Content:
Words: Jamie Muir.
Photos: Jennifer McCord.
When we asked pop superstar CMAT which new act everyone should be keeping an eye on, the answer was “Soft Launch”. When we pop superstar Declan McKenna which new act everyone should be keeping an eye on, the answer – again – was “Soft Launch”.
When it comes to word-of-mouth, few acts are as buzzy right now as this up-and-coming fivesome. Stacking fans into packed pubs for a serving of their sugar-rush of genres and pop magic, they’re a band ready to take over.
“We’ve been full-throttle,” reflects Conor Price. It’s a stunning spring afternoon in the heart of Brighton, just off from the city centre. Later that evening, they’ll headline The Paris House, a small pub steeped in history the way that only pubs can be, the type of venue that has become a bit of a second home for the band (annual Christmas shows already firm fixtures in the diary), and which tonight will be bursting at capacity with feverish excitement.
Poised and ready to erupt out of the traps, it’s been a matter of weeks since the release of ‘Cartwheels’ – an opening salvo of fizzing indie-pop energy that, in the space of its two minutes, lays down the twists and multi-faceted directions of the world Soft Launch inhabit – and that crackle of excitement is in the air. Josh McClorey laughs just thinking about it. “Putting out music is great, but you are just putting it from one file in a folder on your laptop to another, y’know?!”
The reaction says it all. Sold-out shows and ‘need to be there’ moments: it’s what Soft Launch are all about. They had queues around the block before releasing any music, rules thrown firmly out of the window. “It feels like quite the opposite way, I guess, of how bands and artists are breaking now,” ponders Josh. “Everyone’s promoting themselves online, and it’s, of course, such a huge way of growing your band and stuff, but to do it the other way with shows and being in-person is quite surreal, and that’s quite funny too because it’s a way that’s like, always been there?!” It’s at those shows where their ambition comes firmly to the fore. “Doing the gigs and seeing people in the crowd know those songs is the pay-off. That’s been really exciting, watching that grow with fans knowing more and more songs. Honestly, it was a couple of gigs in when it all started to happen. It was the start of the year, in particular, when we started noticing that something was going on. We played this show in East London, and when we got to the venue, 10 or 11 kids were waiting outside while we were loading in with Soft Launch t-shirts on. That was when it felt unreal.”
“Everyone’s promoting themselves online, to do it the other way with shows is quite surreal”
Josh McClorey
If the rise of Soft Launch feels undeniably natural, it’s because it is. With years of different projects under their individual and collective belts, it was only a matter of time before that bond took them to what Soft Launch could be. Starting out as a handful of songs written as a bit of fun without a clear end goal, the wider vision of what they could be soon began to formulate. Josh and Henry Pearce, along with Conor, Benedict Quinn and Ben Limmer, clicked into something altogether bigger.
“We had a bit of a eureka moment: ‘Maybe we should put those songs together and make some more songs and add some more members?’” lays out Josh. “The gigs and the way the band has grown; it’s all come quite slowly over time and organically. It fell into itself.”
“With all of us doing other work and bits, it kinda gave us that peace of mind that all of us have that same hunger, and this is what everyone wants to do,” Henry notes. “We’ve all been juggling that for the last year/two years, and now we’re at this point where we all are…”
“… REALLY GOOD JUGGLERS,” bursts Josh, to the agreement of the whole band. “We’ve been waiting to do this for ages; just do Soft Launch”, adds Ben. “To focus on one thing”.
“We’ve been waiting to do this for ages; just do Soft Launch”
Ben Limmer
To catch Soft Launch live is to catch a party distilled into one voice. Jumping between instruments, trading vocals with each other – they flip the expected script. It’s what has drawn so many in. “Honestly, they’ve been putting out the music for us!” cracks Josh. “There’s a real core group who’ve been to loads of our shows – they’ve bootlegged all of our sets and put it on Soundcloud.”
“They’re saved on local files on Spotify,” continues Henry. “We love it though because they don’t, of course, know the names of some of these songs, so they like to guess what the name is and the lyrics too.” The band crack a smile recalling some of the early takes already filling their inboxes and comment sections. “They’re like… not 100% right,” he laughs. It’s that appetite for Soft Launch that says it all, though.
With ‘Cartwheels’ serving as a self-described “punch in the face that really sets up everything to come”, new single ‘Piano Hands’ is all slinking piano lines, shuffling grooves, and lush ABBA-esque harmonies meet scuzzy breakdowns and whipping electro-soaked underground club kicks. It’s a cocktail that sets Soft Launch apart from the rest, a track that, at the flick of a switch, morphs into a completely different beast. It’s ambitious, bold, and gutsy in the best way possible.
With a whole album already recorded, Soft Launch are aiming squarely at the top. “That was quite conscious at the start of all of this,” explains Josh. “To get an album together even before we met our manager or before we got a table or anything like that. We wanted to figure out exactly what that was because things can change, and once things all start, then it’s too late to be working it all out.” What comes next? To “build everywhere we can and try to get our band out there as much as possible. We want to be quite global, y’know?!”
All five burst into laughter. “Well… sell as many t-shirts as we can,” adds Josh. Replace the bootlegs too, right? “Hmm, maybe!” You get the point. Soft Launch are the band you should be very excited about. Let the fun begin. ■
Soft Launch’s single ‘Piano Hands’ is out now. Follow Dork Mixtape on Spotify here.
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