Hailing from Toronto, Softcult are the twin sister duo of your indie-shoegazed dreams that you need on your playlist right now. First making a splash in the scene in 2021 with “Spit It Out,” Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn have been making “music for mall goths” ever since. With undeniable magnetic energy in each track, meaning behind each lyric, and meticulous power behind every bassline, you can’t help but be drawn into each new release.
The duo are at their most vulnerable and sonically experimental yet on new EP See You In The Dark, exploring themes of patriarchal society standards, sexual assault, and much more through the sounds of urgent, goth-tinged guitar chords and haunting, raw vocals.
Fresh off their United States run, the band are performing across Canada, the U.K., Europe, and Asia throughout the spring. You definitely will want to catch them when they’re in a city near you.
Check out the six-track release below, as well as an exclusive chat with Phoenix and Mercedes about the record, the creation of their zine, causes they care about, and much more.
What major lessons or themes do you hope to convey to listeners through the whole set of songs?
Mercedes: We named the EP See You In The Dark, and that’s sort of an all-encompassing title that applies to all the songs. It’s about those moments when you have time to reflect, and sometimes those can be scary moments where you’re thinking about how you really are just as an individual, as a person, the things that you contribute to that are good, and the things that you contribute to that are bad.
And (the EP) is, you know, it’s a judgment-free zone. It’s not about (if) you could be so much better and all this stuff, but just being real. It’s like, if we maybe opened up this conversation a little bit more to be less like, “You should be doing this; you should be doing that,” and more just being real with ourselves about our insecurities, our flaws, the things that we’ve learned—I think it would be a lot more of a productive conversation. Because then, it would be more conducive to actual change within ourselves, and then as a society, changing from the inside out.
On the EP, what song changed the most from the demo to its final product?
Mercedes: “Someone2Me” was very different. It started as more industrial.
Phoenix: The track was originally a lot of synths and just weird feedback and stuff. And then I think, yeah, like when Mercedes laid down guitar, then it was like, “Oh, yeah, this sounds like Softcult now.” But before that, I think I just made the track without the guitar and stuff first, and I didn’t even know if it was going to be for Softcult; I just did it for fun. And then, I showed Mercedes, and she was like, “This is sick!” Then, she added her guitars, and we added some more bass, and then it sounded like our band.
I love your zine, and I love the collage art featured–I think it’s incredible. So, what drove the idea to want to make your zine, SCripture? Do you tend to explore your song themes the most, or also explore what’s currently happening politically, personally, etc. inside?
Phoenix: Some of the issues we try to center around things we talk about in the songs and just, like, expand on it a little bit more than we can in a three-minute song. Other times, it’s (about) lived experiences, things we know that have happened to friends, or just issues in general that we’re aware of and want to try to express those opinions in our own way. It depends if we have songs, if we’re rolling out an E—we’re going to try and make the zine kind of reinforce the message behind the songs.
We try also to get people to submit their own works to the zine. So, a lot of the time, we’ll get poetry or sometimes art pieces. And that’s really cool; we love when people send stuff in.
Mercedes: We’re definitely just, like, jumping on this zine bandwagon that was already started in the ‘90s. And especially with the Riot Grrrl movement, it was pretty much founded by people who just made zines and then were like, “Hey, maybe we should be in bands together,” and stuff like that. It is a really great way to foster community (and) getting ideas across in a not-so-judgy way, and more just like an open forum of discussion. And art is cool!
Your track “Dress” is a song that, unfortunately, far too many people can relate to. I just wanted to learn more about what it means to you.
Phoenix: There is a trigger warning on the video. So, if you worry that you might be affected by the video, maybe just check out the song. The song itself is about consent, and about assault. So, it is a very heavy subject matter. But it’s really important to kind of share that perspective and tell that story. We were writing it in hopes of it being a voice for people who have maybe gone through something like that, but also to educate people who maybe haven’t seen that other perspective or thought about it. The song is about going out with your friends and trying to have a good time, and then the night takes a bad turn.
When I was a teenager, I really wish that I would have known more or thought about that more, not just for my sake, but for my friends’ sake as well. At the same time, it is a pretty upbeat song. We were really influenced by The Cure and stuff like that on this one. So it is kind of a different vibe from our other songs.
Mercedes: Yeah, it definitely took a little bit of, like, a creative risk, but it’s a really meaningful song to us. And we hope that people who hear it are affected by it and that they appreciate it.
You stand for many causes in your songs, in your zine, and beyond. Are there any causes or organizations you are particularly passionate about right now and want to shout out?
Mercedes: Safe Gigs For Women, it’s a U.K. cause. And I mean, it’s, it is a problem all over the world, but I know that for a while, it was a really big issue in the U.K. where women were getting dosed just going out to clubs or bars or even shows. And so Safe Gigs For Women are awesome because they have this manifesto of how you can keep the scenes safe, and just ways to handle certain situations that hopefully you or your friends will never be in. I think if more people kind of had this manifesto in mind, then gigs would be safer, and especially venue owners, too–just making sure that their security (and) the staff are just trained properly to handle these things and know the warning signs.
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Photo courtesy of Pearl Cook
