More about: Softcult

In the Chinese zodiac, 2022 symbolises the start of the year of the Tiger. Said to represent bravery, courage and strengths — as well as a chance for a communal celebration of parades — the Chinese new year is a time for cleansing away past bad spirits to make way for positivity. For dream-grunge-cum-shoegaze duo Softcult, a similar sentiment can be applied to both their EP’s, titled Year of the Rat (2021) and Year of the Snake (2022) respectively. 

In the context of the Chinese Zodiac, these creatures represent fertility, reproduction and wealth, and divination, intuition and mystery. But for Softcult, they have other meanings. “Year of the Rat was definitely a metaphor for the rat race, where you feel lost in a sea of millions of people. That's one of the biggest things about feeling trapped in societal norms is that feeling of not being able to escape the cycle of the path you are on,” says Phoenix Arn-Horn, drummer and one half of the pair of musical twins. 

Year of the Snake, meanwhile, is an EP that—according to vocalist and guitarist Mercedes Arn-Horn—“symbolises the act of a snake shedding its skin, meaning that people can also enact change and positive growth too.” Despite kicking themselves at the mistiming of releasing Year of the Snake during the Year of the Tiger (“I wish that this year would have been year of the Snake, that would have been pretty cool”), it seems the symbolism of empowerment, inspiration and education that runs throughout both will mean so much more. 

For Softcult however, their story starts way before the 2022 turn of the Year of the Tiger came into full effect. Twins Phoenix and Mercedes Arn-Horn grew up in the bitterly cold climate of Kitchener, Ontario, a part of the world that at the time of this Zoom call plummeted to negative twenty degrees celsius. Outside of its freezing weather conditions, Ontario is at least a musical city, though the sisters grew up surrounded by a heavily white male dominated hardcore, punk and metal scene. But for this duo, “sticking out like a sore thumb” amongst a sea of punk dudes only bringing their girlfriends along to “hold her boyfriends coat and not really get involved” worked to their advantage in the long run. For Mercedes and Phoenix, standing out from the oversaturated crowd of heavy music consumers became the distinction that fuels every aspect of advocacy Softcult stand for to this day—their encouraging, empowering and inclusive ethos of educating yourself to come to your own conclusions on identity, politics and treating others how you want to be treated is what makes this duo stand out for all the right reasons. 

Going against the grain of what their hometown scene was dictating to them at the time, the duo found their lane in being lifelong fans and followers of sublime shoegaze, gritty grunge and woozy dream pop sounds, something that has found its way into Softcult in the form of, what the band like to call “music for mall goths”. “The sound that we have now is what we have always wanted,” reflects Mercedes on the band's sonic backstory. “The sound that we go for draws on a lot of different inspirations—like Mercedes has always been a shoegaze fan, for example”. Another big inspiration, making up fundamental fragments and strings of Softcult’s DNA is their united love, adoration and infatuation with riot grrl bands. “I’ve done a lot of self-education on bands from the riot grrl movement and just really got inspired by their messages.” 

“We got into the riot grrl movement because we saw artists bring feminist art to this male-dominated punk scene,” says Mercedes of the underground feminist punk movement of the ‘90s. From their powerful social lyrical standpoint to carving out sexisism and misogyny one song at a time, Softcult are the modern day pioneers of these messages, and vital activists bringing a ‘90s movement to the fore of the alternative music scene in 2022. “A big inspiration is definitely Kathleen Hanna”. For a new band on the block like Softcult, carrying on the legacy of groups like Bikini Kill is an honour and privilege. As Mercedes expains: “That’s exactly what we want to do with Softcult. If this woman or this artist has the ability to make people still feel that way 30 or 40 years later, then clearly the world still needs feminism and the world still needs riot grrl. That’s what we want to do: keep on carrying the torch and bring riot grrl into the current times.”

It's not just on the lyrical surface that the riot grrl movement bleeds its way into Softcult either. One huge element of that sub-culture was the proactive approach many took to curating zines in order to ignite larger communal discussions and generate inclusive spaces surrounding challenging topics. SCripture, Softcult’s handcrafted, DIY and cut and paste style monthly offering is another string to the band’s riot grrl bow, following in the footsteps of some of the movements most renowned such as Chainsaw, GUNK and beyond. “The zine is kind of like an extension of a song for us,” begins Phoenix on the zine, a project that explores ways to “push our message beyond the boundaries of a song”. She continues: “it has become a really cool way for us to see our fans' creativity,'' injects Mercedes on SCripture’s purpose to portray individual paramount issues such as objectification and harmful stereotypes to oppression and marginalised sectors of society per issue. If it’s not evident by now that riot grrl runs through Softcult’s veins in the words of their songs, then the words on their zines pages say otherwise.  

Last year’s debut EP Year of the Rat marked a massive turning point for the pair. Having been in a highly successful band with Courage My Love, a band that took over the majority of Phoenix and Mercedes’ teenage years (“we put like ten years into that project and we started it when we were 14”). Notably a major departure from the stomping indie alt rock anthems of Courage My Love, Softcult are a sonic and lyrical 360 degree departure, but one thing remains and that is the biggest life affirming lesson the duo take away from Courage and into Softcult. “I think the biggest lesson goes back to the whole DIY thing. I think people, especially in the industry and especially with two young women, will tell you how you will fit in and what their vision is for you.  It just becomes so watered down from what we were originally wanting our vision to be. That’s the thing that Softcult has shown me: it really doesn’t take a huge team of people to do one thing: you can do this totally yourself. It might seem like a sign of success or opulence to have this large team of people doing things for you, but it really does take the power away from you.” 

Riding high on vintage sounds drawn from hazy shoegaze, dream-pop and scuzzy grunge The Year of the Rat also addressed subject matters like gender norms and misogyny. Coming out of the blocks strong with their new blueprint on Year of the Rat was paramount to Mercedes and Phoenix. “Once we had a handful of songs together for that first EP, we really realised that this was the direction we wanted to go in. We were aware that this was our identity taking shape. It wasn't just a coincidence, it was something we have wanted to do for a very long time and it was something we were never really allowed to do before” Mercedes explains. “Having our own voice and just being able to write about whatever we want, we felt like it was a good opportunity to use our platform for good and raise awareness about all these important issues. We just thought ‘you know what, it’s our time to do this'. It’s our form of activism.”

It’s that form of activism that the band have carried through to their follow up EP Year of the Snake. Made up of six tracks, each song explores subject matters that don't back away from the cold hard truth: from poignant and sombre number ‘Gaslight’ shedding some light on abusive relationships to explosive grunge banger ‘Spit It Out’, a song about rejecting harmful ideologies, and ‘BWBB’, a song inspired by the ongoing issue of femicide. “A lot of the subject matter we don't shy away from on this EP, especially on tracks like ‘BWBB’, we just lay it all out there and don't really pull any punches. When we try to write stuff like that we try not to just point a finger at anyone.”  

“We are calling out issues,” Mercedes says of the more explicitly political Year of the Snake, “things will never change unless we talk about it or even just raise awareness about these issues”. “We were expecting a lot more hate after releasing ‘BWBB’, but actually instead of a lot of guys getting triggered about the song, a lot of men were actually listening and commenting that the message in that song really resonated.” On ‘BWBB’, Year of the Snake and beyond, Soft Cult are bringing social and political issues to the forefront of the rock scene. “Being educated is never a bad thing and that’s what we hope Year of the Snake does. Softcult has been a really rewarding process. It has empowered us. We hope it does the same for everyone listening.” 

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More about: Softcult