Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Justin Roth is ramping up activity with his long-running folky indie project Soft Idiot; their next album Some Captured Light will release on May 26th via Cicada Choir, and on cassette on Oliver Glenn Records, and the lead single “Deer” is out now.
This is a tune that Soft Idiot recorded for their Tiny Desk Contest entry this year, and though the final version obviously has much higher production values, the song itself remains very similar, a testament to Roth’s ethos around making this album. Over email, he says he drew inspiration from The Weakerthans, Andy Shauf, and Jason Molina in creating “indie rock songs with folky bones.”
“I tried to work with a ‘less is more’ mindset,” Roth says. “As opposed to the ‘more is more’ techniques I employed in the past.”
The music video for “Deer” is a mix of comical and somber; it follows a taxidermied buck dressed in human clothes and seated in a recliner from Kelly Drive to rural central Pennsylvania; mixed in with cuts of an artist working in their basement, this deer shows up in unexpected settings, almost like a magical presence, while life carries on around around it, oblivious.
Watch below, and see Soft Idiot this Friday, April 14th at Ortlieb’s when they play with Laura and the Storm and Hafsol to kick off their spring tour. Details on the Philly show at the WXPN Concert Calendar, full dates here.