SOFT PLAY talk return with HEAVY JELLY: "How would we celebrate our first Top 3 album? A spa day!"

In the six years since we last heard of them, SOFT PLAY have had a transformative experience. 

Six years has passed since Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent (the punk-rock duo formerly known as Slaves) have issued a record, their last being 2018's searing Acts of Fear and Love, and a lot has happened to necessitate the time taken away for the band to break up, get back together and re-brand, returning with a palpable new sense of purpose. 

HEAVY JELLY, Isaac and Laurie's first album under the moniker SOFT PLAY and their fourth overall, is already setting a precedent for the Kent duo. As it stands, HEAVY JELLY (released under BMG) is currently predicted to enter the Official Albums Chart Top 3; at the beginning of the week, it was expected to debut at Number 3, right now it's all the way up to Number 2. 

Either way, it's looking to be their fourth consecutive UK Top 10 LP and (even better) their highest-charting ever. 

While the boys were on a quick break from their schedule in Leeds (that old rock and roll lifestyle...), we jumped on a call with Isaac and Laurie to discuss their fabled return and if they could take Eminem in a fight. 

Hi boys! You're back! Or...does it actually feel like you're 'back' or something completely new?

Laurie: It's actually really emotional! We are very much still the same people, still the same band, but we've evolved as people. But [the attention Heavy Jelly is getting] is a new level for us. It's gotten to a new place I didn't think it was possible for [us as a band], so it's been quite overwhelming, actually.

We have a song called Everything and Nothing, and when we've been playing it live recently, everyone [in the room] has been singing along to it. I keep thinking to myself; this always the impact I wanted us to have as a band, I just didn't think we'd ever get there.

Clearly absence has made the heart grow fonder - it must be amazing to see that not only have your old fans stuck around, you have new ones now too!

Isaac: Yeah, it's a bit crazy. I think we both didn't realise how much we'd missed it, either. Being back and getting the reception we're getting now, it's amazing. It's so nice.

Laurie: Loads of the kids who were maybe 11, 12 when we were first around are 18 now and coming to the shows, so that's a whole new generation of fans. It feels like it's evolved and the demographic [of the people who listen to our music] is so much broader now. 

Heavy Jelly is your first record in 6 years, I think it's both your heaviest sounding sonically, and your most humorous lyrically - would you agree? Was finding that humour again important?

Laurie: I think it was more of a case of accepting ourselves and letting the humour back in. We've always written funny songs, but then we started taking ourselves too seriously and just wouldn't finish them. We did want to be taken seriously! But this time, we let our personalities completely absorb into the music, and just be more accepting of who we are. We're not a deeply serious political band, and we never will be! [As soon as we figured that out] we started to enjoy ourselves more.

Was that just because people misunderstood who you were as a band because you made hard-edged punk music?

Laurie: You can inspire people in so many ways - just inspiring people to pick up an instrument feels like a very polticial act on a personal level. And that's why we, as a band, exist. That's what we want to do, and that's what we're going to keep concentrating on. 

The one and only Robbie Williams features on Punk's Dead - how did you pull that of?

Laurie: I've been listening to Robbie all my life. I think in 2015 I tweeted him saying he was my favourite member of Take That, and he replied that Isaac was his favourite member of SOFT PLAY, because he looks like Robbie and Ant McPartland's love child.

Looking at you now, Isaac...that's not inaccurate 

Laurie: No, not inaccurate! But we didn't hear off him for years and suddenly last year I had a call from him - I don't know how he got my number - asking to work together. We were going to be a children's choir to sing the middle eight on Punk's Dead, but they can't swear obviously...so we asked Robbie. I keep forgetting he's done it, actually it's incredible.

After six years away has it been amazing to finally meet fans in person with the new album?

Isaac: We can't quite get our heads around it, seeing what it means to people. It's a, for want of a better word, level of fandom we've never experienced before. It's really overwhelming, but it's beautiful.

Laurie: I don't think I've ever felt this tired but also this grateful because without them, we wouldn't be doing this, you know? After having such a long hiatus, it's kind of like the last six years never happened.

How does it feel being in a chart battle with Eminem?

Isaac: I can remember sitting in my room as a teenager obsessing over Eminem in records, so it's just crazy that we're in this position now. 

Laurie: I've been listening to Eminem my whole life. He's one our heroes. He's one of our biggest influences! We've never had a Top 5 record before, so landing that would be incredible. 

And if he beats you in the chart...you could beat Eminem in a real-life fight?

Issac: It would be two against one! 

But to gain your highest-charting record after a six year hiatus is very impressive, boys, and it shows people are sticking around for the music

Laurie: We worked really, really hard on this music, so to see it pay off and [the fans] are enjoying the music as much as we do...this is the music we want to make, and [Heavy Jelly's release] has definitely given us a new lease of life and a new sense of confidence. 

No matter the result...how will you be celebrating on Friday?

Laurie: I might have a Belgian bun. I don't really like cakes, so that would be a good time.

Isaac: Yeah, a Belgian bun. Maybe a little spa day together?

Heavy Jelly is out now via BMG.