Interview: Softee on Her Upcoming Album 'Natural'

Written by Hannah Goldberg

Brooklyn-based pop singer Softee recently dropped her sophomore album this May. The Juilliard-trained performer evokes the raw excitement that supplements newfound love at its core. Softee draws inspiration from 90s RnB, classic disco, and hyperpop artists SOPHIE and Robyn. Accompanied by a short horror film style music video, the funk pop driven “Come Home” is just a taste of the 10-track LP that is Natural. Praised by Rollingstone, Billboard, and Paper Magazine, Softee is a new paragon of energy in the world of indie-pop. 

Hannah: Just for some background; You went to Juilliard, now you’re here. Could you describe what happened in between? How did you get to where you are today?

Softee: I went to Julliard, I got in when I was 18. I don’t think I really knew what I wanted. But you know, I was really excited to be in New York and to be at this really big-deal institution. I didn’t really have a lot of time for anything except school. It was a very intense program. I was in class or in rehearsals from like 8am to like 11pm everyday. In my summers I would try and squeeze in making music. Once I graduated I was lucky to be in the theater scene pretty quickly. I booked some fun stuff but something was missing for me creatively. I was in this prestigious play and theater and I just wasn’t feeling fulfilled. People around me were like “this is the best.” I felt guilty because I was like “isn’t this supposed to be like the pinnacle of working for an actor?” There was a need out of that to have another outlet. Up until that point I had been doing music as a hobby and not taking it so seriously. I was like “I need something new to break this cycle that I’m in.” So I did it in the most dramatic way possible which was to invent a persona for myself and write all new songs. That’s how “Softee” was born, and that’s where I’m at today. I found that creative outlet, and it’s still fun. A lot of my fear with Softee was that it would get too serious or that I would stop having fun and that hasn’t happened.

H: Tell me about the creative process behind Natural. 

S: Natural was made mostly in Berlin with my co-producer Jeremy Chinn. He goes by sweetbbyj. He’s amazing. We had a lot of demos going back and forth and those sort of coalesced into an album. He was living in Berlin; I went to Berlin for the summer. It wasn’t our intention at first to buckle down and make an album, but it just kind of happened while I was there. It felt really nice to be somewhere else that wasn’t my homebase. It gave the album a new focus. The process of making the album was really collaborative with Jeremy. Definitely my most collaborative project to date. It was truly a labor of love between the two of us. That makes it really special to me because I don’t think I have ever trusted someone that fully before with my writing. It was nice to surrender to that. There’s a freedom in that too of like “Oh it’s not all on me, it’s not all on my shoulders.” It made me a better writer because I was able to focus in on the things that I care about; lyrics, melody, synth. He handles the stuff that I’m realizing is less my thing which is drums, engineering, and producing. 

H: There is a sense of vulnerability that comes with songwriting. How do you embrace this in your upcoming album and your music?

S: I kind of feel like I had no choice. When you’re going through a breakup there’s just nothing more exposed than that. I’m so grateful for that time because it did open me up in this new way. I was at rock bottom, and I didn’t have the energy to be anything but myself. I was writing from that place. I think when you’re in a happier place you are sometimes a little more filtered. I think the high of a new love can also come without filters too. It’s just so exciting and you’re so like amped on life. It’s these two extremes. In the process of writing the album, I was ping-ponging back and forth between these very turbulent extremes. That rollercoaster of emotions was present during the writing process. I wasn’t digging to find this stuff, it was really raw. Right now, I am in a stable place. So, what I’m writing right now in my life is more introspective. I have to dig a little bit. 

H: At what point did the idea(s) for your video accompanying “Come Home” emerge? 

S: That was my fiance Machel Ross who directed the video and creatively directed. She directs a lot of my stuff visually. That was all her idea, and we sort of flushed it out together. From the beginning, the first time she heard that song, she said “I think God Complex needs to star in this video.” God Complex is the drag king that ended up starring in this video. Machel works in images. An image will just come to her like lightning or like psychic or something. She’ll be like in the middle of her breakfast and she’ll say “an image just came to me.” My brain doesn’t work like that. There were alot of iterations for this video. At first we were gonna put him (God Complex) in like a nightclub sort of 70s soul train setting. Considering budget and all these different things, we landed on this demonic possession in line with a lustful, bordering-on-dangerous concept. We were just ruminating a lot on the video and what was gonna be possible with the space feasible to shoot in. Machel always says this, and I think this is true; there are 3 different videos. There’s the concept, the one you’re shooting, and then the edit. I was so surprised in the edit how romantic it became. I was really thinking of it as a fun “Oh the demon’s gonna eat me!” But then we created these tableaus of like me and God and the stages of our relationship. At the end you could even interpret it as like a toxic relationship. I didn’t think this was the story we were telling, but I love that it ended up that way. 

H: How does this album stand out in your career and what does it mean to you personally?

S: This album in my career is huge because it’s the first album I am doing with a label, record release, and LP. It feels like a whole new level. I’ve done so many music videos and visuals for this, and I have learned so much from that. I’m touring more too. It feels like my most evolved, vulnerable work to date. It’s crazy and hard to take in sometimes what it actually means. I am very grateful to be with a label that really appreciates the vision and supports me as an artist. I feel grateful to have the support I have with City Slang. I know in my bones they get it.