Epic Soundtracks achieved his greatest visibility through co-founding the British post-punk outfit Swell Maps, yet during the 1990s he transformed into an idiosyncratic and widely praised piano-centered balladeer. After trademarking his performing name, which required Epic Records’ soundtrack unit to adopt the alternate spelling “Soundtrax,” he was born Kevin Paul Godfrey in Croydon, England, on March 23, 1959, although several references identify him as Paul Godley. He and his older brother Nicholas, who later performed as Nikki Sudden, began making music together in 1972, drawing their chief influences from Can and T. Rex and regularly employing found objects as percussion instruments. By 1976 the project had evolved into the influential Swell Maps, whose two cult-favorite albums released between 1979 and 1980 shaped later underground acts including Sonic Youth and Pavement.
After Swell Maps dissolved in early 1980, Soundtracks released two solo singles on Rough Trade—“Popular Classical”/“Jelly Babies” in 1981 and “Rain Rain Rain” the following year, the latter featuring former bandmate Jowe Head. In 1984 he joined his brother’s new group the Jacobites, supplying drums on their debut albums The Jacobites and Robespierre’s Velvet Basement. One year later he became a member of Crime & the City Solution alongside former Birthday Party musicians and contributed to their 1986 release Room of Lights. Soundtracks and guitarist Rowland S. Howard left Crime in 1987 to form These Immortal Souls, with whom he recorded two albums and one EP between 1987 and 1992, handling drums and occasional piano.
Despite this history, Soundtracks had long nurtured an unexpressed interest in pure pop and singer-songwriter introspection. Returning to solo work in 1993, he signed with Bar/None and delivered his debut album Rise Above. Although guests from the alternative-rock community such as Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon, and J Mascis appeared, the record remained a gentle, traditional pop statement that positioned Soundtracks and his piano at the forefront. Reviewers, struck by the contrast with his post-punk past, responded favorably. Sleeping Star followed in 1994 and preserved much of the same understated appeal. In 1995 Soundtracks toured with Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando and co-wrote “C’Mon Daddy,” later included on the band’s 1996 album Car Button Cloth.
The same year saw the release of his third solo album, Change My Life. It proved to be his final record issued during his lifetime; Soundtracks was discovered deceased in his London flat on November 22, 1997, with the cause ruled inconclusive. In 1999 Nikki Sudden compiled unreleased material into the posthumous collection Everything Is Temporary. Further 1996 demos recorded with Kevin Junior for a projected fourth album appeared in 2005 as Good Things. Captured on four-track in Soundtracks’ apartment, these tracks rank among his strongest and underscore the depth of his talent. Additional previously unheard songs drawn from radio sessions, concerts, and studio work surfaced in 2012 on the second disc of the double-CD anthology Wild Smile, issued by Troubadour Records. The label sustained efforts to preserve his legacy with an expanded double-album edition of Rise Above in late 2015 and another set of unreleased material, Film Soundtracks, in mid-2017.
