Wooshy - Radical Softness
19-year-old Wooshy’s brand of angsty bedroom folk manages to be starkly honest and uplifting all at once. On “Radical Softness,” their distinctive musical intuition shows through the slightly fluid tempo and haunting chorus of background vocals. Meanwhile, a quiet rage permeates Wooshy’s voice - they’re not just expressing a personal hurt, but protesting a larger system of violence and injustice that seeks to punish them for being black and queer.
Wooshy told QT, “[I wrote ‘Radical Softness’] the day after the anniversary of the Orlando Pulse shooting. I'd written a song the day before that was meant to be comforting, because I think we all needed comfort that day in the LGBT+ community - especially those of us of color. The day after I didn't want comfort though, because I was suddenly furious - it all just seemed so unfair. So ‘Radical Softness’ ended up being like ‘fuck you, I'm not going to cower in a corner, I'm angry and I'm going to fight.’
“Funny enough, this was right after the Black Panther teaser dropped, and I was really inspired by how anti-colonialist the Black Panther mythos is - that's where lines like ‘this is my land’ and lyrics about taking back what's mine came from.”
Follow Wooshy at @officialwooshy.