PREMIERE | Softie, "Doser"
Softie live in the act; photographed by Nash Rood.
From the distortion, static and flickering light of life we carry on. Through the almost perpetual dissonance that obfuscates dreams and truths, the obstacles, adversities and challenges to overcome; we valiantly prevail. Like the scores of epic poems that pit heroes versus villains with tales of derring do, nary to rarely do we get a close inside view to the interior mind of the protagonist's most inward thoughts and breadth of perceptions. Beyond the veil of voice-over narrations of inner monologues — the scope of inward duress, conflicts, mental health to the vast extent of emotive landscapes are hardly ever exhibited in full. Yet through the visions and talents of today's artists and arts, we can experience a larger picture. These previous lesser witnessed aspects of the processes and experiences that are not always expressed can be felt, heard and seen in new revolutionary ways like few artistic crafts before.
Welcome to the new creative era of the Bay Area’s conscious streamers Softie. The vision of DIY pop veteran / multidisciplinary wonder Nicholas Coleman, the entire world was able to enter new realms of consciousness and creativity with the advent of the gorgeous gift of Strong Hold (courtesy of San Francisco’s new pop powerhouse imprint Cherub Dream Records), and now can witness the following multimedia piece of living art that is the video for “Doser”. Curated like a music video art installation, Coleman's self-directed visual blends analog and digital touches and tones together in a moving collage of mediums in an impressionistic/abstract live experience of captured moments. With news of a forthcoming Softie release currently in the works, Nicholas presents a polymath masterpiece that actively slows down the manic hands of time to bear witness to a world of sentiment and thought depicted through slower motions.
“Doser” is a privy view into the raw, ragged and rugged realm of thought spaces swimming through the inner-asteroid fields of the unconscious. Softie guides the audience through the ebb and flow of thumping rhythms and sharply tuned guitar twangs that are married by Nicholas’ sincere delivery of unfettered, burning embers of pure feeling. The visual presents a series of road film views as seen outside of the passenger’s side window, slowed down to a strolling gallop, interspersed by scenes of venues, inverted performance footage, fascinating filters, fish-eye lenses, water rapids, transactional handshakes and so forth. Ultimately the video for “Doser” elevates the notion of what a performance video can be, transforming the event itself in a manner that is attuned to the essence of a song that explores the connection between the natural world, ourselves, our biochemistry and brain chemistry in both the day to day as well as an exhibition of aesthetic praxis. Softie continues to mine the privy relationship between the individual, their art, their experiences, their worlds, their emotive and intellectual states of being in ways that can only be approximated by the language that surrounds the conceptual framework of both the sincere and utterly sublime.
Image still from Softie’s video for “Doser”.
Nicholas Coleman of Softie provided some stream of consciousness thoughts on the inspirations behind “Doser”:
The feeling of being surrounded by individuals that you wish would disappear. Self medicating to tolerate negative experiences.
Softie’s Nicholas Coleman in the stage light; photographed by Michael Haupt.
Coping with an outside induced social anxiety. Seeking comfort in an uncomfortable space.
Softie’s Strong Hold is available now via Cherub Dream Records.