It was 2021 the last time that we caught up with Softcult‘s guitarist and vocalist Mercedes Arn-Horn. A lot has happened for Canadian twin sibling shoegaze duo since then. Together, Mercedes and Phoenix have released four EPs – Year Of The Rat (2021), Year Of The Snake (2022), See You In The Dark (2023) and Heaven (2024) – supported the likes of Muse, Movemements and Incubus on tour and they’ve played headline shows across the USA, Canada and the UK. They’re currently back in the UK and preparing to play to a nearly sold out crowd at The Underworld in Camden tonight (12th November), with support from dream pop four piece Bleach Lab (ticket link here)
Dressed in her Softcult trademark ‘Gloomy Girl’ hoodie, when we spoke with Mercedes via Zoom a few weeks ago, she was excited to be returning to England and ready to bring the swirling, heavy sounds of their recent EP to the stage for fans to enjoy live. We discussed the evolution in Softcult’s sound, the band’s plans for a full length album, and we also touched upon the importance of being open about mental health issues and practicing self-care…
It’s been a few months now since Softcult released the Heaven EP. what are you most proud of about this record?
It’s the last EP we’ll put out for a while, because we’re working on a full length album. With this one we tried to get a little more conceptual with it as a whole body of work. I think sonically and musically we pushed ourselves to go into some different directions and really lean into the more obscure parts of our sound. There’s definitely still bops and stuff on the EP, but we really tried to lean heavily into the shoegaze element and also lean heavily into the Riot Grrrl, punk element. I think we were pushing ourselves sonically to try new things and I’m happy with how it turned out.
What has the reaction to it been like from your fans?
If you listen from this EP to the first one, you can definitely hear how things have grown. So I really appreciate it when we hear that from our fans and the people that like our music. It’s nice when they recognise and can see the work and the musicianship that we’ve put into our newer stuff. It never feels like a jarring change from EP to EP musically, but it’s still evolving.
There’s definitely a heavier shoegaze quality to the tracks on Heaven, even in the way that the songs transition into each other. Was this intentional when you were writing it?
A lot of what you’re describing has to do with the fact that the first and second EPs were released those during lockdown, so we weren’t able to tour. Now, fast forward to the Heaven EP, we’re 4 EPs deep and we’ve got a lot of touring under our belts, so I think that we were able to play around with interludes live, that we don’t do on the record with our earlier works. It’s really cool to see how audiences react when you’re jamming on stage. It gets really mesmerizing, it’s almost hypnotising sometimes. With the song ‘Haunt You Still’, for example, that’s one of my favourite ones on the EP because we took the time to do a whole instrumental section that really builds and there’s no vocals until the end. I think we learned some of those tricks from being on the road and playing live.
Speaking of playing live, you’re going to be back in the UK in November playing a headline tour with Bleach Lab. What are your anticipations for these shows?
We love the UK. I really feel like that’s where Softcult got our start, even though we’re Canadian, our first ever tour was in the UK and I felt so much support from the fanbase and the music scene there. I feel really lucky that we get to be a part of it in some way. It’s one of the best scenes globally, in my opinion. I love it. Especially coming over at this time of the year when things are really gloomy and gothy, it’s such a vibe.
I’ve been a fan of Bleach Lab for a really long time. They’re putting out new music too so it just feels like a good time for us to come together and share the stage. I am really excited to play these new songs live. This particular set that we’ve been working on, we’ve had the chance to play on other tours, it’s probably the last tour that we’re gonna do with this particular live set. I’m really happy with the way it flows, there’s a lot of live interludes and extended parts of songs. Songs that kind of flow one into the other in a really intentional way. I’m excited to bring it to the UK.
As well as your own EP this year, you released a collaborative track with Bristol-based heavy band Split Chain titled ‘(Re)-Extract’. Tell me more about that. It’s such a HUGE sound that you’ve both created together.
It just worked out so well. The song gives me Deftones and Nirvana vibes. We were honoured to be asked to do it. I love collaborating with people when I can hear that there’s something we could add to the track. We just tried to add really spooky vocals, I was definitely trying to live my Amy Lee fantasy on that one for sure. I’m glad that we got to be part of the visual too. Who knows, one day maybe we’ll be able to go on tour with them.
It has that Southern California nu-metal sound, but I will say though, as someone who isn’t from the UK, but who is obsessed with UK music, the UK just has something in the sound that is different from anywhere else. I hear it in Split Chain’s sound. There’s just this nuanced intelligence about the music in the UK. There’s something about it that’s really compelling.
As well as playing live, another way that you interact with your fans is through your zine called SCripture. In the most recent edition, you penned a really compelling personal essay about mental health and the impact of stress on the body. Can you tell us more about what inspired you to share this story with your fans?
The SCripture zine is definitely all about fostering a community around social issues, political issues, and now I think it’s a good time to talk about mental health too. That was the reason we started the zine. We like to tie topics of the zine together with songs that we’ve written and that’s what inspired me to write that particular zine issue. Some of our songs, ‘Spiralling Out’ for example, in retrospect, when I hear that song, I’m recognising more what it’s about now than I did at the time when I wrote it. Then when I was thinking about it, I was like “this is definitely something more people should be talking about” in general. Get more awareness of it and more educated on it too. I do think knowledge is power. You feel less afraid when you’re not ignorant to certain situations.
When we are open about those things it takes away the taboo about talking about mental health and especially talking about women’s health in general. It was a real eye opener for me how stress manifests in so many different ways physically in the body. It’s kind of something I’m a little embarrassed to say I didn’t really know how much of an impact stress can have on you on a physical level until recently, and I think that’s because I was ignoring it for a very long time. So, I think the best thing that you can do is really own it and be transparent about it with people, and you’ll see how many other people have had similar experiences and gotten through it.
That’s the reason why I wanted to be very candid about it in that particular zine. Because when I started opening up to my female friends about what I was going through, I was shocked at how many other women had very similar experiences. It did make me feel less alone and less afraid in that situation. Also, I think a lot of the time when you acknowledge those things, it helps your mind process what’s going on and that helps your body too, so there’s a lot of reasons to talk about it.
Women’s health, our bodies and in our minds, it’s all so tied together. I think a lot of the time Women’s health can be something that’s swept under the rug. It’s very reductive and I am aware of that through not only my experience, but other women in my life who have had to deal with stuff. You end up having to do a lot of your own research and you’re lucky if a doctor is in tune with that and sensitive to those things. With my particular issues, I never thought it was stress, but it definitely was. So dealing with that helped me on the physical side of things too. But my mind was going in a completely different directions and that definitely doesn’t help.
Being a touring musician can also bring its own unique set of stresses and mental and physical health challenges. What advice would you give to other musicians who might be struggling?
For me, I know that my thing is I don’t know when to slow down. That feels like something really difficult to do on tour. But some good advice that I got was just do one thing for yourself everyday that has no other motive, other than it’s just something that you want to do. So on tour for me, that could be going for a walk, getting a coffee, taking a nice long shower at the end of the day. Those are things that seem very luxurious or frivolous, but if you deny yourself these things that centre you and ground you, after a while you’re gonna notice that the stress just keeps building up and the anxiety builds up and there’s no outlet for it. Luckily for me, being on stage and performing is an outlet for me. Being on tour, while certain parts of it can be stressful, the good news is at least once a day you do have that cathartic moment where you can let things out. Strangely I don’t feel that stressed on tour. I think I get more stressed out when I’m at home.
I think everyone’s different, and different things stress you out in different ways, but for me, I love having creative outlets like writing music, performing music, writing the zine – those are all really good outlets for me. So I’d say take time for yourself, even if it’s just a couple of minutes a day to ground yourself and do something that brings you peace and makes you feel calm. You’re doing it just for yourself. It sounds small, but it does have a very big impact.
It can be difficult to ask for that space can’t it? Sometimes it can be perceived in a negative way, like you’re being “difficult”…
Not so much now, because we’re evolving as a society and as a scene, but there have been so many times when you’re made to feel like you’re being a diva if you need to set a boundary as a female artist. People can be so ignorant about that. I often see my male counterparts setting very similar boundaries with people – even with fans for example – if you feel like someone is taking up a lot of your space and making you feel uncomfortable – I feel like the second you say that as a woman, it’s suddenly like “oh she’s a diva” and you just don’t see that same kind of energy with our male counterparts. My advice to female artists out there would be don’t listen to that noise. Just stand your ground, do what’s right for you. You don’t owe anyone anything, but you owe yourself everything.
This will be your last tour for a while, as you’re in the process of recording your debut album. What can you tell us about the record?
We’re in the middle of recording it right now and we’re about half way done. We’re going to finish it before the end of the year and then release it next year. It’s really exciting. We just got our concept figured out and we chose a title and a rough track-listing in the past two weeks. It’s cool because we’ve been releasing EPs for the entire life of this band, but now we finally get to do a full length album. In some ways I love just putting out singles and having a way shorter timeline between releases so that you can keep creating. But in other ways, I do really love the idea of this body of work that’s just a whole concept, a whole era of music that’s laid out and a story that’s being told, and an opportunity to really world-build with the band. That’s the mindset we’re going into with this. Taking our time and really doing it right, since it’s our first actual full length. We’re really trying to sink our teeth into the creative aspect of things. I’m really excited about it because it is coming together. It’s almost like a blurry photo coming into focus and I can finally see what the photo is.
Thanks to Mercedes for taking the time to speak with us!
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Photo Credit: Kaylene Widdoes
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