Why SOAK is creating distance to craft their next work

01

The Meditative Effect of Football

Every weekend, SOAK makes their way to Phoenix Park to have a kick about. The physical activity married with the impossible task of focusing on anything other than the ball in front of them has a sort of meditative effect. It’s a ritual they’ve maintained since moving with their girlfriend from Brighton to Dublin a few months ago and comes as part of a lifestyle that finds its pace in the sweet spot between their previous two host cities. While SOAK’s early twenties in Manchester were plastered with parties and spontaneity, their subsequent move to England’s south coast came at a time where their movements were restricted. So being grounded in a new city that houses a lot of their friends is both an opportunity to explore and to settle somewhere familiar.

“I play football up there on a Saturday”, Bridie aka SOAK says, pointing towards a playing field overlooking the through road. We’re in a taxi surrounded by the trees of Europe’s biggest city park and a grey sky that looks like it was filled in a single click by Microsoft Paint’s bucket tool. Bridie explains they don’t really care much for the partisan fan culture of football and couldn’t tell you anything about the Premier League. Their enjoyment of the sport is purely experiential. “It’s just for the craic, but there’s this team that just started called the Phoenix Tigers. It’s like a predominantly queer team, but I was dying to play because…” Bridie says, trailing off as they are interrupted by the taxi driver.

“That’s not very politically correct” he says, jibing in bad faith. “You can’t be saying things like that” he remarks as if he’s presented a queer person with the “gotcha” moment of the century.

“Queer? That’s what we call it as gay people you know” Bridie explains. They’re not concerned with debating someone that is only interested in discussing queerness when there’s a chance to be contrarian. Moreover, Phoenix Park is one of their happy places so they aren’t going to let an annoying taxi driver ruin their day.

02

A Busy Start

It’s been a busy start to 2023 for the singer from Derry, who has just returned from a four week tour of the states. The series of shows across America were thrown together at a month’s notice but they still managed to draw full rooms of committed listeners. When you take into consideration that SOAK has consistently released great music and evolved without totally abandoning the intimate songwriting of their critically acclaimed debut Before We Forgot How To Dream, It’s not hard to understand why. Though so much has changed and they’re certainly settled in Dublin, there’s still an allure to America. Sure, its aspirational quality is waning in the hellfire of late stage capitalism, but there’s an enduring romanticism that keeps drawing SOAK back.

“I chat a lot between songs and banter a bit and it goes down well because they [Americans] talk back. Sometimes in like England, people are too polite to interact with you and sometimes it’s like drawing blood from a stone. In America I’m literally chatting to people in front of me”, SOAK explains as we leave the taxi in our rearview and hike up a small hill.

I want to be able to print my life off and frame it

SOAK

“We ended up driving down the west coast from Seattle to LA. It takes like 20 hours. We could have just taken the straight path but it’s so boring… We just stopped at this town”, SOAK says, bringing up a photo on their Instagram. “Because it had all these mad Motel signs. It’s the most Wes Anderson thing”.

Photos like this are a permanent fixture on Bridie’s Instagram, which is as much a vehicle for their music as it is a home for their other passion – photography. 

“I want to be able to print my life off and frame it” they say, without flinching.