Biography
Soft Kill emerged from Portland as one of the acts that shaped the post-punk aesthetic across the 2010s. What began with the group functioning as standard-bearers of the style eventually expanded into grand, anthemic territory. Held together by Tobias Sinclair’s cavernous vocals and cathartic lyrics, the band progressed from the raw closeness of their 2011 debut An Open Door—which refreshed the approach of post-punk forebears the Chameleons, the Sound, and Joy Division—to the 2018 album Savior, whose songs about real-life hardships were framed by widescreen arrangements recalling U2, Tom Petty, and the Replacements.
The project originated in San Diego in 2010 as an outgrowth of Sinclair’s earlier gothy, lo-fi solo endeavor Blessure Grave. While Sinclair was developing songs for Blessure Grave’s second album, the more polished post-punk direction convinced him that a new band was taking shape. The first version of Soft Kill also included Shiloe Alia, Justin Gradin, and Mattey Hunter. This lineup recorded An Open Door, issued on Fast Weapons, the label run by Nathan Howdeshell of the Gossip.
After the album’s release, Sinclair placed Soft Kill on hold while addressing health concerns. He kept writing demos that later surfaced as the 2013 collection Circle of Trees, and the band re-formed in Portland in 2014. The new configuration featured guitarist Conrad Vollmer, a longtime friend Sinclair had met in the early 2000s; keyboardist and bassist Owen Glendower; and drummer Maximillion Avila, whose other projects included Antioch Arrow, Atriarch, and Chromatics. The 2015 album Heresy relied chiefly on Sinclair’s material yet included several collaborative pieces, an approach the band further developed on the 2016 follow-up Choke. Released on the metal-oriented label Profound Lore and mixed by Uniform’s Ben Greenberg, Choke displayed an array of influences and contained a contribution from the Chameleons’ Mark Burgess.
In October 2017 Soft Kill marked Tom Petty’s death with a cover of his 1981 song “Insider.” That admiration carried into the cathartic fourth album Savior, a set of songs written after Sinclair’s wife nearly died in childbirth and their infant son spent weeks in intensive care. The record also drew on the sounds of U2 and the Replacements and introduced drummer Adam Bulgasem. Recorded at Kingsize Studios in Los Angeles with Greenberg producing, Savior appeared in May 2018.
The project originated in San Diego in 2010 as an outgrowth of Sinclair’s earlier gothy, lo-fi solo endeavor Blessure Grave. While Sinclair was developing songs for Blessure Grave’s second album, the more polished post-punk direction convinced him that a new band was taking shape. The first version of Soft Kill also included Shiloe Alia, Justin Gradin, and Mattey Hunter. This lineup recorded An Open Door, issued on Fast Weapons, the label run by Nathan Howdeshell of the Gossip.
After the album’s release, Sinclair placed Soft Kill on hold while addressing health concerns. He kept writing demos that later surfaced as the 2013 collection Circle of Trees, and the band re-formed in Portland in 2014. The new configuration featured guitarist Conrad Vollmer, a longtime friend Sinclair had met in the early 2000s; keyboardist and bassist Owen Glendower; and drummer Maximillion Avila, whose other projects included Antioch Arrow, Atriarch, and Chromatics. The 2015 album Heresy relied chiefly on Sinclair’s material yet included several collaborative pieces, an approach the band further developed on the 2016 follow-up Choke. Released on the metal-oriented label Profound Lore and mixed by Uniform’s Ben Greenberg, Choke displayed an array of influences and contained a contribution from the Chameleons’ Mark Burgess.
In October 2017 Soft Kill marked Tom Petty’s death with a cover of his 1981 song “Insider.” That admiration carried into the cathartic fourth album Savior, a set of songs written after Sinclair’s wife nearly died in childbirth and their infant son spent weeks in intensive care. The record also drew on the sounds of U2 and the Replacements and introduced drummer Adam Bulgasem. Recorded at Kingsize Studios in Los Angeles with Greenberg producing, Savior appeared in May 2018.
Albums
Singles
