SOFT PUNCH
Soft Punch is the project of Washington D.C.-based musician Rye Thomas. On September 15, Soft Punch will release Above Water on Bad Friend Records The album is full of bold, multidimensional arrangements that nod to a wide array of influences, from Björk to The Beatles, Frank Ocean to Elliott Smith. Above Water is an album about learning to live with loss, about looking for beauty and finding it in the most unexpected places. 

The band has shared their new single and video "Here / Now." The song is available on all streaming platforms for any playlist shares.

On the song and video Rye Thomas says:

Like a warm, familiar blanket, nostalgia provides comfort during hard times. I've often relied on it to escape the pain of health problems and negate the FOMO of social media. Who doesn't relish golden memories of better days? In "Here / Now," I used synth sounds and drum machine samples that reminded me of the music I grew up with. I played an acoustic guitar I inherited from my Dad, who got it when he was a kid. I even had my boyfriend, Brendan Polmer, tap out percussion on a metallic water bottle from the 9:30 Club, to remind me of the time we played a great show there with our former band, Tereu Tereu.

But that pleasure is not a panacea. Nostalgia distorts our perception and prevents us from engaging with the present moment. It's a nice place to visit, but living there is delusional. That tension between presence and remembrance is what fuels the song. How do you balance fond memories with being aware of the moment? How can you show up for the present, while still appreciating the past?

The video asks those questions through presenting a vulnerable portrait of myself. Filmed by Brendan and edited by my longtime friend, J. Robinson, it's full of private moments: writing lyrics, visiting a doctor's office, getting a migraine, watching Black Eyes prep for a reunion show. You see me sing on my front porch and in my backyard, here in DC, but all that's juxtaposed against dreamy footage from a trip to Shenandoah. I grew up in Virginia, and I've got deep Appalachian roots in both Kentucky and West Virginia. I'm still learning how to honor my family history while being present in D.C., living a life far removed from anything my ancestors could have imagined.

Rye Thomas's life forever changed in 2013, when he acquired a mysterious illness that gradually left him homebound. Rye previously lived a full life as a writer and a musician, touring in bands like Pash and Tereu Tereu, freelancing for publications like Rolling Stone and The Washington Post. But after his health collapsed, he could no longer leave his house, and the simple act of turning on an amplifier triggered debilitating migraines. Despite this, Rye never stopped writing music — sometimes for only 30 minutes a day, in his blacked-out bedroom, with nothing more than a basic keyboard and a cassette recorder.

When Rye’s health finally improved enough to start recording a proper album, he had a hefty backlog of songs to pull from. With the help of his longtime boyfriend, Brendan Polmer, Rye outfitted his home studio with old tape and tubes for a more classic sound, and he called up old friends to add expert instrumentation. Some of the songs on Above Water started out as sparse, quiet sketches, written when Rye’s health was at its worst. The fact that they evolved into full, densely layered compositions speaks to Rye’s artistic dedication.

Above Water is the culmination of the last several years of Rye’s life, a carefully crafted Soft Punch album that sports a diverse musical palette — pop in the broadest sense. The album is a triumphant statement of purpose.