Soft Vault

A filing shelf for old archives of various related things: music, artwork, interviews and other miscellaneous items for those digging deeper. Some things are more to archive where I’ve been over the years for myself more so than anyone else.

Soft Riot - No Longer Stranger original 2011 EP cover

What’s in a name?

25 July 2024

Soft Riot — it’s a name that came into being all the way back in 2006 and still hangs about to this day. Covering the origins of the name and the difficulties with it!

Soft Riot - posed with Epiphone Ripper bass guitar

The Ripper (And How I Capture Ideas For Songs)

27 June 2024

When the ideas for songs come I need to be ready for them, and with a good number of years of writing songs behind me that’s always changing, these are some thoughts on I deal with them and the processes I use to harness song ideas.

The Outsider In the Mirrors | LP Cover

The Outsider In The Mirrors at 6 Years

9 February 2024

The six year anniversary of the release of this album just sort of snuck up, and with that here’s some reflections on The Outsider In The Mirrors, released 09 February 2018 on Possession Records.

Soft Riot - Cover Songs | Nomeansno : Mama | Hoover : The Lurid Traversal of Route 7 | Bruce Cockburn : Stealing Fire

The Mysterious World of Cover Songs

14 July 2023

A look at the particular and problematic world of approaching cover songs, as well as a reflection on the three cover songs done by myself so far by artists Hoover, Nomeansno and Bruce Cockburn.

Soft Riot | Fiction Prediction - Cover

Cinema Eyes Revisited

4 December 2020

“Cinema Eyes” came out mid-2013 on the album Fiction Prediction, almost eight years ago. There’s a number of versions of that track that exist so here’s a retrospective.

Soft Riot | Fiction Prediction - Cover

Fiction Prediction at 7 Years

23 June 2020

The second album Fiction Prediction was released on this day in the year 2013. Over the past year I’ve started writing these reflective summaries of past works on their release date anniversaries so here’s my thoughts on this record.

Seven Segment Poster, 16 July 1999 | Radio Berlin, The Parlour Maids Revolt, The Sequential Circuits, The Automovement

An Old Interview about the Vancouver Scene (2001)

11 June 2020

One of a few old interviews I totally forgot about were found, including this one with a California-based webzine called He Would Rather Kill, a strongly titled, short-lived operation run by an acquaintance I had met on an A Luna Red tour in 2001.

Soft Riot | Records & Influences - Featured Image

Influences: A Timeline Of Some Of My Favourite Records

29 March 2020

As we are now in midst of a lockdown during a very monumental pandemic, I thought it seemed like the best time more than ever to do a very in-depth post about over 30 of my favourite and most influencial records. Get reading!

Radio Berlin, 1999

Radio Berlin Re-issues at 5 Years

10 January 2020

This time five years ago Radio Berlin’s three main albums, Sibling, The Selection Drone and Glass, were re-issued digitally after all being long out of print. For one month you can now download these albums for FREE.

Soft Riot | It's No Laughing Matter (Obscure Dream Version)

It’s No Laughing Matter (Obscure Dream Version)

8 January 2020

We’re into the first month of the new year and here’s a free download of a track for those interested. A new version of the track “It’s No Laughing Matter” featuring vocals of MM Lyle (Marcel Wave).

Soft Riot | Some More Terror - Square (EU Cover)

Some More Terror at 5 Years

23 September 2019

Some More Terror, the third album, was released five years ago today on Sept 23rd, 2014. Released between Fiction Prediction (2013) and You Never Know What Might Come Next (2015), the release took a very notable sonic detour as it was a collection of semi-improvisational experiments

The Connection

8 April 2013

Well, here’s an old one. Old enough that I hadn’t heard it for over a decade and over time the memory of the track had morphed it into something quite different in my mind. “The Connection” was an outtake from the recording sessions of Radio Berlin‘s first album, Sibling.

The Measure | Live at The Briclyard, 1997

The Measure

3 March 2013

The Measure was a short-lived Vancouver band I was in from around Summer 1997 (don’t remember which month) until around June or July of 1998. I had just turned 19 and had just moved to Vancouver.

Radio Berlin at The Brickyard, Spring 1999

Two Outtakes from Two Albums

28 December 2010

Recently I was rolling out the shuffle mode when doing some work and a track called “Towers Above You” came on. It was an outtake that was never used from the last Radio Berlin full length, Glass (2003).

Primes — Press photo, 2004

Let Your Body Learn

23 August 2010

As I was moving items from shelf to shelf I became re-acquainted with the first Primes “s/t album. This was the first phase of the group in it’s more trashy, distorted, electro-punk phase.