Swishers is Softmax’s first release since the Chicago native released her debut EP, But What If There Isn’t, back in 2022. Produced with Joel Ford, who has worked with Oneohtrix Point Never and How To Dress Well, together with Berlin based electronic producer Gabriel Gifford, the new track has a crisp, sultry feel to it.
Targeting its sights on modern communication in 2023, Swishers is about the way our sense of identity becomes distorted as a result of a carefully edited online presence. The feeling can manifest in us searching for a connection, whilst ultimately editing and receding into ourselves. Our real, complex identities become hidden behind a carefully constructed facade, as Softmax describes:
“It’s about wanting to connect with the world and understand people while feeling further and further from it.”
Inspiration for Swishers came from Softmax’s own experiences. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, her previously dormant symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder began to manifest in a “paranoid OCD spiral”. She felt like her privacy was being invaded via social media — something she leverages in the song.
Softmax’s musical journey started as she learned guitar and keys, taking inspiration from Chicago’s blues heritage. As she discovered electronic music, the possibilities afforded by digital production became apparent, and she found herself able to create full songs out of nothing more than her imagination. Softmax cites OutKast and Timbaland as her musical heroes — artists who challenge their listeners, presenting avant-grade ideas within an accessible pop framework.
There is more than a hint of Timbaland on the growling synths, overdubbed and filtered vocals, and clean percussion Softmax employs here, but she makes it her own. The sound embellishes her lyrics, creating a stark, digital sound that sees her voice filtered and partially obscured in the way we all tend to appear online.