Soflights
Los Angeles, California

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“Musically, we don't know what the end destination is, and I like it that way. Whatever we've created, it wasn't by accident, but it certainly wasn't on purpose. For me that makes music honest,” says Ron Fountenberry, the principle songwriter and unofficial captain of the good ship that is the Softlightes.

It’s fitting that Fountenberry references bedrooms when he speaks of the Softlightes’ incandescent and joyfully experimental music—it’s there that he tinkers endlessly with a dizzying array of
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instruments in search of the perfect melody; a way to channel an equal appreciation for Alvie Singer, Ready Made Magazine, Ali G, Boba Fett, Playstation and Larry David… a way to be real and make someone happy through song.

But what’s more important to our chat right now are the products of the Softlightes’ collective imagination and recording sessions: the dazzling pop songs that are collected on their shimmering debut album for Modular Recordings, Say No To Being Cool - Say Yes To Being Happy. Without digging too far back, the Softlightes story begins (roughly) in 2003, when Fountenberry and bassist Kristian Dunn’s previous project, the electro pop group The Incredible Moses Leroy, had caught the ear of one Mr. Cody Chesnutt. Or was it the other way around?

After releasing two buzz-garnering albums and working with acclaimed producers and musicians such as Joey Waronker (Beck) and Keith Cleverlsly (the Flaming Lips, Spiritualized), Moses disbanded and Fountenberry and Dunn and started up the “idea of the Softlightes” in the fall of 2004.

“Professionally it felt as though it was time to move on, or maybe throw in the towel completely. We really didn’t have a lot of options. I just figured if we were going to try, I wanted to be happy and make music that was close to my heart, even if that meant sounding silly to some people,” says Fountenberry.Over the late summer and fall of 2005, drummer Tim Fogarty (“besides being great drummer, he had a cool electronic drumset, so we knew we had to have him in our band”) and pianist Andrew Van Baal entered the fray and the four embarked on endless sessions at Dunn’s Los Angeles home studio—better known to most as his garage. What resulted was a new home grown masterpiece. From the breezy sun-soaked opener “The Ballad Of Theodore and June” to the glitchy electronica of “Girl Kills Bear,” the thundering “The Robots In My Room Were Playing Arena Rock,” to the utterly infectious “The Microwave Song,” Say No To Being Cool Say Yes To Being Happy is a celebration of the sounds that would be blasting on your radio in a more perfect time.

Now that all the what ifs have been answered, the noise is about to begin. Please bask in the warm glow of the Softlightes with us.