is the most distant
city you have played, and how do you handle touring while having full time day
jobs and small children? When you visit different places, do you make it a
point to take in the sights?
Katie: At this point, our most distant city
has been New York which we have gone to twice and both times it was super
amazing! So far, there has not been much time for sight-seeing but we do make
an effort to take in what we can. We are still kind of figuring out what level
of touring/playing live we can all afford to do in support of Maps. However, we just agreed to play at
Paris Popfest which we are super excited about. That will be in September (21st
to 22nd) and we are in the process of trying to arrange a couple other shows in
the region for the following week. Fingers crossed! However, there is a bit of a conflict between
trying to manage full time day jobs, marriages, small kids, and music. We all
feel really fortunate to be with supportive and tolerant people who let us run
off on occasion to play a show out of town here and there. We currently have a
couple shows in our home town, Sacramento, coming up. At the very least, we
would like to play some West Coast shows – do a PNW run (in August) and a So Cal run (TBD),
hopefully this summer. We will be posting all of our shows in advance on
Facebook and Twitter.
For
writing lyrics or music, is it an organic process?
Katie: In a way we have established our own
organic process that works well for us. We essentially each play the part we do
best and as such are parts that function as a whole. Ross brings in 95% of the
songs and for the most part he has the songs very well worked out. A lot of
times Ross has started place holder draft lyrics as well to establish a vocal melody.
Sometimes the draft lyrics or pieces of them stay and sometimes I re-write the
whole thing. Basically, we all get our handle on the core and weave it into
what becomes a Soft Science song. Matt and I have brought songs ideas in on
rare occasion but I actually think that the band has a pretty cohesive sound
and focus because of our process with Ross as the band’s lead song writer.
What
most influences your writing?
Ross: I really try to work backwards from trying
to find ways to showcase Katie's voice. Which definitely leads us to lean
toward the dreamy side of the spectrum.
Katie: Lyrically, I take in the vibe of the
core song and then I am usually inspired by something going on in my life, a
past memory, or a feeling that I focus on and build to create
lyrics.
What
is the band listening to right now?
Katie: Most recently I have been listening to
Me Not You, Reckoning 2 (EP), and Holy Motors, Slow Sundown. I
am excited about the upcoming Orange Peels album, I listened to their new
single this morning. From last year, I am still enjoying Frankie Rose, Cage
Tropical; Alvvays, Antisocialites, and the last Slowdive which was my
favorite album of 2017. I also still revisit Beverly, The Blue Swell from 2016
quite a bit.
Ross: Alvvays' record Anitsocialites was my
favorite of last year. I've fallen into the habit of listening to podcasts and
streaming radio like The Big Takeover Radio Show, everything on DKFM, the
Kitchen Sink, TBTCI Radio show, The Reverb and if something really grabs me
I'll search out the record. I'm a huge Ride fan and think their new EP is
great, the track Keep It Surreal is a hit in my world. Blue Field by The
Luxembourg Signal and Lake Ruth's record Birds of America are both super good
too.
And
finally, where are your most ardent fans and your favorite places to play live?
Katie: My two favorite shows were a couple
years ago when we went to New York and played at Popfest and at WFMU opening
for The Chills, which I still can hardly believe we actually got to do that!
Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover) helped get us in touch with The Chills management
to coordinate that one. That show was particularly special and the sound was
superb! It was an amazing experience.
Ross: I'm not sure we have enough ardent
fans to really say. Music is weird in that once you release a song into
the world it has a life of its own. It's really abstract. We generally
just really appreciate when someone who we don't know says that they like our
stuff. Music is such a personal thing. A band could only have one fan, but to
that fan they could be the world. Not saying that we're the world to
anyone, but you get the point.
As Katie said, we don't get out and play as much
as we like, but our trips out to New York have been great and we have some
exciting opportunities coming up that we're really looking forward too. We're
hoping to get to some places we've never had a chance to play before.
