Soft Play<\/a> have spoken out against the UK Government for being \u201ccomplicit\u201d in a \u201cgenocide\u201d against the Palestinian people, the BBC for \u201cnot sharing a proper view\u201d of said conflict and Spotify founder Daniel Ek\u2019s for investing in \u201cAI drone weaponry\u201d<\/a>, while speaking to NME<\/em> backstage at Reading 2025<\/a>. Watch our video interview with the band above.<\/p>\n They also hailed Kneecap<\/a> for inspiring them to speak out, exclusively revealed that they have written a new album and reflected on an amusing encounter with Robbie Williams<\/a> and Danny Dyer.<\/p>\n Guitarist Laurie Vincent and drummer\/vocalist Isaac Holman were speaking backstage at Reading Festival, where they\u2019d played a blistering set on the Chevron stage<\/a> during which they brought out Kate Nash<\/a>, led a \u201cfree Palestine\u201d chant and slammed gender-critical author J.K. Rowling.<\/p>\n Addressing their outspoken stances, guitar Laurie Vincent told NME<\/em>: \u201cI just think all music and all festival platforms at the moment, when there\u2019s such an insidious, divisive thing happening before our eyes, we should all be saying something. Whether it\u2019s macro or micro, there should be discussions in our homes.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThis is proof that there is still hope, that we can turn away from our screens and start facing towards real communities and real people and having connection again, because that\u2019s what the powers that be want \u2013 they want us divided.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked for his thoughts on the Mary Wallopers<\/a>\u2019 Victorious Festival set having been cut short after they led \u201cFree Palestine\u201d chants<\/a>, he replied: \u201cIt\u2019s more chilling watching our taxpayer money being used to arrest an elderly woman [a Palestine Action protestor in Bristol] for peacefully protesting a genocide that our Government are complicit in. The BBC are not sharing a proper view of it. They\u2019re commissioning documentaries like Gaza: Doctors Under Attack<\/em>, which is now being shown on Channel 4, and they\u2019re not showing it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s happening before our eyes. You can support Israel openly and not get arrested but if you wanna protest for women and children to stop being bombed, you\u2019re gonna get arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cI think there needs to be a total dismantling of all of the systems, all of the old money that still has its fingers across everything. There needs to be a dismantling of the music industry. The guy that owns Spotify [Ek] is investing in AI drone weaponry. It\u2019s just all fucking bullshit, and I\u2019m bored of it. I think everyone is.\u201d<\/p>\n Vincent explained that Soft Play\u2019s recent US shows with Kneecap<\/a> proved a catalyst in their current outspokenness: \u201cWe took too long to come to the forefront, but then going on tour with Kneecap in the US and watching three of the most eloquent people I\u2019ve ever met talk about it onstage fearlessly and educate us, and show that standing up for people that don\u2019t have a voice is so purposeful\u2026 The media makes you believe we\u2019re gonna lose everything if we do it, as well, when the reality is the people in the crowd are there with you.<\/p>\n \u201cThe majority is not what we\u2019re being fed on the news. The majority doesn\u2019t want war; we don\u2019t want people to be killed. We wanna work towards a better world. The one per cent benefit [because] the more divided we are, the more they can invest people\u2019s money back into paying people to develop weapons. We shouldn\u2019t even be talking about this in this day and age! But it is the way that it is, and at the end of the day, I\u2019ve got kids and I\u2019m watching the images of the starving children. It\u2019s so upsetting on a daily basis. How can\u2019t these artists be saying something?\u201d<\/p>\n He hailed other bands for helping to create an environment in which they could speak out together: \u201cIt\u2019s strength in numbers as well, and its turning round and seeing [it], no matter what form its taking, whether it\u2019s Brian Eno<\/a> leading his charge with his cooperative of musicians or it\u2019s Fontaines D.C.<\/a> getting onstage and putting their signs up, or if it\u2019s The Murder Capital<\/a> or Kneecap<\/a> or Bob Vylan<\/a> \u2013 all these people, like Lambrini Girls.\u201d<\/p>\n He also asked: \u201cBut where are the pop stars? Where are the people with the absolutely huge platforms? I think the hardest bit about it is the people that have more to lose are the ones that [aren\u2019t] actually saying something.\u201d<\/p>\n The band are currently touring \u2018Heavy Jelly\u2019<\/a>, their fourth and most commercially successful album yet, peaking at Number Three on the UK album chart. \u201cIt feels amazing to be able to say we\u2019ve had top 10 albums is something I didn\u2019t think we\u2019d ever do,\u201d said Vincent.<\/p>\n Holman added: \u201cWe\u2019re ready to get in and start making shit again. That\u2019s done. It\u2019s got its place in our heart, but we don\u2019t really care about it anymore. We just wanna get on to the next thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Heavy Jelly\u2019 is like a manifesto of who we are and who we want to be,\u201d Vincent explained. \u201cIt was: \u2018No-one\u2019s asking us to come back; we\u2019re deciding to do it.\u2019 So we had the freedom of being a sort of new band, making music for ourselves again and then realising it really connected.\u201d<\/p>\n On previous albums, he said, \u201cI think our ideas got lost between labels and ambition and ego, and it felt like we went too far towards trying to make something for our audience. We forgot that we were making it for ourselves, so \u2018Heavy Jelly\u2019 has just proved to us that people want us to be heavy and silly and that\u2019s what we do, and so we\u2019re gonna do even more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Heavy Jelly\u2019 was the band\u2019s first under the Soft Play, which they announced in 2022, ditching their original name, Slaves, due to its unwanted connotations.<\/a><\/p>\n Asked if fans still comment on the \u2018new\u2019 name, Vincent said: \u201cYou get people going, \u2018Oh, I loved your old name I wish you\u2019d never changed it. Did people really have a problem?\u2019 Everyone\u2019s really fascinated by it. But ultimately I think we feel the best we\u2019ve ever felt, and like this name was always the name we were meant to have. It took us a long time to get round the idea of changing it but it\u2019s done and it feels liberating. I feel like we\u2019re free now.\u201d<\/p>\n Holman also exclusively revealed of the follow-up to \u2018Heavy Jelly\u2019: \u201cWe\u2019ve written quite a lot of it and we\u2019re gonna go in soon and start putting it down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds heavy,\u201d explained Vincent. \u201cIt\u2019s just gonna even heavier, more raw, more Isaac spitting bars, more shredding\u2026 I wanna push the enveloped even further. I think we\u2019ve found out that our ideas, the ones that are pushing in a new direction, are the ones people are responding to. So it\u2019s calcified our vision and we\u2019ve hit a vein of gold that we\u2019re just gonna keep mining.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if the \u201cliberating\u201d effect of the name change fed into \u2018Heavy Jelly\u2019, Vincent said: \u201cI think things like that are [part of a] huge cocktail of different stuff happening. That\u2019s one of the things. It was the moment, the energy, all of it fed into why \u2018Heavy Jelly\u2019 worked so much. But when you become authentic and you strike into that feeling of confidence and assurance in your decisions, it just becomes so good because people feel that what you\u2019re saying and doing is real, and we\u2019d lost sight of that and now we are there.\u201d<\/p>\n Robbie Williams featured on \u2018Punk\u2019s Dead\u2019<\/a>, the frenetic lead single from \u2018Heavy Jelly\u2019. Vincent praised the pop star and his upcoming 13th studio album, \u2018Britpop\u2019<\/a>: \u201cHe\u2019s another person that\u2019s being so authentically himself, and he\u2019s making some amazing music.\u201d<\/p>\n Soft Play supported Williams at London\u2019s British Summer Time Festival<\/a> last year, a show that they had fond memories of.<\/p>\n \u201cDanny Dyer was there,\u201d Holman recalled. \u201cHim and Danny dyer were watching the footie. Robbie was getting a facial and some sort of hair treatment whilst having a really deep chat with us. It was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Soft](\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/NMEAR_NME-READING-2025_SoftPlay_DB_0222.jpg\")
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