Soft Riot

Canadian Synthwave Project

Soft Riot is JJD, a former Vancouverite now residing in the Glasgow UK who has clocked in around twenty five years of musical output in various bands and projects, including half a dozen art-damaged punk and hardcore bands as well as first-wave post-punk revivalists Radio Berlin. Moving from Vancouver to London UK in the late 2000s, Soft Riot came into full being, having released over a dozen acclaimed albums and EPs over ten years and staging numerous tours around Europe. Using an arsenal of synthesizers and effects, Soft Riot’s sound is an amalgamation of JJD’s personal experience with music, containing elements of synthesiser-based film soundtracks, romantic italo-style flourishes, throbbing arpeggiations and angular, psychedelic synth-pop all tied together with an underlying tension. It is a soundscape that narrates the listener through today’s fractured, excessive landscape with hints of black humour.