Canadian alternative rock duo Softcult released their debut album, When A Flower Doesn’t Grow, on Jan. 30, to be followed by a tour including a stop in Winnipeg for the first time. Twins Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn perform loud yet often dreamy and ethereal-sounding songs tackling 2SLGBTQIA+ and feminist issues. The debut album arrived after four previous EPs from the band. They will also be playing in other cities supporting Lights, a fellow queer Canadian artist.
The Arn-Horn twins write songs based on their personal experiences, noting the cathartic nature of the process and comparing it to journaling. They are strongly influenced by the riot grrrl movement, while presenting a more intersectional approach than was mainstream in 1990s feminism.
The title track takes its name from Mercedes’s experiences of questioning her sexuality and orientation throughout her 20s, but having to repress it and alter her self-expression due to a long-term relationship. She compared the growing stress to a voice that was impossible to ignore.
“I was sitting in my apartment […] feeling really down and looking at my plants,” Mercedes recalled from her attempts at self-help. “I just identified with how plants really need an environment to grow that is not confining them and oppressing them. If you keep a plant in a pot that’s too small for too long, it becomes root bound and strangled and it withers and dies. And that’s what the song was about. I was basically comparing how I felt to how my plants must feel when I don’t give them the proper environment to flourish.”
Phoenix expanded the metaphor to a representation of the world as a whole, which cannot grow while under political oppression. So the dual meanings of the title became the linking themes throughout the album.
Another track of the album is “Tired,” a more energetic song about oppression and bigotry under the current U.S. government.
“Everyone reaches a breaking point where you become radicalized and you’re like, ‘You know what? This shit sucks. I’m tired of it,’” Mercedes explained. Phoenix continued, “We open our phones and we just see so much insane stuff. You can get burned out on it and start to feel desensitized and whatnot. But it’s important you stay awake even when you’re tired [and] not let it grind you down, and just let it light a fire under you.”
Phoenix produced the music themself, rather than going to a studio. The band enjoys the creative freedom self-production enables, and credits their ability to create together from growing up as twins.
“From being in the studio [and] having more experiences on the road and getting to tour with other bands and in other parts of the world, it all has influenced what we do now and what we put on the album,” Mercedes commented. “We really tried to lean into our influences and take risks creatively. There are some songs on this album where we are doing full riot grrrl yells and scream stuff. We never did that before.”
Softcult will perform at Sidestage on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m., supported by local shoegaze band Guilty Sleep. For tickets and more information, visit sidestagewpg.com/tm-event/soft-cult-with-guests-guiltysleep/.
