Soft & Slick

Soft & Slick are a musical duo from Brooklyn, NY with a long musical and personal history. Soft, aka Noah Stitelman and Slick, aka Kyle Johnson, met in the small town of Shaftsbury, VT when Soft was only 12 years old and Slick just 16. They had both just recently started playing guitar and became fast friends. For many years the two would spend time playing music together, Soft switching between drums, bass and piano, while Slick stuck to playing his guitar and eventually tried playing his hand at singing. During their teen-age years both Soft & Slick started multiple garage bands that lead to no real success. Then in 1998 Slick graduated from high school and later moved to Orlando to study music production.

Since Slick knew that he wanted to be involved in music for the rest of his life, it only made sense that he would go to school for recording. He spent the next year and a half in Orlando and left with enough knowledge to land a job in a Manhattan studio. After as- sisting for two years Slick took advantage of an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up. The electro-pop duo, Fischerspooner booked time in the studio and in time took him on as a full engineer for their record. For the next year and a half Slick recorded, played guitar, pro- duced, and wrote with fischerspooner on their soft more album “Odyssey.” Upon completion Slick now had a new mission, to make his own record.

When Slick left Vermont, Soft was just starting high school. He never enjoyed school much and at sixteen he decided that he would get his GED and move on. After two years of working odd jobs, he decided to leave Vermont for Boston. Soft enrolled at the New England School of Photography. By far the youngest person in his class, his potential and work ethic started to develop and by the time he graduated two years later he was at the top of his class. After Boston came San Francisco, where he honed his skills as a photographer. Soft continued writing music as he was studying photography and would often play small shows at dive bars and coffee houses. Upon graduating school in San Francisco he decided to move to New York, a place that he had always wanted to live.

The childhood friends were now reunited in NYC. Slick had started writing material for his own record and decided to enlist the help of Soft. The two never could have imagined that their first creative endeavor would be so successful. This was the first time the two had collaborated creatively on music and the first song they wrote, “Sea Captain” was an instant sign that they had something special. Since then they have continued churning out the indie-pop music that they love to create.

Soft & Slick’s debut album “Subduction = Orogeny” is now receiving it’s finishing touches. The title is a play on words referring to how mountains are made. If you asked them about it you are sure to get no straight answer and that is exactly what they want. Con- fusion. Bewilderment. Awe. Two people making a mountain out of nothing. These are the reactions and feeling they mean to invoke. For Soft & Slick ,“Subduction = Orogeny” is the culmination of two lives devoted to listing to, and creating music, and it was all done with a smile and a little dance. Just the way they like it.