Addie Kenogbon has a chat with Soft Girls & Boys Club as they prepare to launch their latest EP with a knees-up this March.
Unless you’ve been walking around Nottingham’s bars with your hands placed over your ears, it’s hard not to have come across the sound of Soft Girls & Boys club. As one of the most exciting bands to come from the city, they’ve honed their craft and built their following playing plenty of sweat-infused venues across the country since 2016.
Part of the Phlexx Records crew, the psych-inspired, dream-pop rockers are celebrating the launch of their new EP Welcome to Soft Girls & Boys Club with a headline show at The Bodega. Ahead of the gig next week, Addie Kenogbon caught up with Sam Potts, king of keys for the quintet, to learn more about the softies:
Who are Soft Girls & Boys Club?
We are Ben Webster - lead vocals and guitar, Tom Richards - vocals and guitar, Luke Harley - bass, Louis Potts - drums and myself on the keys.
How’d you guys meet?
We all began hanging out in Ben’s smoke-filled flat in Melton Mowbray years ago and upon realising that we all like the same music and wanted to play, he asked us to start performing his material with him! We were getting most of our gigs in Nottingham so decided to move here.
Where are you based?
Until the end of last year we were based in Sneinton, now we all reside at various locations across Nottingham and tend to play at Notts’ finest bars and venues in Hockley such as the Bodega and Rough Trade.
Interesting name – what was the inspiration behind it?
We were originally called Webbo and the Soft Boys until we were threatened with a lawsuit from the charming Soft Boys and were forced to change our name to the title of our then upcoming EP, Soft Girls & Boys Club, which became Same Old Thangs! Though as a tribute to our charming friends we did consider calling it Who the Fuck are the Soft Boys?’
What other bands or musicians inspire you most?
We take inspiration from all over. We each have unique branches of musical interests that differ from one another but there is a solid foundation that holds us together, mainly made up of The Beatles, Wings & Hendrix and essentially all great Bluesmen as well as more modern acts like Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Gengahr, Tonstartsbandht, King Giz and Mac Demarco.
We know you guys often have a hectic gig schedule. Where has your recent tour taken you so far?
We have a small UK headline tour in March that’s taken us to London (7 March, Old Blue Last) and Leicester (17 March, The Cookie). Next we’re at Leeds (21 March, Wharf Chambers), Manchester (22 March, The Castle) and our EP launch is in our beloved hometown venue The Bodega on the 23 March!
If people have never seen you live before, what can people expect from each show?
People coming to our shows should be prepared for silly dance moves, crap jokes, face-melting riffs and booty moving grooves.
How would you describe your sound in 3 words?
Psych-Rock Dream-Pop (is that 2 or 4? I don’t know how the hyphens work)
What do you like most about the Nottingham music scene?
We love the Notts music scene, it has such a friendly welcoming vibe and is full of a like-minded community. We were taken aback by how well we were received upon moving here and now have many friends on the local scene! Notts is big enough to get big bands coming through on tour and small enough to give upcoming bands such as ourselves the space to grow, it’s perfect!
Your gig at Bodega is celebrating the launch of Welcome to Soft Girls & Boys Club. What can people expect from the new EP?
An eclectic mix of varying styles of music we all hold dear. Psych Rock / Dream pop! Happy music for sad people.
When is the release date?
It’s out on Saturday the 23 March, coinciding with our Bodega Gig, and is made up of some tunes we’ve been gigging for a while now, and a couple of unheard bonus tracks for the die hard fans...all two of them! We’ll be supported by the lovely Jimi Mack and the sexy Vega Bay
What else have you got planned for the year?
We’ve mainly been focussed on our busy start to the year with lots of gigging and our new EP, but we have built up a very large back catalogue of songs which we’ll no doubt be putting into live sets and hopefully releasing at some point...perhaps even on an album, but that’s top secret.
Anything else you want to add?
Be sure to check us out on Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube Music/ Tidal/ Deezer/ Limewire/ Napster or whatever the heck you use! Also we’re on Facebook, Insta and Twitter! We’d also love to give a shout out to some of our favourite local acts Superego, Do Nothing, Jimi Mack, Vega Bay, Idle Nova and Sancho Panza...GO AND CHECK THEM OUT!!!
Soft Girls & Boys Club play their EP launch gig at The Bodega on Saturday 23 March, supported by Vega Bay and Jim Mack.
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