Soft Science release third single ‘Fade’ ahead of album ‘Sand’
Soft Science released “Fade” on 18 August 2026, the third single from “Sand”, out 4 September on Shelflife Records and Spinout Nuggets.
Artwork: John Conley
Sacramento dream pop group Soft Science released “Fade” on 18 August 2026, the third single taken from their fifth album “Sand”. The album arrives on 4 September 2026 on CD and vinyl through Shelflife Records in North America and Spinout Nuggets in the UK. “Fade” is on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music, and comes with an official video.
The six-piece mix dream pop, shoegaze and indie rock, with Katie Haley’s vocals over twin guitars, bass, drums and electronics. “Fade” sets a four-on-the-floor pulse against a slower vocal line, with a guitar figure from Matt Levine on the bridge and harmonies from Haley across the verses.
Haley points to the tension in the arrangement as the reason the track went onto the album early. “This was one of the first song ideas Ross came up with for the album. I was immediately drawn to the core of the song as it is ethereal pop but, at the same time, it has a driving force,” she said, adding: “When I was coming up with the lyrics, I imagined this song playing in the car on a romanticized road trip, driving along the coast or something like that. This is one of our favorites to play live from “Sand”; we all picked it up really easily and it has an energy that feels good to perform.”
Ross Levine traces the opening lyric back to a phrase he overheard. “Matt’s guitar line on the bridge and Katie’s harmony on the verses are some of the high points on this track. The lyrical inspiration for the first line, “foreign lands”, was from something I heard someone say: “The past is a foreign country”. I thought the concept was really interesting,” he said.
What ‘Fade’ adds to the Soft Science album ‘Sand’
“Fade” is the third track on “Sand” and the third single lifted from it, after “Spinning” in June 2026 and “Understand” in July. The ten-track running order is “Spinning”, “Go”, “Fade”, “Without”, “Sand”, “Everything”, “Thread”, “Understand”, “Hope” and “Sway”.
The band recorded the album at Shattered Records and The Pool House, with Jack O’Donnell engineering and additional engineering by Ross Levine. Kev Bolus mixed it at OneEleven and Antony Ryan mastered it at Red Red Paw. Soft Science produced the record themselves; John Conley supplied the artwork. Lyrics are credited to Katie Haley and Ross Levine, with the songs written by Haley, Ross Levine, Matt Levine, Becky Cale and Tony Cale, and Hans Munz added as co-writer on “Thread”, “Without” and “Sway”.
About Soft Science
Soft Science formed in Sacramento, California in 2009 around Katie Haley and the brothers Ross and Matt Levine. The current line-up is Haley on lead vocals and percussion, Matt Levine on lead guitar, Ross Levine on guitar, synths and backing vocals, Becky Cale on bass and backing vocals, Tony Cale on drums and Hans Munz on electronics.
The band self-released its first three albums: “Highs and Lows” in 2011, “Detour” in 2013 and “Maps” in 2018. A split 7-inch with The Luxembourg Signal appeared in 2015, and 2018 also brought a pair of covers, The House of Love’s “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” and Northern Picture Library’s “Paris”. The fourth album, “Lines”, came out in 2023 and was the group’s first release through Shelflife Records and Spinout Nuggets; Side-Line covered its lead single in “Kerosene” that August.
Away from records, the band has recorded sessions for KEXP, WFMU and Part-Time Punks, and played New York Popfest, Paris Popfest, The Big Takeover’s 35th anniversary show, Schellraiser Festival, Tremolo Fest and Dreamgaze PDX, alongside shows in the United States and Europe. “Fade” is their third single of 2026, ahead of “Sand” on 4 September.
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