Zurich-based quintet Soft Loft — vocalist Jorina Stamm, drummer Lukas Kuprecht, bassist Marius Meier, keyboardist Sarina Schmid and guitarist Simon Boss — return with their sumptuous second album, Throw The Dice. Written as Stamm headed towards 30, the record balances the band’s bright and brilliant musical ambition with the relatable lyrical focus of life at a turning point. "I'm waiting for the moment when life will all add up and make sense, but I don't know if we ever really get there," she says.
Zurich has been good to the band, but their ambitions have always been far bigger than just staying in Switzerland. They set out their MO from the off: to aim high and dream big with everything they create. Their 2024 debut, The Party And The Mess, was made with Grammy-nominated producer Gianluca Buccellati (Lana Del Rey, Arlo Parks, The Marías) — a partnership that opened doors both practically and mentally. Throw The Dice builds on that foundation, recorded at France's Black Box Studios with LA-based engineer Sean Cook and mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Florence + The Machine).
Soft Loft’s second delivers a delicious mix of instinctiveness and freedom, but also a grand sense of musicality. Influenced by open-hearted songwriters like Big Thief, Sam Fender, Sharon Van Etten and Lizzy McAlpine, the album moves between widescreen anthems and stripped-back moments. Opening track ‘Where Is Mr. Raccoon’ features a beautiful string arrangement put together by Marius - a classically-trained jazz musician, meanwhile the singles ‘F U WANT IT’ and ‘Gravity’s Pull’ find Jorina grappling with the record’s central themes of identity over insatiable, giddy melodic earworms. Elsewhere, the vocalist explains, the quintet “wanted to be brave enough to keep it very simple sometimes”. The folky, acoustic ‘Wrists That Won’t Be Mine’ and the delicate, Olivia Rodrigo-recalling closing ballad ‘Told’ strip everything down to its most intimate ingredients. “We really like having those very small songs that are just guitar and vocals too,” Jorina nods. “We don't ever want to put stuff on there that we don't think is needed.”
Throw The Dice is a tribute to self-acceptance and following your heart, made by five friends who’ve worked hard to reach for their dreams. It might still be filled with a lot of questions, but in making it, Soft Loft have given themselves a lot of answers too. As Jorina concludes herself: “With every release, we're getting closer to what we want to be.”