And so 2018 almost comes to a close. It’s been an incredibly busy year: releasing a new record and playing on different continents and different countries. A number of videos were made, a number cities were played that I’ve never played before and like many experiences, I’ve learned a lot of new things and made some mistakes that add to my experience. It’s now time focus spending time in the studio and finish off a lot of new material that needs to be completed and then decide how to move things forward from there. I’m hoping to get more involved with people in the coming year and try new things. Until then, try to enjoy whatever’s left of the year and I’ll see you soon.
Photo: Live at The Lock Tavern, May 2018, London | Photo by Marija Buljeta
Having recently moved house and studio to a new location, and having done some travelling around playing shows in the lands of Europe, some stock re-counting has been done and some things are almost gone, namely t-shirts — down to the last 2x “L” sizes left of the “Quality Soundtracks For Modern Dread” shirt design. With that in mind the idea to do the first online store “sale” of 2018 came about, so until 23:59 on Sept 30, 2018, all items in the shop are 20% off using the voucher code blackwoodprovidence. This covers everything in the store: albums (LP, CD, Cass), shirts and other odds and ends like silkscreened posters and more that anyone might want to attain in one order. Thanks for your support!
If you know your Croatian, here’s an interview recently done with the popular Croatian entertainment site www.100posto.hr ahead of the recent live show in Zagreb at the legendary club GK Jabuka. Report Valerija Bebek asked a number of questions regarding expectations for the show, and the Soft Riot timeline from the start until now. Main photo by Marija Buljeta.
Thanks to The Skinny for premiering the video for the track “Waiting For Something Terrible To Happen”, which is now available for viewing as of today! This is the fourth track from album The Outsider In The Mirrors which was released earlier this year on Glasgow’s Possession Records. It is a continuation of the ongoing “alternate TV channel” theme from this record, the first being a informational film about the album and the second for “The Eyes On The Walls” which was premiered on post-punk.com.
“I’ve been fixated on this idea of putting the music into a video format that makes the viewer seem like they’re cutting into some budget, almost cable-access TV channel, complete with its own adverts and programmes, just as news investigative reports. I’m a bit of a film buff as well – being in a world where we’re constantly around this sort of thing, even if you don’t watch TV, we’re constantly seeing these kind of segments in our social media feeds and what we digest online.”
Ahead of a performance at Vancouver’s Verboden Festival starting Friday, April 13th an interview was conducted for the Canadian music/arts website Ion Magazine. Read on!
Of the reviews that have popped up so far for The Outsider in the Mirrors, the latest full-length release from Glasgow-based darkwave solo project Soft Riot, none are quite as awkward as a YouTube clip from a bespectacled, “self-employed electrician, TV repairman, and part-time paranormal researcher” named Bob Hatchett. After explaining to the camera that he lives next door to Soft Riot synth-manipulator Jack Duckworth, Hatchett admits that he hasn’t actually heard his neighbour’s new record, but deadpans that he can often hear Jack practicing through the walls of his workshop— He adds, self-aware, that these same sounds will soon be added to the very video you’re watching. Instead, he gives his impressions of the on-the-nose album art, which features Duckworth’s face framed in a mirror. “I think he looks a bit sad, don’t you? Or maybe thinking about something very deep, or important,” the reviewer notes dryly, adding of the introspective nature of it all, “Heavy stuff!”
Thing is, Hatchett looks suspiciously like Duckworth, as well as Derek Laser, a wry evening newsman who occasionally pops up in Soft Riot videos. Over a Skype call with ION, Duckworth explains that while he’s busily self-promoting his third LP, issued through the Possession Records imprint he recently started with a couple of friends, he’s the first to poke fun at his own artistic ambitions.
