INTERVIEW WITH MATT Y ROSS LEVINE FROM SOFT SCIENCE
I’LL ALWAYS BE CHASING THE RECORD IN MY HEAD.
Interview with Matt and Ross Levine from Soft Science by Diego Centurión.
Fotographs: Chantel Elder, John Conley and Allie Lown.
The Northern California dream pop and shoegaze quintet Soft Science, formed in 2009, has just released its fifth album, Sand, on September 4 via Shelflife Records (USA) and Spinout Nuggets (UK). Their previous albums are Highs And Lows (2011), Detour (2014), Maps (2018), and Lines (2023).
Soft Science is made up of Katie Haley (lead vocals, percussion), brothers Matt Levine (lead guitar) and Ross Levine (guitar, backing vocals), along with Tony Cale (drums) and Becky Cale (bass, backing vocals).
We had the opportunity to speak with the Levine brothers thanks to Shauna McLarnon of Shameless Promotion PR, and I’m very grateful to her for making this interview possible.
In our 2023 interview, you said, “if we are anything, we are persistent.” Three years later, with Sand now Soft Science’s fifth album, does that word still feel like a good definition of the band?
Matt Levine: Well… I think that still holds true. I think iterating between periods of creation and periods of reflection help keep life moving. In terms of the band it’s going between periods of creating new songs and periods of trying to share the songs with the world.
Ross Levine: Got to scratch the creative itch somehow.
Looking at the period between Lines and Sand, do you feel something changed in the way audiences and the wider scene respond to Soft Science? Whether through singles, videos, live shows, or the way your music circulates, do you feel the band has reached a different level of recognition than it had three years ago?
Matt Levine: It’s all so abstract. We don’t feel like we’re some big band at all. So, I’m not sure we’ve reached any new level of recognition. However, we do have a small core that seems to appreciate what we do that means the world to us. The new record seems to be getting a great reception with some great reviews and radio play. In regard to seeing people, we don’t have the opportunity to tour that much to actually see anyone that often. We do hope to announce some fun things that may be happening soon though. We really do love to get out and play, it’s definitely one of the things that keeps us going.
Ross Levine: It’s really tough to get a sense of how we’re perceived. We just try to make music that we like. We can’t control how other people see us, but the idea that there are people out there who enjoy and value it means a lot to us.
"Soft Science - Undersatnd"
Soft Science was born in Sacramento, a city that is not immediately associated with dream pop or shoegaze. Is there a local scene for these sounds today, and do you feel you find a natural audience there, or do you have to look toward cities such as San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, or even outside the United States to connect with a more receptive audience? Matt Levine: Yeah, we’re a little isolated from any greater scene here in Sacramento. We love our city and Northern California. We have some bands that we love to play with when we get a chance. Especially Desario, Katie’s brother’s band. I recently went to their record release show and they were incredible. Other than that, we loved playing with bands like Slowness and Lavender Blush in San Francisco. We especially love going up to the Northwest. We’ve always been treated so kind there playing with great bands like the New Age Healers, Waves Crashing and Fotoform. We’re hoping to get to New York and the Europe/UK again for this record as well.
Shoegaze and dream pop have been going through a renewed wave of popularity in recent years, with much younger generations discovering these sounds. Have you noticed that shift in the audience coming to Soft Science as well? Matt Levine: I’m not sure. I think we can be a bit challenging for the trends because we’re not all in one single sound. We love to play in the intersection of shoegaze, dream pop, noise pop and indie pop. Often when genre becomes trendy there are a lot of bands that fill it up that kind of sound similar. So, we’re always kind of a square peg.
Ross Levine: All I know is that I hope they find Sand! It can be hard to tell online, and we don’t play live enough to really get a sense of it; our goal is to change that and get out to play shows in the coming year.
"Soft Science - Spinning"
Sand seems to push even further the balance between melody, noise, and atmosphere that has always characterized the band. At certain moments, particularly on “Understand,” there is a sensibility that can recall Lush. Do you feel this album presents a more clearly defined version of what the Soft Science sound means today?
Matt Levine: I do think this our best record. Every album is a sort of reaction to the last record. What did we like about it and what we thought could have been better. The challenge is not to over learn things. The goal for us is to create tension and beauty at the intersection of conflicting concepts. Like an atmospheric song that also has a purposeful spine that allows it to be both hypnotic and pop. Or a more straightforward indie pop song that seems on the brink of decaying into abstraction.
Ross Levine: I think the record represents a good balance of our influences and Lush is for sure a big one. And it might be our first record that I feel good about every song.
Sand seems to move constantly between light and dark: there is tension, frustration, and weariness, but also hope, comfort, and a determination to keep moving forward. Was it important for you that the album hold those two forces together rather than lean completely toward one of them?
Matt Levine: Building on my last answer, to lean all the way into one of them just seems less interesting to us. Not that there is anything wrong with it. There are many bands that are way better and more successful that do just that. There’s something fascinating about trying to find that knife’s edge.
Ross Levine: Sonically, I think it might be a tug-of-war between our pop instincts, the light, and wanting to create the right mood and not make it too sugary, the dark. Lyrically, a common thread might be acceptance of change, which isn’t all good or bad. Some things you hope never change, while others can’t change fast enough.
"Soft Science - Fade"
The passage of time feels like a recurring idea throughout the record: not only as loss or nostalgia, but also as a way of understanding what we have lived through and gaining a different perspective. Do you feel Sand is, in part, about learning to accept that some answers only come with time? Matt Levine: Well... we’re getting older, and that naturally leads to reflection and taking stock in our journey. I think there actually is a certain wisdom that comes with age. A reflection on what could have been on some things and growing appreciation for what you have and have been able to do. It’s similar to the tensions that we sonically try to achieve. Ross Levine: There’s a certain perspective that only time can give you, and, as Matt mentioned, at this point we really try to appreciate what we have and make the most of whatever opportunities we can.
There is also a recurring sense of cycles, memories, and relationships changing, as if many of the songs are looking at what happens when we try to move forward without being able to fully let go of what came before. Would you say that tension between memory and transformation is one of the threads that holds the album together? Matt Levine: Yeah, I do. Life is always changing, so there is a constant cycle between loss and new adventures. Sometimes that can feel like everything is always falling apart, but there’s a power in acknowledgement and acceptance in what you can and can’t control. I think that has been a consistent theme for us. Ross Levine: Our kids are all in high school right now… time flies. Nothing reminds you of constant change more than having a kid and watching them grow up.
"Soft Science - Sad"
After so many years of making music, how do you see the global dream pop and shoegaze scene today? Are there newer bands you feel a particular affinity with, or that make you feel the genre still has a lot of territory left to explore?
Matt Levine: Honestly, I don’t really follow the global dream pop scene that much. I tend to find new bands when Soft Science is playing shows and by seeing new Shelflife releases. It’s amazing that we get to be a part of an ecosystem with so many great bands like the Blue Herons, Lovejoy, Highspire, Tears Run Rings and Rob & Jay! Fun fact Rob & Jay are another identical twin band. It would be fun to have Soft Science, Rob & Jay and The Veldt play together.
If you could go back to the early years of Soft Science and think about the band you imagined becoming, do you feel Sand comes close to the album you once dreamed of making? What would those early Soft Science members recognize in the band of 2026, and what would probably surprise them?
Matt Levine: I think we’d be proud of what we’ve done and I think there are parts of each record that we can look back on as being a highlight. We go through phases where we’re leaning into one aspect of our sound a bit more than the others. So I don’t think there is one record that would be the goal. However, we are very proud of Sand.
Ross Levine: It’s kind of a tortured artist thing, but, for me, when you make a record, it never comes out exactly how you want it to. Not to say you don’t like it, it’s just that it's different than what was in your head. And sometimes it can take me a while to reconcile the record I wanted to make with the one we made. But I feel really good about Sand, so let's just say it reconciled a little quicker. But I’ll always be chasing the record in my head. Thinking back to when we started the band, the main thing we’d be surprised by is that we were still together doing it and still getting opportunities to do cool stuff.
"Soft Science - Hope"
Looking at what the band has achieved in recent years, was there an encounter, collaboration, or show that made you think, “we never imagined Soft Science would take us here”? Is there an artist or someone in the music world you were able to meet because of the band who once seemed out of reach?
Matt Levine: I don’t think we ever allowed ourselves to have expectations with our releases. So when we get a chance to play a music festival with Miki Beyreni or do an in-studio session at KEXP. Or really go anywhere that we are received well we kind of pinch ourselves.
From Highs and Lows to Sand, Soft Science has gone through different musical and personal phases. Looking at those five albums as one complete trajectory, what do you think still connects the band of 2009 with the band of 2026?
Matt Levine: We’re still just a group of friends that find meaning in the goal of trying to create art that feels meaningful to us and hopefully gets some traction with the world.
Ross Levine: On Highs and Lows, we were still kind of trying to figure out what we want to do. I often think of Detour as our actual first record. It’s hard to think of a trajectory really, we just keep going because we enjoy creating music.
Sand finds Soft Science with a very established identity, but also with a clear desire to keep moving forward. What can we expect from the band in the coming months: new videos, more singles, unreleased songs, or another release of some kind?
Matt Levine: We want to play shows! As I said, we hopefully have some cool stuff to announce soon. But we’d really like to get back to places like Seattle, LA, SF, NY, Porto, Madrid, Paris and hopefully the UK. We’ve never played it in the UK and it’s kind of on our bucket list. So fingers crossed.
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