No one word describes the dynamos behind The Black Soft. You could call them musicians, since what they do is make music. But they make a lot of other things, too. And to the band's two members, Chase and Joey, the collaboration is just as much about art, design, fashion, and performance as it is about sound. (Not that sound isn't important; listen to "Love Song Remix" here.)
Recently, we got the chance to chat with the duo about their multidimensional take on creativity, what it's like running a record label, and about their friendship with famed Lady Gaga collaborator Nicola Formichetti.
So, you've said before that you never wanted to be a 'gay' band, but you certainly have some gay themes. You mind talking about the difference between the two?
We never set out to make gay music. It is only gay because we're gay men. We write love songs about men because that is whom we have sex with, not with women. At least not anymore.
From the beginning we had people all around us wanting to put us in a box, always asking if we're making 'gay music.' That's why we started our own label. We're trying to break outside the box of being just a band.
Tell us a little about your work with Nicola Formichetti.
Initially it was a collaboration on a MAC Cosmetics commercial. We knew going in that we shared an aesthetic and it has just become a really nice friendship.
We're working on a second video project that Nicola is involved with. It's like a punk rock Fantasia. It'll be released in February or March. We're also involved with some other names that we can't talk about just yet.
What about your record label, can you talk more about that?
We're trying to create a family. We have four artists so far, including Miss Chemi. She's going to be the new queen of the pop world. She'll snap your dick off.
That's quite the declaration. It must be fun to work with her. How do you choose who you recruit?
Whenever we see raw talent we want to help it develop because we found finding our own voice to be so important. When you get an artist in the studio, they often lose their essence, or what you saw in them in the first place.
We'll work on something--a beat, art, whatever--and we won't know for a while whether its for The Black Soft, Miss Chemi, whoever. That's another way we're a family.
Like what we worked on with Nicola. If we had to get that through a million lawyers if wouldn't have happened. We're here to nurture the whole process, whether its music, art, or fashion.
