Darksoft - Grayscale

Darksoft is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and producer who creates dreamy indie rock sounds. Darksoft songs blend dream pop and shoegaze elements, using lush melodic progressions, 80s/90s alternative rock undertones, and deftly executed vocals. Darksoft’s album Beigeification (2023) was #1 most added at NACC and reached #9 on the Top 200 chart. Darksoft is a solo recording project sometimes supported by a full band for live shows. Originally from Seattle, Darksoft is now based in Portland, Maine.

Wrote Neal Agneta, for Issue 92 of The Big Takeover Magazine, “The latest platter from Darksoft spills out of the clouds, beckoning like a gentle layer of snow flurries against a freshly cleared windshield. Drawing delightfully winsome parallels to The Radio Dept, Wild Nothing, and maybe less-so Pains of Being Pure at Heart, this one-man epiphany from the Forrest City fuses a smooth-as-silk mélange of keys and guitars against steady, attenuated rhythms.”

Wrote J Simpson for forestpunk.com: “Simple statements conveying complex thoughts and emotions – it’s a tidy metaphor for Darksoft’s distinctive blend of shoegaze-/dream pop-infused bedroom pop.”

Grayscale is a ten-song album that follows Darksoft’s Beigeification (2023). The album will be released by Spirit Goth records on Friday, December 1st, 2023. All songs were written and recorded by Darksoft in his home studio. The album was mixed by Brian Fisher and mastered by Stefan Mac.

Darksoft on Grayscale: “The theme of this album is a gray area…

The world is becoming less colorful. It’s a trend we’ve seen over the last 20 years across clothing, everyday objects, cars, and public spaces. This one research study that analyzed thousands of objects over time found that things are literally becoming more gray. Blandness is in, and a ‘less is more’ philosophy is popular. How is it that “nothing became everything we wanted,” as wrote ​​Kyle Chayka for the New York Times? Even McDonald’s looks sterile and boring now. We stay indoors and paint interiors black and white and look at pretty colors when we want to buy something on our phones. So it goes, so it goes.

Of course, these generalizations don’t apply to everything, but it’s something I can’t help but notice. In our saturated and confusing post-digital lives, I think it’s easy to see an allure in fading into emotionless sameness and minimalism. Throughout Grayscale, I question these ideas in some songs (see “Bubblegum,” “Only Human”) and embrace them in others (see “Less Is More,” “So It Goes,” “Whatever Happens”). But the album isn’t 100% about all that. There are references to the sun, fully automated luxury communism, life in the PNW, and other ideas. Like I said, it’s a gray area.

I see Grayscale as a direct follow-up to Beigeification, which was released in January 2023. Sonically, I’m aiming for a similar sound and an overall neutral tone. But I also pulled on other musical influences in Grayscale and tried out slightly different arrangements.

Lyrically, similar to my last album, I’m using a handful of cliches and idioms that evoke a passive acceptance of whatever’s happening in your life. I hope people can throw this on in the background, and not dwell on anything too much but enjoy the moment, keep it going, and end up feeling refreshed. And, to seek out their own brand of individualism and creativity. Because, you never know what other colors are around the bend… maybe it’ll be a neat turquoise or a bold carmine.”