California queer indie-pop duo Soft People is premiering their new EP “Heaven”

This release finds them processing grief and absurdity through interpretting the work of two of their favorite artists: David Byrne and David Lynch.

Soft People is a queer indie pop duo from California, comprised of Caleb Nichols and John Metz. What started as a bedroom project out of their home in Atlanta, Georgia, Soft People has bloomed into a fully realized project who’s two albums and handful of singles have garnered acclaim and listeners all over the world. In October 2020, the duo released their second LP, the sparkglingly produced Absolute Boys which recieved glowing reviews and radio play from several outlets in the EU, including a review in Italian magazine Rumore, which gave the album a solid 71/100.

Heaven is the new EP-length single that finds Soft People processing grief and absurdity through interpretting the work of two of their favorite artists: David Byrne and David Lynch. Heaven will be officially on Friday February 26, on all digital platforms. Complimented by conceptual artwork by bandmate and frequent collaborator Noah Kwid (former frontman of LA band Dirt Dress) Soft People‘s reimaging of both of these classic tracks feels like an exploration of interiority; a deep exploration of what it means to be trapped in a cell with wide window to a world of others trapped in their own glass turrets. “Heaven/ is a place/ where nothing/ ever happens.” Byrne’s lyric feels eerily suited to this moment; to this breath-holding of the world as we continue through this dark tunnel together, with only the faintest light at the end. It’s a song about endless repetition– of the comfort of knowing exactly what will transpire, because it already has. In some senses, then, it’s a song about the universe or time, perhaps: if time is some sort of ouroboros, as some believe.

Whether or not this is a cold comfort or one’s worst nightmare, is, of course, a matter of subjectivity but it is perhaps no surprise that Lynch’s lyric, and Soft People‘s treatment of it on this single, is unquestionably ominous and sinister: “In heaven/ everything is fine/ you’ve got your good thing/ and I’ve got mine.” In a complete 180 from the most famous version of this cover, the Pixies‘ blaring and raw Live at the BBC version, Soft People take a different approach, experiment with loops of single piano notes and bells, in an ambient Eno-esque homage to Lynch’s deeply unsettling film Eraserhead. This take on a cult classic sits in sharp juxtaposition to the relatively bright, 90’s-inspired trip hop of Soft People‘s “Heaven“: a sonically upbeat and bouncy take on the Talking Heads‘ classic that finds the duo joined by friends from Rogue Wave, Strange Pilgrim, Some Ember and Two Sheds on the larger-than-life choruses.