Feldspar Show Their “Soft Side” On Sophomore Album

For some people in the hardcore scene, melody gets conflated with accusations of selling out. Not so for Rome hardcore crew Feldspar who, on their new album, Soft Side, have embraced that melody, vulnerability, and the strength that comes through personal growth. The album’s quite literal title may sound to some like a band in retreat from their power, but in reality this album is emphatically the opposite. In a world where toxic masculinity goes hand in hand with the rise of the manosphere’s misguided influencers, stepping into your emotions is where true character manifests. Soft Side is the product of what happens when you stop looking out, and begin focusing inward: remembering friends who didn’t make it, or the version of yourself that quietly gave up. Soft Side is now available through streaming platforms and on orange vinyl via the band’s own Stage Dive Records

With an ever-shifting lineup, Feldspar are closer to a collective than a set band with a logo, people come in, people step back for a while, and a record gets made by whoever is in the room and has something to say. For this cycle the two new arrivals were Marianne Leoni and Viviana Di Bari. They began calling this new version of Feldspar a soft reset. Same band, mask off. As a large group with completely different records in their bags, where Old City New Ruins used a third of what was in the room, Soft Side uses all of it, guitarist Andrew Mecoli comes straight out of Italian hardcore, Stefano Casanica has produced rap and made records in about five genres, and Anna Pasolini‘s ear is closer to arrangement and songwriting than to hardcore. The result is a band leaning into their own personal and collective strengths, and coming out sounding better than ever before.

“Showing your soft side is the most exposing thing you can do. This record is full of stories of people who couldn’t manage it. The album isn’t saying be softer; it’s saying ‘look at what it costs not to be. “It changes how a record feels when you’re the person who signed for the vinyl. That’s connected to the fact that this band has never really been just the people on stage. There’s a crew of photographers, illustrators and film-makers who’ve been around since the first album, and the artwork, the videos and the sleeve all came out of that. It isn’t a campaign, it’s a group of friends.” (Rick Zamurri)