One of our current favourite local bands, Soft Plastics, is made up of Sophie Scott-Maunder, Jonathan Shirley, and Laura Robinson — an indie rock trio based here in Wellington, NZ. The band's music takes 90's shoegaze and 2010's alt-rock in its stride, and turns heartache into killer pop hooks.
"Loozer was a collaborative effort, with Lochie Noble (Transistor) helping out recording the drums in Laura's flat (followed by some Good Boy Sandwiches from James and Al) and finally Oli Devlin (Hans Pucket) recording vocals and providing feedback with double tracking." — Jonathan Shirley.
"Loozer was one of the first Soft Plastics songs we wrote." says Sophie. "Thematically and lyrically, the song is about self-sabotaging situations and making decisions based on wants rather than needs. When I wrote 'If I let this pass me by I could win some or I could lose you' I was reflecting on short term gain vs long term pain and whether it’s worth sacrificing something you know very well for a stab in the dark. I was really keen to add some guttural screams after the breakdown that was reminiscent of Mitski or Phoebe Bridgers. There is no real resolution to the song so the screams were a perfect way to release the tension and add an additional layer of distortion."
Engineer James Goldsmith finalised the recording process, and as Jonathan describes "with James it took on a whole new life of feeling huge and a lot more rocky- which is definitely what it needed. We are really happy with what he did, especially with our home recording."
Tickets for their upcoming North Island tour (below) are available from Undertheradar.
