Band Of The Week #316 - Softcult
This week's Band of the Week is fast-rising Ontario-based modern grunge sibling duo Softcult - who have just released their debut full length album 'When A Flower Doesn't Grow' via Easy Life Records.
On their powerful debut album When A Flower Doesn’t Grow, Softcult – the Ontario-based sibling duo of Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn – deliver their most unflinching and transformative work to date. Written during a period of personal upheaval and self-discovery, the record traces a path through trauma, disillusionment, empowerment, and eventual liberation. The title itself comes from a quote that struck Mercedes at a pivotal moment: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” That perspective threads through the album’s ten tracks, which explore cycles of oppression, abuse, and conformity, while championing the courage it takes to break free. “The truth is, nothing can thrive in an environment where it is stifled,” Mercedes reflects. “We can’t flourish in environments that are oppressive. We need the world around us to be an environment that encourages us to grow.”
Musically, Softcult continue to expand their rich blend of grunge, shoegaze, and alt-rock textures, weaving fuzz-laden riffs and dreamy soundscapes with raw, confessional lyricism. The result is both intimate and universal: a record for anyone who has ever felt trapped or diminished by their surroundings, and a rallying cry to nurture ourselves and each other in the pursuit of freedom and authenticity.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Softcult, how are you? So your album is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?.
This is quite surreal, as it’s something we’ve been working on for over a year. The first full-length album is a milestone for any band, and we definitely feel honoured to have the opportunity to release a full length body of work. We’ve been sitting on these songs for a while now and it feels good to finally share them with the world.
It is called 'When A Flower Doesn't Grow' – what is the meaning behind that?
We were inspired by the quote by Alexander Den Heijer: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
We feel that it’s an apt analogy for our personal development as artists and as people, but also for the world around us and the way we view oppressive institutions and belief systems that get in the way of progress and equality for all.
The truth is, nothing can thrive in an environment where it is stifled.
This analogy isn’t only true for flowers… it applies to people; our cultures, our societies, and our communities too.
We can’t flourish in environments that are oppressive.
We need the world around us to be an environment that encourages us to grow.
This album is a conceptual work about the stages of internal metamorphosis that leads to empowerment; written from the perspective of people who have been radicalized by traumatic experiences, empowered by their own resilience, ultimately blossoming into the people they were always meant to be in spite of an environment that tried to break us.
While we wrote the album based on our own personal experiences, we feel that it’s a shared collective experience a lot of people can relate to for different reasons.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
We recorded it in our home studio. Phoenix engineered and produced everything you hear. We’ve been doing it that way since the beginning, but this feels like a culmination of all the lessons we've learned since we started this DIY project, the ups and downs of learning the skills we use today. I think that’s another reason we feel so proud of it, because even with its imperfections we can listen to it and hear how much of ourselves we truly poured into it.
What are the key influences behind the album?
The album itself is very eclectic. I think you can hear the diversity of our influences from song to song. We’ve always been inspired by dreampop and shoegaze, by the masters who originated the sound such as The Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, etc. We also have always been inspired by the riot grrrl movement and feminist punk ethos of bands like Bikini Kill, and even other hardcore punk bands that use their platform to criticize society , politics and culture like Minor Threat and Black Flag. We’ve got a grunge side to our sound too, and we have to credit Hole, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Veruca Salt for that. Phoenix is heavily inspired by artists like Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Nine Inch Nails for their ability to use the studio as their instrument.
If the album could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
I think personally I would choose two movies. If the first half of the film is Promising Young Woman, then the second half is Carol.
The stories of those films are incredibly nuanced, heartfelt, and powerful. Ours has a happy ending.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
Ah how can you ask me that? It’s so hard to choose, they’re all so deeply personal. I feel very personally connected to the song When A Flower Doesn’t Grow. I wrote it during the wee hours of a dark night of the soul, when I was questioning my sexuality and my identity as a queer person. I hadn’t come out yet. I was struggling and feeling a lot of guilt and shame. The song came to me like a friend, allowing me to give myself some grace and compassion. The lyrics in the first verse just poured out of me, as if I was talking to myself directly: “All you wanted was to feel the sun, in the shadows waiting for the dawn, dreaming of the moment daylight would come, aching just to know the sight of love.”
Suddenly this monumental weight was lifted from my shoulders and I felt that I could breathe again.
Now the album is out there – what next for you?
The journey has just begun. We’re going to be doing a lot of touring and promoting, and of course a lot more writing for the next project that has already begun.
