Soft Punch and the sweet small church sound of "My Aim Is True"

 

"There's something in the way that you shout / My name when you're further out / There's something in the way that you tell / My friends when you're not doing well..."

The sweet small church sound of "My Aim Is True" by Soft Punch, the project of Washington D.C.-based musician Rye Thomas, washes over me like a warm wave. In many ways, the orchestral surprises and sense of organic ambient tones falling like snowflakes feels very Beach Boys-esque or, at least Brian Wilson-esque and I love that about it. After all, both Thomas and Wilson had severe moments of isolation in their past and while Thomas did not spend years relegated to a sandbox his life inexplicably hit a severe speed bump. 

In 2017, Rye's health deteriorated after coming down with ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome), a serious chronic disease that effects multiple systems in the body resulting in fatigue, sleep abnormalities, pain, and other symptoms that are made worse by exertion. Rye could not even turn on an amplifier without experiencing excruciating migraines but he never stopped writing music even if it was only for 30 minutes a day via a basic keyboard and a cassette recorder in a blacked-out bedroom. Rye managed, with help from loved ones, to craft the solo album "Above Water" of which track 5 is the ethereal "My Aim Is True".

 From Press notes: 

 [With the help of his boyfriend, he's been slowly recording music as Soft Punch using an old tape machine set up just outside of his room. It's an arduous, piecemeal process--vocals one day, guitars two weeks later--but the result is personal, intimate, gorgeous, and a bit queer. When his health improved enough to record an album, he’d already amassed a well-crafted catalog of songs. With the help of his longtime boyfriend, Rye outfitted his home studio with old tape and tubes for a classic sound, and he called up old friends to add expert instrumentation.]

"My Aim Is True" has a gentle spirit expressed in the slow steady cadence and Rye's vocal countenance full of love and acceptance. The pearly dreaminess does have a patina of melancholia for sure but then any love song carries the horrible truth that love can leave just as it came.  

There's not much I can do
So if you hear my song
I want you
I don't do very much
There's not much I can do
So if you hear my song
I want you
I want you

In the end, "My Aim Is True" feels like a gospel song, not about a deity's pure love but the imperfect love between two imperfect people which is more real, more special because it is distilled from struggle and survivorship. 

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://soundcloud.com/softpunch

https://www.facebook.com/softpunchmusic/

https://twitter.com/RyanTereu

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3pxE8yc8kIGp1E2Pr3uDNN

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmzNHroqf01mlb-KFFwE2FQ

https://softpunchmusic.bandcamp.com/album/above-water

https://www.instagram.com/softpunchmusic/


After loads of touring in noisy DC rock bands like Tereu Tereu, and independently operating Bad Friend Records, and writing for publications like Rolling Stone and The Washington Post, Ryan Little got sick. Over the course of several years, his health mysteriously declined and he gradually disappeared from public view.

His health dropped off a cliff in late 2017, and he's been mostly bedridden with a poorly understood disease called ME/CFS ever since. With the help of his boyfriend, he's been slowly recording music as Soft Punch using an old tape machine set up just outside of his room. It's an arduous, piecemeal process--vocals one day, guitars two weeks later--but the result is personal, intimate, gorgeous, and a bit queer.

"My Aim Is True" (Official Video), alt pop, alt rock, catharsis, garage rock, genre bending, health struggles, indie rock, power chords, power pop, Rye Thomas, Soft Punch, solo album project "Above Water"