{"id":272101,"date":"2026-02-03T16:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272101\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T16:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:43:08","slug":"band-of-the-week-316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/272101\/","title":{"rendered":"Band Of The Week #316"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Hey there Softcult, how are you? So your album is out now \u2013 how does it feel to have it out there?.<br \/>This is quite surreal, as it\u2019s something we\u2019ve been working on for over a year. The first full-length album is a milestone for any band, and we definitely feel honoured to have the opportunity to release a full length body of work. We\u2019ve been sitting on these songs for a while now and it feels good to finally share them with the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It is called &#8216;When A Flower Doesn&#8217;t Grow&#8217; \u2013 what is the meaning behind that?<br \/>We were inspired by the quote by Alexander Den Heijer: \u201cWhen a flower doesn\u2019t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.\u201d\u00a0<br \/>We feel that it\u2019s an apt analogy for our personal development as artists and as people, but also for the world around us and the way we view oppressive institutions and belief systems that get in the way of progress and equality for all.\u00a0<br \/>The truth is, nothing can thrive in an environment where it is stifled.\u00a0<br \/>This analogy isn\u2019t only true for flowers\u2026 it applies to people; our cultures, our societies, and our communities too.\u00a0<br \/>We can\u2019t flourish in environments that are oppressive.\u00a0<br \/>We need the world around us to be an environment that encourages us to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This album is a conceptual work about the stages of internal metamorphosis that leads to empowerment; written from the perspective of people who have been radicalized by traumatic experiences, empowered by their own resilience, ultimately blossoming into the people they were always meant to be in spite of an environment that tried to break us.<br \/>While we wrote the album based on our own personal experiences, we feel that it\u2019s a shared collective experience a lot of people can relate to for different reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?<br \/>We recorded it in our home studio. Phoenix engineered and produced everything you hear. We\u2019ve been doing it that way since the beginning, but this feels like a culmination of all the lessons we&#8217;ve learned since we started this DIY project, the ups and downs of learning the skills we use today. I think that\u2019s another reason we feel so proud of it, because even with its imperfections we can listen to it and hear how much of ourselves we truly poured into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">What are the key influences behind the album?<br \/>The album itself is very eclectic. I think you can hear the diversity of our influences from song to song. We\u2019ve always been inspired by dreampop and shoegaze, by the masters who originated the sound such as The Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, etc. We also have always been inspired by the riot grrrl movement and feminist punk ethos of bands like Bikini Kill, and even other hardcore punk bands that use their platform to criticize society , politics and culture like Minor Threat and Black Flag. We\u2019ve got a grunge side to our sound too, and we have to credit Hole, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Veruca Salt for that. Phoenix is heavily inspired by artists like Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Nine Inch Nails for their ability to use the studio as their instrument.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">If the album could be a soundtrack to any film \u2013 which one and why?<br \/>I think personally I would choose two movies. If the first half of the film is Promising Young Woman, then the second half is Carol.\u00a0<br \/>The stories of those films are incredibly nuanced, heartfelt, and powerful. Ours has a happy ending.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Do you have a favourite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?<br \/>Ah how can you ask me that? It\u2019s so hard to choose, they\u2019re all so deeply personal. I feel very personally connected to the song When A Flower Doesn\u2019t Grow. I wrote it during the wee hours of a dark night of the soul, when I was questioning my sexuality and my identity as a queer person. I hadn\u2019t come out yet. I was struggling and feeling a lot of guilt and shame. The song came to me like a friend, allowing me to give myself some grace and compassion. The lyrics in the first verse just poured out of me, as if I was talking to myself directly: \u201cAll you wanted was to feel the sun, in the shadows waiting for the dawn, dreaming of the moment daylight would come, aching just to know the sight of love.\u201d\u00a0<br \/>Suddenly this monumental weight was lifted from my shoulders and I felt that I could breathe again.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Now the album is out there \u2013 what next for you?<br \/>The journey has just begun. We\u2019re going to be doing a lot of touring and promoting, and of course a lot more writing for the next project that has already begun.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hey there Softcult, how are you? So your album is out now \u2013 how does it feel to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":{"0":"post-272101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}