Album art by Hingsly
Sometimes bands are formed out of the necessity to create. The urge to connect with each other through music is undeniable. Such was the the case with Softette which came to be in 2017 as a creative outlet before members Jeff Graupner (keys) Bret Koontz (guitar) and Sydney Roth (drums) went their separate ways. Graupner started to play with The Hecks, Koontz journeyed through various projects including sideman to Maria Jacobson in Fran, and Roth moved back to Portland. Recruiting Hecks drummer Zach Herbert to replace Roth they recorded these two shining pop numbers back in 2018 and never released them. Now seemed as good of time as any to share, and we’re helping the trio premiere their new single!
Take a listen here or on Spotify at the image link to be transported by the glimmering sounds of Softette, as you read the interview.
JG: Jeff Graupner
BK: Bret Koontz
Side projects have long been a lexicon of musicians. A drive to create seems to be inherent in the DNA of artists. What drove the three of you to come together as Softette?
JG: Softette was first formed by Bret and our old drummer Sydney who had just moved from, and has since moved back to, Portland. Sydney invited me along to a real low-key practice at Situations which pretty much set the model for the project: writing collaboratively within the window of a band practice, trading obscure personal favorite songs, and prioritizing fun and friendship. Sydney moved back to Portland after we recorded our first tape, so instead of stopping, we asked if our friend Zach was interested, knowing he’d be perfect for this easy-going, thinking-on-your feet Softette model. I should mention this is in early 2018, I was not playing with The Hecks yet but was playing in an old long-term project (ORB). Bret at the time was playing in Cool Memories, as well as a self-titled solo project and one called Problem. So in a way Softette has always been a “side-project,” but in the DIY sphere where most people have their spoons in a bunch of different pots, it has always just felt like a natural, not particularly ambitious, excuse to create with new people.
“Pilots”, the A side to this single, starts just as a Hecks tune would, with Jeff's synth riding high and Zach's rim shots and high-hat, but instead of turning into the guitar driven art rock of The Hecks territory it Bursts into a melodic earworm that drives into dark pop land. Any insight into the writing process that is different between the three of you and working with your other projects?
JG: Definitely different approaches, but any similarity on my part comes from admiration of The Hecks (again, wasn’t in playing with them when this song was first written). Given that we’ve always had other simultaneous projects, the forced limitation of coming up with songs within the window of a practice was meant to drive new and collaborative ways of thinking, all while preserving creative energy for the many things outside of the project. A big spiritual driver for this one specifically and for the project as a whole came from our shared love of Prefab Sprout.
BK: Once we decided that track was going to be about the private life of a commercial airline pilot, we ended up doing quite a bit of research (”tips from a veteran pilot” YouTube channels, control tower banter, and radio chatter) to zero in on the mood and shape the images. That aspect of Softette material: looking at something that is outside the scope of your experience, finding a way to relate to it and draw parallels, sets it apart from other writing that we do. Maybe this is a natural outcome of group-writing.
“Gone Gone”, the B side, is as catchy as they come, and about dogs running away. Do you see it as tongue in cheek or a sincere ode to the runaway dog?
JG: While writing songs collaboratively in real-time, it’s nice to work within a concept from 100 feet above. That way, as you start to fine tune things, there’s a lot of room within the concept to add meaning and nuance. This one started up there and who’s to say how far down it got.
BK: I think in these cases, it’s 100% just about a dog that ran away, and 100% about whatever metaphor any listener projects onto it. Not to bring more K-9s into it, but I know that “you ain’t nothing but a Hound Dog” is about a dog because I saw the dog in my head when I first heard it, but it’s also about more.
You recorded these tunes back in 2018 before the success of The Hecks My Star and Fran's A Private Picture worked in your favor as musicians. Why release it now? And what has changed in your live as artists since those records brought you new fan bases?
BK: We finished recording these songs just as our time commitments to other projects began to ramp up, so we’ve been waiting until we found the right window of time to put some care and effort into the release. Now that virtually every timeline has been put on hold and uncertainty is heavy in the mix, making some fun and thoughtful content available seems like the right move.
The album art from the single came from an artist in Sri Lanka, right? How did that come about and any advice on receiving international art?
JG: We wanted someone to draw us as pilots, in a pencil-y sort of way you might have seen someone at a mall kiosk, like a slightly off Leo DiCaprio or something. Turns out Fiverr is an incredible market for this specific kind of talent. As is the nature of the current global economic reality, user “hingsly” from Sri Lanka could charge us a lot less for his skill so the price was right for us. I understand this might be sort of an ethical can of worms for some people, (driving American freelance artists prices down I suppose), but we were all excited to be able to give what amounted to a fat tip in Sri Lanka. He was so stoked he mailed us the original in this envelope that looked like it had truly seen some shit. Bret then added some color to bring it all the way home.
Any plans to play some shows together when this is all over?
JG: Yes, you should come.
The Lightfoot memes? Getting you through, or through with them?
JG: Right now a shocking 70% of Chicago’s COVID-19 deaths are African American, implying a troubling, but not surprising, health disparity at the structural level. I personally would like to see some sober, focused, and effective messaging from our elected officials, while leaving the memes to the experts.
What is the first thing you plan to do when we're all allowed to go outside again?!
JG: Hugs, handshakes, high-fives, and hellos