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Soft Palms is the immersive dream-pop project of Julia Kugel and Scott Montoya, a Long Beach-based duo crafting expansive, hypnotic soundscapes from the comfort of their home studio, Centre of Mental Arts (COMA). Blending lo-fi warmth with textural sophistication, Soft Palms feels like a lucid dream set to analog tape, equal parts meditative, cinematic, and deeply human.
The pair, both seasoned creatives and longtime collaborators, record, produce, and mix everything themselves, operating far outside the confines of traditional studio systems. Kugel (of The Coathangers, Julia, Julia, White Woods) brings her ethereal vocal layers and lyrical intimacy, while Montoya (formerly of The Growlers) shapes the sonic architecture with a meticulous, vintage-informed approach to engineering and instrumentation.
Their 2020 self-titled debut, released via Everloving Records, introduced Soft Palms as a genre-fluid exploration of ambient pop, psych, and shoegaze, garnering underground acclaim for its lush arrangements and DIY production style. Follow-up singles “Wash Your Hands” and “Each Wave That Breaks” (2022) continued that trajectory, thoughtful, textural, and sonically transportive.
In 2026, Soft Palms returns with their most expansive work yet: IN ECHO (Everloving Records). Written and recorded at COMA, the album builds on their signature atmosphere while diving deeper into layered introspection, sonic vulnerability, and cosmic repetition. It’s not just a record, it’s a mood, a place, and a reflection of the world turning inward.
Soft Palms is less a band and more a state of mind, where sound becomes sanctuary, and each note feels like it was meant just for you.
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