Soft Play

The band was formed as a duo after Holman and Vincent failed to recruit other musicians to join their punk band, and began sharing songwriting duties. Vincent later stated that this was an unexpected benefit as they could tour easily and cheaply in a small van due to only needing two people's worth of equipment.

As Slaves, the band released their first EP, Sugar Coated Bitter Truth, under Boss Tuneage Records in 2012. Their first single, "Where's Your Car Debbie?", was released by Fonthill Records in early 2014; they were then signed by Virgin EMI.^[3] They released their first single under Virgin, "Hey", in November 2014, and released "The Hunter" later that month. They gained more exposure in late 2015 when "The Hunter" was featured on the Sky One series You, Me and the Apocalypse. They also appeared on Later... with Jools Holland and were nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2015.^[4][5]

In May 2015, The Fader featured the group in an article about provocative names for music artists.^[6] Vincent told The Fader that criticism of the name came as a surprise to them, describing how they chose the name while trying to think of "an abrasive sounding word, like Clash". He further said, "We just liked the word. We weren't trying to provoke."^[7] The two also addressed the controversy around their name in a statement on Facebook: "Our band name relates to people not being in control of their day to day lives. Slaves was our way of getting off the paths we didn't want to walk down anymore. The music we make is motivational and aimed at people personally as well as collectively."^[6]

The duo released their debut album Are You Satisfied? on 1 June 2015.^[8] It reached No. 8 in its first week on the UK Albums Chart.^[9] The album was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Music Prize and has since gone Silver in the UK.^[10][11][12] They released their second album Take Control on 30 September 2016. Beastie Boys member Mike D produced the album, and was featured on the track "Consume or Be Consumed". The album fared better in the charts than the first, climbing to No. 6 in its first week on the UK Albums Chart.^[13] They released their third album Acts of Fear and Love on 17 August 2018, which reached number 8 on the UK album charts.^[14] In July 2019, the band released a four-track EP titled The Velvet Ditch and played a headline set at Truck Festival.

In December 2022, they changed their name to Soft Play. They explained, "The name 'Slaves' is an issue [and] doesn't represent who we are as people or what our music stands for any longer."^[2] Their fourth studio album (and first under their new name) Heavy Jelly is set for release in July 2024.

They have stated that their earliest mutual influences include The Clash, Rancid, Ramones, Gang of Four, Billy Childish, and Talking Heads.^[15]

• Isaac Holman – lead vocals, drums, trumpet, flute
• Laurence "Laurie" Vincent – backing vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards

As Slaves

As Soft Play

• Official website