So perhaps it has been a little quiet in Mollywould, but let me assure you my neglecting this blog is in no way indicitive of a diminished rate of productivity, and if anything, should be a sign of the opposite! I will explain more in the near future (promise!). For now, I want to share a video that my dear friend Jessica Collins made for Softspot.
I recently had the pleasure of sharing a late brunch with Jessica in Silverlake during a weekend trip to Los Angeles. We have been apart since Valentine’s Day of 2009, and before that, a duration of two years, where we parted last at the steps of the haunted house we shared together in Savannah, Georgia. I was lucky enough to live with Jessica back then, and even more privileged to maintain a genuine and special friendship between letters and small gifts sent in the mail, always wrapped in string and tissue and never with an absence of tiny and heartfelt treasures. The day I moved from Savannah to California, I found a journal resting on my bed and tied with a red ribbon, clearly a gift from Jessica. I filled this journal with tales from my earliest days at LaChapelle, and though later switching to a web based journal, will always keep this small book and an intimate record of details otherwise forgotten, to her credit.
Jessica is thoughtful and genuine and has no difficulty captivating an audience or intriguing a listener for hours. She is petite and precious, wears flowers in her hair, has a secret passion for black metal and an equal affection for kittens. She captures beautiful sounds all around her with a small black tape recorder, produces lovely recordings of songs mailed to friends on cassette tapes,(her project is called BERU) and clearly makes it her full time occupation to discover new and wonderful ways in which to excel as an artist. All I want is everything favorable to come to this beautiful, wonderful, and truly deserving girl.
This video marks Jessica’s video debut, and (shhh!) in January we are planning to work on one together!
Also speaking of the new year, Softspot is working on a new album and although I cannot say anything more, I can say it would be wise to keep a very close ear out for what they are preparing.
Whew. I’m back!
Styled this super quick in our house prior to a photo shoot with photographer Solveig Selj for Runway Passport Magazine. This felt so much more like the two of us getting ready to go out than it did dressing up for a photo shoot. Perhaps it is all just the same thing, anyway. Look at my girl!
Today, the arrival of two huge boxes of Soft Spot t-shirts, to the excitement of some but much to my dismay, marks the subsequent and impending departure of my two best friends on their tour of the eastern US.
Who will I drink coffee with in the mornings from our giant French press? The question remains unanswered, the only absolute being it will certainly not be my roommates Sarah and Bryan, who will embark in February on their very first national tour.
Below is the t shirt Bryan designed, crafted from one of his drawings and screen printed on the softest cotton shirts. (BK don’t kill me for posting this! Also- this picture was totally his idea!)
Want one? Go to one of their shows! For tour dates visit www.myspace.com/withlovesoftspot.
Soft Spot- New Bio!! (written by me!)
When given the prompt to illustrate his aspired career with crayons and crepe paper, a kindergarten aged Bryan Keller may just as well have devoted his efforts to drawing the blonde haired beauty three seats away, who was diligently scribing herself as a singer. Surrounded by dreams of firefighters and racecar drivers, homemakers and movie stars, Sarah and Bryan’s destiny was far too articulate to be resolved with gradeschool mediums of craft. Had Bryan been told that in just sixteen years, the little blonde haired Sarah Kinlaw would become his soul mate and band mate, touring the country and performing the incarnate of their combined talents and mutual affection, would he have believed his incredible fortune, and more importantly, could he draw that with crayons?
Although romantically the two progressed from puppy love to teen love to their present adoration of true love, musically their collaborations had a much later arrival. Bryan spent his adolescence grooming his skills as a guitar player, bassist and drummer, while separately, Sarah studied classical opera and lyric soprano from behind tightly sealed and sound proof doors. Though Sarah consistently occupied the front row of the audience at any of Bryan’s shows, she maintained her status as a spectator who, regardless of her aspirations and musings, was never a participant and always a voyeur. It was not until the formative year of 2009 that Sarah was able to develop the courage to share her music with others. She emerged to the public with heartfelt and handwritten songs, easily recognized through their use of the ukulele but often incorporating other elements such as the accordion, keys, melodica, and perhaps the greatest addition of all, her long time best friend and boyfriend Bryan Keller.
Soft Spot was born as the lovechild of two passionate artists, emerging to the public with an insatiable desire for omnipresence. From local venues to radio waves, and now in preparation for an upcoming national tour in late February, Soft Spot is the song you cannot get out of your head, the subtle scent that lingers on your pillow, and the girl in the classroom three seats ahead who, try as it may, can never be rivaled for attention with arithmetic.
Prior to their approaching February tour dates, Bryan and Sarah will release their debut EP, complemented in conjunction with the premier of their very first music video for the song Half a House. Their route will cover the entire Eastern United States, with notable stops such as their hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina and even pausing to spend a night in a commune of tree houses in southern Georgia. They will be accompanied by their live percussionist and dear friend Jarrod Drobot for this eastern tour, (which although already scheduled, is still open to inquiries for additional stops).
Soft Spot is music to dance to and music to sit to, music to wake to and music to make love to. For as childhood ambitions once scribbled in crayon and existing only in daydreams, this product of two passionate hearts can only have the sweetest of fruits.
