Take The Soft Hands home to Ma

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY

The Soft Hands are a consistently solid bet live—radiating palpable post-punk(ish) palsy off the stage and down to your toes—and equally dependable on your laptop, where you can soon play their Fidotrust debut full length Hours Pass By. I asked singer/guitarist Matt, bassist/singer Elizabeth (tops this side of Flin Flon’s Nattles) and drummer Casey to fill out our Musicians’ Questionnaire and—because Soft Hands are nothing if not three likeable, hardworking and polite musicians—they obliged. My favorite answer comes from Matt, when asked to define sadness: “It exists. I can feel it. I usually aim to feel it less than happiness and when I do, I feel pretty okay about it.”

What is your definition of success? Casey: Finding personal happiness. Elizabeth: Loving everything in your life.
Who, musicians or otherwise, do you look to for inspiration? C: Mother nature. E: My mom set the bar impossibly high. Matt: Little kids. They’re friendly, open minded and always creative.
When do you feel most creative? E: Whenever I set out to be. M: In dreams. I’ve just got to work on remembering them all.
What is your biggest fear as a musician? E: Breaking fingers, skin coming off my hands, losing my hands in general. M: Fear itself.
What is your biggest fear as a human? E: Governing bodies and the general public. M: Karaoke. Dogs hungry for human flesh. I see a lot of those around town lately.
Who is your favorite songwriter? C: Ray Davies. E: Brian Wilson. M: Bowie. Lennon. Matt Johnson from The The.
What is the quality you most admire in a band? C: Tenacity. E: Synchronicity and sincere energy. M: Separate personalities melding into a unified sound.
What is the quality you most admire in a singer? E: The ability to play an instrument. M: Having some—even if it’s minor—personal sound or inflection that lets you know who it is even if you’d never heard the song before.
What is your favorite way to relax? C: Sleep. E: Reading at the beach or in a beautiful garden . . . or on top of a skyscraper. M: Hot bath in an old fashioned bathtub with claw feet.
What is your favorite way to spend time? C: Outdoors. E: Surfing. M: Sleeping and eating.
What album will you never tire of? C: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. E: Downside Up by Siouxsie and the Banshees. M: The Twin Peaks soundtrack. Angelo Badalamenti, Julee Cruise. So good!
What album would you hope your children someday love? C: All ’60s reggae albums/45s. E: Any album I make.
What do you hope to be doing in five years? C: Living peacefully. E: Breathing. M: On a yacht somewhere exotic with my new wife, Sade! That’d be pretty sweet. She could sing me “Sweetest Taboo” and “Your Love is King” all day, and I’d pretty much be her servant and do whatever she asks, like cook her breakfast or fetch the newspaper.
What do you feel defines your band? E: Equality. M: We enjoy the process of making music together and seeing where our individual musical ideas take us collectively in songs.
What do you feel is your greatest weakness? E: Lack of confidence. M: I’ve been told I think things over a bit much. It’s hell to go grocery shopping with me.
How do you define happiness? C: Being at peace with myself and the world around me. E: A constant state of appreciation. M: A roomful of Reese’s cups is a pretty good start. The other stuff might not be fit for print.
What is your favorite chord? C: The endangered concord. E: E and all its derivatives. M: C# minor.
What qualities do you look for from your audience? C: I like it when they stand there, when nobody moves, looking at us like we’re complete shit. E: Unabashed merriment. M: Just to have an audience stay in a room and watch you is pretty amazing, so they can bring whatever they want to the table as far as I’m concerned.
What is your favorite book? C: The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess. E: The dictionary. M: Candide.
What is your favorite movie? C: Patton. E: Enchanted (blush). M: Watership Down.
How do you define sadness? E: being ripped inside out and unable to put back into place.
Who are your favorite historical figures? C: Oscar Wilde and M.L.K. E: Walt Disney.
Who are your least favorite historical figures? E: Donald Duck.
What natural power would you most like to have? E: The willpower to break all Olympic records. M: Flying.
What super power would you most like to have? E: The ability to replicate any action or thing I wanted. M: Organization.
What is it you most dislike? E: Inaccuracies, greed and the smell of poop. M: People who enjoy pointing out and broadcasting what they perceive as weaknesses in other people.
What is your greatest indulgence? C: Indian food. E: Fine dining. M: Talking the ears off of those who know me best.
What words do you live by? E: Only fools rush in. M: Yes. Please. Thank you. Be here now (trying to live by that one).
What is your favorite song lyric? E: “Low middle high high low high, low middle high high.”  M: From “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison: “A candy-colored clown they call the sandman/Tiptoes to my room every night/Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper/Go to sleep. everything is all right./I close my eyes, then I drift away/Into the magic night. I softly say/A silent prayerlike dreamers do./Then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you.”

THE SOFT HANDS “HOURS PASS BY” CD RELEASE PARTY WITH THE HAPPY HOLLOWS AND THE FLING ALEX’S BAR | 2913 E ANAHEIM ST | LONG BEACH 90804 | 562.434.8292 | ALEXSBAR.COM | FRI OCT 17 9PM | $5 | FULL INTERVIEW ON THEDISTRICTWEEKLY.COM

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