Soft Punch, is the project of Rye Thomas, the DC artist releases his new album Above Water on September 15th via Bad Friend Records. He recently shared the new album track “My Head” and its accompanying video, which was directed Jonathan Howard.

On the song and video Rye Thomas says:

Whether it’s migraines or my own thoughts, my head can be a brutal & unpredictable place. Just trying to get through the day during an awful headache or a bout of anxiety can be an absurd challenge. I leaned into that absurdity with the music video. Strange geometric figures and flaming tape machines crowd my living situation, while I attempt to get up, brush my teeth, start my day, and tend to my studio. Like any good rock ‘n’ roll music video, it’s ridiculous. The visual antics escalate along with the music for a noisy yet satisfying conclusion.

“My Head” follows the album’s lead single “Here/Now” which was released earlier this summer. The album is inspired by the music of Björk to The Beatles, Frank Ocean to Elliott Smith. Above all, Above Water is an album about learning to live with loss, about looking for beauty and finding it in the most unexpected places.

Rye Thomas’s life forever changed in 2013, when he acquired a mysterious illness that gradually left him homebound. Rye previously lived a full life as a writer and a musician, touring in bands like Pash and Tereu Tereu, freelancing for publications like Rolling Stone and The Washington Post. But after his health collapsed, he could no longer leave his house, and the simple act of turning on an amplifier triggered debilitating migraines. Despite this, Rye never stopped writing music — sometimes for only 30 minutes a day, in his blacked-out bedroom, with nothing more than a basic keyboard and a cassette recorder.

When Rye’s health finally improved enough to start recording a proper album, he had a hefty backlog of songs to pull from. With the help of his longtime boyfriend, Brendan Polmer, Rye outfitted his home studio with old tape and tubes for a more classic sound, and he called up old friends to add expert instrumentation. Some of the songs on Above Water started out as sparse, quiet sketches, written when Rye’s health was at its worst. The fact that they evolved into full, densely layered compositions speaks to Rye’s artistic dedication.

Soft Punch
Above Water
Track List

1. Let’s Begin
2. Here/Now
3. My Head
4. Fine
5. My Aim Is True
6. Semaphore
7. Still Song
8. Astering
9. Nothing Changes
10. Seven Days
11. Here Come The Chorus
12. An Astronaut
13. Now’s The Time

Pre-order My Head by Soft Punch HERE