Q&A: Kate Vogel’s ‘soft’ is a Heartfelt Rebirth of Uncovering Self-Love
EQUAL PARTS UNFLINCHINGLY HONEST AND FIERCELY HOPEFUL – Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kate Vogel has always been one to wear her heart on her sleeve, but with her sophomore album soft, she embarks on a journey that blends vulnerability with resilience in a way that is truly transformative. Soft is a rebirth for the songstress as she crafts a collection of songs that dive deep into self-reflection, emotional reckoning and ultimately, healing.
With a rich tapestry of piano-driven ballads, Vogel's music echoes far beyond the borders of Nashville, capturing the universal longing for connection and inner peace. Her distinct ability to channel raw emotion through delicate melodies and poignant lyricism makes soft feel not just like an album, but a companion to those navigating life’s uncertainties.
In soft, Vogel peels back the layers of her experiences to share a deeply personal narrative. Her lyrics reveal a journey marked by struggle, growth, and the search for self-acceptance. Tracks like "light at the end of the tunnel" and "broke up on my birthday" reveal her talent for turning pain into art, as she chronicles moments of heartache with a tenderness that feels both cathartic and redemptive.
But Vogel doesn't dwell in the darkness. Even when grappling with difficult emotions, her music consistently leans toward hope. Songs like "over you" offer a message of resilience, with sweeping piano chords underscoring Vogel’s soaring vocals as she sings of finding light amidst the shadows. soft is filled with such contrasts: heartbreak and hope, fragility and strength, melancholy and joy.
Her sophomore effort marks a significant shift from her earlier work. While her debut showcased her raw talent, soft reflects a more seasoned, introspective artist who has come to terms with both the beauty and the messiness of life. It's a deeply intimate project that highlights Vogel’s growth both personally and musically.
With soft, Kate Vogel has crafted an album that is as deeply personal as it is universally resonant. A rebirth both musically and emotionally, the album showcases Vogel’s immense talent for storytelling and her unwavering belief in the healing power of music. Whether it’s through the gentle embrace of her piano ballads or the fierce hope embedded in her lyrics, Vogel invites listeners to find solace and strength in her art—a gift that feels more necessary now than ever.
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. You just released your second album soft and a huge congratulations is in order! What is the inspiration behind the record and what themes and emotions do you explore?
KATE: The whole idea of this album is about when you keep getting hurt and knocked down over and over and over again. I feel like a lot of people retreat from the world and stop putting themselves out there and build up these walls to protect themselves so that they can't get hurt again. Then when you're so fortified, love can't get in either, and you're closed off from all the good in the world. I feel like that's what soft means to me, is trying to let down the walls and trust you know appropriately. Don't blindly give your trust to someone, but letting love and light back into your life when you've been really closed off and it's a constant battle every day to not let the bad things affect you. Process them in an appropriate amount of time, and then get back up because life is so beautiful and try to be soft again.
LUNA: You previously said that you dream for your listeners to be in the type of space that you’ve felt from other artists’ music to lift your mood or to validate that you’re not alone and bring healing energy. How do you bring those intentions into soft?
KATE: The album covers a lot of emotional ground for me, from wanting to fall in love again to getting over heartbreak, to the truest love is of my friendships and best friends that I've known forever, to making career changes and moving across the country, to talking about when I was 16 years old in the music industry, and lightly touching on my experience with suicide. It’s all done in in the future way, talking about what I wish I could have gone back and told myself, and seeing that all the dark parts of the hardest parts of your life are what led you to become who you are, and it would help show you the path that you're meant to be on. It just covers a lot of emotional ground, because I tried to make it as complete as possible. I did take one song off because I didn't feel that it fit the album and that it wasn't a very soft song. It was more strong and fierce, and not that you can't be both. Because it covers so much ground that there's a song for everyone, for whatever they're trying to process and get through or need to hear, I hope that at least one song connects with anyone that listens.
LUNA: What is your favorite song off soft and why do you love this song? Is there a certain element, lyric or message that you gravitate towards the most?
KATE: I really like “when I feel it,” not as an overarching album theme. “When I feel it” is about knowing that you'll find trusting your intuition and your gut. Your intuition is pretty much always right, and you keep honing it and getting better at it. I think a lot of girls feel pressure to settle down, or people tell us, well, why don't you just give him a chance? They tell us to settle for less or pressure you that way. I just don't want to. I want the best, that's what I deserve. The song is about me saying ‘I'll know it when I feel it, and maybe he doesn't exist, but I'd rather be alone than with somebody that doesn't make me feel in love or feel good about the relationship.’ I really like that one and the production on it. I really like the guitar on it.
LUNA: I would love to touch more on the creative process behind soft. Can you walk us through a typical writing and recording session for the album?
KATE: I had written “over you,” “when I feel it,” and “kids in ohio” on my own when I lived in LA, because it's been over a course of three years since I put out the last album. I wrote “light at the end of the tunnel” on my own also. I have this collection of songs. I knew that I wanted to say more in this next album that captured more of my fuller personality. Instead of just dealing with healing, I wanted to show some fun sides and hopeful sides and happier sides. I think I only had one song on my first album that was hopeful, and I feel like I'm a hopeful person, and I wanted the album to be honest and authentic. It needed a fuller picture of myself. When I had that horrible breakup, I just couldn't get out of bed for a month, and because I use songwriting to process my emotions, I knew that I had to get these songs out of me. I had a notes app of all of the things you hear, and next thing you know, I just had written them all in my notes, and then we put them together in a song. I asked my good friends, my creative friends, to come write with me in Joshua Tree one weekend in January, and that's where we got the rest of these songs. The title track “soft,” I could never have written that by myself. I needed my friends to pull out what I was trying to say, because I didn't even want to face what I was trying to say. It was really amazing to have my friends help me write “soft,” “next thing you know,” “unamerican dream” and “broke up on my birthday,” on that Joshua Tree writing camp. I went to the studio and professionally recorded them, and now we have an album.
LUNA: The album definitely follows a journey of introspection and diving deep into yourself. Did you have any lessons or breakthroughs while bringing the project to fruition?
KATE: I follow this one Instagram account, Case Kenny. I quit my job in the middle of this album, like I got my bonus check on April 2, and then my last day was April 3, so I went full time music in the middle of making this album. Case Kenny has this quote that says, ‘the entire point of life is to take chances on dreams that seem crazy to most, but feel like destiny to you.’ And, uh, yeah, there's so there's so many things. He says the entire point of life is to not always know where you're going. It's to trust you'll end up where you belong. I look back on trying to have certainty in my life of if I do this, if I do that, then this will happen, and then this will happen. Sometimes you just have to let go and remember that you're just a little ant on a rock in space. I feel like that's my biggest breakthrough. Why would a little ant on a rock in space, like the pressure of fitting in or looking cool or not making a fool of yourself, all that faded away for me when I realized we're all gonna die and we're so tiny in the grand scheme of things. I believe that so many of us, we were all born artists and with creativity, and so much of it gets pushed down because you're afraid of what people will think. I was even looking at posts and videos that I used to do when I was 16, like I didn't care, I was so reckless and just wanted to connect. The haters could never stop me. It doesn't matter. You just have to be yourself. That's probably the biggest takeaway, is just being yourself, because there's no reason to be anything else.
LUNA: What was your favorite part of the process or a favorite memory from bringing soft to fruition that you would like to share?
KATE: My favorite part was the Joshua Tree trip. It was a life changing weekend. All my friends took time out of their busy schedule to fly across the country and spend four days with me, just writing songs for me. It was so special and meaningful. These people are so talented. On that trip, I said that it was my birthday in the Airbnb description, because I didn't want to tell them we were making music, because I thought they might think we're being loud and we just have acoustic guitars. I said it was my birthday. We showed up and there were birthday decorations everywhere, like banners, signs, balloons and crowns. It was the sweetest thing ever. Just getting to celebrate my birthday a month after was really special. I remember being in the hot tub, and there's no lights around us, and we're looking up at shooting stars, and the vast expanse of the desert just really clicked how small we are. That same idea of just being yourself. Why does it matter?
LUNA: Was there any intention in the way you structured the songs in the way you did with “soft” being the opener and “light at the end of the tunnel” being the closing track?
KATE: I wanted “soft” to be the introductory song, because the throughline of every single song on the record is me trying to be vulnerable and honest and face things that maybe I don't want to talk about. It's being honest with myself about things that weigh on me. I wanted “light at the end of the tunnel” to be the closer because it's a summary of showing yourself that no matter what happens in life, all of the bad things that happen will lead you to where you're supposed to be, and good things can come from it. You have the power to transform anything. You can learn from things. You can use them to grow.
LUNA: How are you planning on celebrating the album release?
KATE: I'm so excited because my best friends from Ohio, they were there when I wrote the song “kids in ohio” and we were kids from Ohio singing songs in the hallway after school. They were my first musical supporters. I would send them all my songs. They were there for me at the start of my journey and they're coming to celebrate this album. I'm just so honored that they are coming to this one. They're flying in from out of state, and then my sister's flying in from out of state, and my three best friends from LA are flying in from out of state. We're going to have a little party. It's in my backyard where we'll play songs and celebrate together. That's the thing about putting out music, you see how many people actually care about you that you didn't even know. It's always so amazing when people tell me that my songs have touched them in some way. I was trying to express what I felt and and you never know if what you think is silly or relatable and you don't know what other people are going through. It's really amazing when somebody is going through something similar, and that my song could help them get in touch with their feelings and their emotions.
LUNA: How has the reaction been so far from fans and loved ones?
KATE: I feel like the songs are so lyric-driven and vocals-forward that it's almost like driving around in your car listening to it, or laying in your bed and listening to it. I feel like it is such an introspective album, so I just wonder if it's something that you might listen to by yourself first to see how you feel about it, and then you can share it with someone else that you know is going through something.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
KATE: Obviously leaving my safe job that I loved and was good at was a big change for me, because I'm not somebody who has been touring and playing shows my whole life. I stopped when I was 16, so it's scary to start a new chapter, and it's scary to be vulnerable about that too because people can pass their judgment of whatever. I'm really, really excited to continue with this new chapter that I've always believed, that I've been a songwriter my whole life. At every job I've ever worked at back in school, I would write songs on my notebooks and the backs of papers. When we'd be in meetings, I would always be writing songs. I was always a songwriter. It has been so amazing to be writing songs every single day, and I have so many more that I want to share. The most exciting part about this next chapter will be the touring and meeting people who connect with my music. I love meeting people in person. That's my favorite part about the music industry, is how many people you can meet is an endless number. It never ends. How many people can you reach? There's not a set limit of you'll only reach 200 people. Anyone could find you and and and connect. That's been the coolest part of looking at what happened with my first single that I put out, is seeing all the comments and messages of how it's touched them, and it inspires me that art is a really important career path, and because it's so vulnerable. When I was sitting in finance meetings, we didn't sit and talk about our feelings, we talked about numbers. It's a really crazy world that I'm getting adjusted to speaking about feelings and vulnerability, and that's the whole message of soft is just leaning into being vulnerable, because it’s a strength.
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