Swiss indie pop band Soft Loft dive deep into vulnerability, longing, and emotional release on their radiant six-track EP ‘Modern Roses,’ an achingly beautiful record full of warmth, whimsy, and soul-stirring sincerity. Atwood Magazine sits down with frontwoman Jorina Stamm for an intimate track-by-track unpacking of love, life, and the little moments that linger.

Stream: “Leave the Light On” – Soft Loft

**“You leave the light on… You keep the light on with the water in the pot…”**

The kettle hums and the candle burns with the weight of what’s been left behind. It’s a whisper with the weight of a shout – a moment of humanity at its rawest and realest. Soft Loft’s Modern Roses lingers in those in-between moments – between holding on and letting go, between what we say and what we mean, between who we were and who we’re becoming. It’s a record that holds space for the beauty and ache of human connection. It’s memory; it’s reflection; it’s desire. It’s the love, and everything else, that lingers long after the last goodbye.

Soft Loft’s latest EP is a dreamscape of intimacy and emotion – gentle yet gutsy, layered in warmth and vulnerability, with melodies that shimmer and lyrics that sting. Released in late April via [PIAS] and self-produced by the band, Modern Roses explores the emotional landscapes we navigate when we reach for closeness: The joy of affection, the sorrow of distance, the tension of retaining and untethering. And yet, these songs don’t just reflect those sacred moments; they live in them, breathing life into the gray areas of relationships and the silent spaces between us. At once melancholic and radiant, this EP is a softly stirring triumph: A fearless expression of feeling in all its messy, magnificent forms.

Modern Roses - Soft Loft — Modern Roses EP – Soft Loft

Soft Loft are a Swiss indie pop band whose music hums with tenderness, tension, and a quiet kind of bravery. The five-piece – comprised of Jorina Stamm (vocals/guitar), Lukas Kuprecht (drums), Marius Meier (bass), Sarina Schmid (keyboards), and Simon Boss (guitar) – first made a name for themselves with 2023’s self-released debut LP The Party and the Mess, a dreamy and diaristic full-length produced by Grammy-nominated Gianluca Buccellati. Without a label or press campaign, the EP found its way to KEXP and the NACC charts, paving the way for a breakout year of international festival appearances and sold-out club shows.

“We love it still, but it’s hard,” frontwoman Jorina Stamm says of the band’s one-year-old debut. “We talk about it a lot… We’re very happy to release new music because we want to show all this stuff we’re doing now. Next week we’re going into the studio again, so it’s all coming together… But it’s still very special to have that first album. We have such great memories doing it with our producer, and it was the kickstart! It just felt very special to begin the project with that album – it started the project, so we’re very happy about that.”

Soft Loft © Flavio Leone — Soft Loft is Jorina Stamm (vocals/guitar), Lukas Kuprecht (drums), Marius Meier (bass), Sarina Schmid (keyboards), and Simon Boss (guitar) © Flavio Leone

Now signed to [PIAS], the band return not just with momentum, but with intention — Modern Roses marks a turning point, cementing Soft Loft’s voice as both emotionally resonant and artistically distinct.

This EP may sound seamless, but its heart lies in spontaneity and surrender. “We recorded it two years ago already,” Stamm tells Atwood Magazine. “Right after we did our first album, we went straight into the studio again and recorded those six songs, and it felt very freeing to do so.” With their debut already out in the world, the band gave themselves permission to experiment. “We had music out there, people knew what we’d been doing, and now we could just kind of do stuff and try stuff out. That was a very cool experience for us. We did it all by ourselves, and it was so much fun.”

“We didn’t really have a vision,” Stamm adds. “It was just capturing everything that we’re experiencing now… trying out stuff and just playing music, really.” There was no concept, no overarching narrative – just snapshots of life and feeling, woven into song. “It was six stories out of my life, put together on an EP.”

That looseness became a strength. Songs like “Le Parfait” arrived unfiltered and unforced. “It used to be a sketch, and we just kept it,” Stamm recalls. “We tried to re-record it in a studio, but we couldn’t capture the moment, so we kept it as the demo version. We didn’t really care. We just kept it that and we released it. We were just freely doing stuff and saying, ‘Okay, that’s what it is.’” That instinct – to trust the moment – is what gives Modern Roses its magnetic warmth: It’s a document of feeling first, polish second.

That spirit of intention and openness lives in the EP’s name itself. “It actually comes from a line from the song ‘Paper Plane,’ which goes, ‘Modern roses are paper planes,’” Stamm explains. “In ‘Paper Plane,’ the story is about thinking about what could modern attempts of showing affection be like. What are the modern roses of today? And thinking about that theme we thought, what if our songs are modern roses as well? What if these EP songs are modern roses, modern ways of showing affection or just sharing something about yourself?”

Each of Modern Roses’ six tracks feels like its own small gesture – a hand extended, a heart exposed, a thought turned into melody.

It’s the fragility and tenderness of Jorina Stamm’s voice that hits first on EP opener (and former Atwood Editor’s Pick) “Leave the Light On”: Hot on the mic, she aches inside and out as she elegantly dances between the brutal and the beautiful, the highs and lows of a love that should’ve ended – but won’t. “Leave the Light On” is a beautifully dramatic reverie; a source of comfort and catharsis, passion and pain, channeled into a soul-stirring seduction. The song swells in soft waves – hypnotic and haunting – as Stamm sings of missed timing, lingering memories, and the light that never quite goes out. “It’s that fine line between something good and something you never want to go back to,” she shares. “You keep on wishing for that person to just turn the light off.” At once graceful and gutting, this opener builds a bridge from the band’s past to its present – grounding Modern Roses in the emotional heat of lived experience.

By contrast, “Can” beams with soft, summery light – a warm and wistful song about vulnerability and the desire to connect. “It’s kind of me on this imaginary first date,” Stamm says. “I’m telling this person everything about myself. I’m trying to make space for connection.” There’s a deep tenderness here, as Stamm opens the door to closeness while acknowledging how hard it can be to let others in.

The sweetly spirited “Paper Plane” takes that same longing and twists it into a quirky, cinematic memory. Set in Paris and sporting an invigorating drum beat, it turns a quiet moment of awkward solitude into a daydream of human connection. “I didn’t really feel good at this concert, so I went in the back of the club and looked at this flyer, and there were instructions to fold a paper plane on it. I started folding the paper plane, and this guy came over and flirtatiously asked me what I was doing… I didn’t really feel good, so I shut it down, but after this moment I really started thinking about the situation – what if the paper plane could have been a modern rose?” Stamm muses. “What other situations do I know of people showing affection and connecting through stuff?” The track floats and flutters with vintage textures and a dreamlike vibe, perfectly embodying its origin story.

The mood turns sharper on “Ohm,” a simmering breakup song brimming with frustration and guilt. “It’s very angry and very giving feeling guilty and putting guilt on each other,” Stamm says. “Letting it all out in a song and then feeling better about it.” Like its name, “Ohm” hums with tension – a raw electric current of unresolved emotion.

“Le Parfait” trades structure for softly stirring sensation. More mantra than song, it loops a single longing phrase – “you don’t want to go” – until it becomes hypnotic. “It’s just repeating this over and over again,” Stamm explains. “It’s a mood about longing.” That looseness is intentional: a cheeky, aching ode to not wanting the night to end.

But you don’t
you don’t wanna go
no you don’t
you don’t wanna go

I think I really know
I think I really know…

The EP closes on “Pop Up,” a deceptively playful track that captures a deeper conflict. Based on a real conversation about gender and feminism, Stamm steps into multiple perspectives to reflect on the complexities of listening, speaking, and being heard. “It’s very tricky, because I do get both opinions,” she says. “It’s hard to be a woman sometimes. And it’s hard to be a man understanding that it’s hard to be a woman sometimes.” The result is as vulnerable as it is thought-provoking – an unexpected finale that leaves the door open for more questions, more conversations, more roses to bloom.

As for favorites, Stamm finds it hard to choose – and maybe that’s the point. These songs aren’t just tracks; they’re moments, moods, and memories.

“It changes every day,” she laughs. “‘Leave the Light On’ was so fun to play live… and now that ‘Paper Plane’ is out, I just feel like, okay, now we have a dancey track, and that’s very fun as well. And then I listen to ‘Le Parfait,’ and I’m like, oh, that’s so cool that we did that.” Right now, she says, it’s “Paper Plane” – but ask her again tomorrow, and the answer might change.

Though Modern Roses wasn’t born from a rigid concept, Stamm’s lyrics carry weight – often playful, often poetic, always intentional. One of her favorite lines comes from “Paper Plane”: “Modern roses are paper planes. Modern talking is texting, right? My roommate rented a private jet. What’s life?” It’s a line that lands somewhere between confusion and charm, capturing the strangeness of modern connection with a wink. “It kind of captures my confusion about how we’re doing things nowadays,” Stamm reflects. “It’s not a very emotional or melancholic lyric – it’s a fun one.”

As breathtakingly beautiful as its name subtly suggests, Modern Roses is a gift – a warm, wistful, and wondrous EP that invites listeners into Soft Loft’s world of delicate truths and emotional release.

These six songs don’t scream for attention; they sit with you, ebb and flow with you, and hold you close. There’s a quiet confidence in how this band moves – one that doesn’t chase perfection, but instead embraces feeling, flow, and the unfiltered intimacy of making music with people you trust. With its lush soundscapes, heartfelt lyrics, and soulful charm, Modern Roses is more than just a record; it’s a reminder of how powerful it is to share your heart, and how healing it can be to hear someone else’s.

“I think what I would like for people to think when they hear Soft Loft… I really like that we have the concept of a band,” Stamm reflects. “It’s not very usual nowadays anymore – five people doing music together and we’re deciding everything together and writing everything together and having a lot of fun together while touring and making music. I didn’t think that it was a special thing before, but I’m hearing more and more that it’s unusual. I love the idea of creating this space where it should all be very fun and a lot of understanding and being yourself.”

As for what listeners might take from Modern Roses, Stamm keeps it beautifully simple: “The most important thing for me – or the thing I hope most for – is that people are connecting with our music. I just wish for people to connect with it… and just have fun while listening to it. I really love listening to music all the time, so I hope people are taking our music and walking to the bus station or driving a car or whatever. Yeah, I wish for that.”

She adds, “We were not trying to please anyone with our music, but we’re happy to please if the receiver feels like, okay, I like what you’re doing now.”

Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Soft Loft’s Modern Roses EP with Atwood Magazine as Jorina Stamm goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her band’s latest release. A truly stunning 20-minute journey, it’s a heartfelt, handmade collection that invites us to sit with our feelings, savor the softness, and find beauty in the in-between.

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