The Soft Moon | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Jose Luis Vasquez |
Also known as | Luis Vasquez |
Born | Los Angeles, California, U.S. | May 30, 1979
Origin | Oakland, California, U.S. |
Died | January 18, 2024 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 44)
Genres | |
Occupations |
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Instruments |
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Years active | 1990s–2024 |
Labels | |
Website | thesoftmoon |
Jose Luis Vasquez (May 30, 1979 – January 18, 2024),[1] known professionally as the Soft Moon, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. Vasquez was the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and sole official member of the Soft Moon, which he founded in 2009.
Vasquez was born in Los Angeles, California, to a Cuban immigrant mother, and to a Mexican father who was never present in his life. At the age of nine, the family relocated to Victorville, California, a town in the Mojave Desert.[2]
As a teenager, Vasquez started out playing punk rock inspired by Descendents, Bad Religion, Bad Brains, Fugazi and Minor Threat.[3] After graduating from Hesperia High School, he moved to Oakland, California[2] where he briefly played in San Francisco-based psychedelic band Lumerians as a percussionist.[4]
As Luis Vasquez, he created the Soft Moon project in 2009, and shortly after, Brooklyn-based label Captured Tracks approached him with a record deal. In 2010 his first single "Breathe The Fire" and "Parallels" were released on 7" vinyl under the Captured Tracks imprint.[5][6] His first album with the Soft Moon was released in 2010 and the band toured in 2011, opening in the US for Interpol and Mogwai.[7][8]
In 2012, Vasquez was robbed at gunpoint while walking in his Oakland neighborhood, and his backpack with a laptop containing a finished album and two years' worth of demos were stolen.[9] In October of that year, the Soft Moon released its second album, Zeros.[10]
He moved abroad to Venice, Italy in 2013 to write his third album, Deeper, which was released in 2015.[11] The album's lead single, "Black", earned Best New Track honors from Pitchfork.[12] While writing the album, The Soft Moon opened for Depeche Mode on a European leg of their Delta Machine Tour in 2014.[13]
The Soft Moon was scheduled to open for Killing Joke's 2016 North American tour, but Killing Joke canceled because of a band member's illness.[14] During a performance in Oakland on January 29, 2016, the band's van was broken into, with luggage, recording equipment, records and merchandise stolen.[15]
The Soft Moon's fourth album, Criminal, was released in 2018 and was recorded in a basement studio in Vasquez's new home city of Berlin. It was his first album on Sacred Bones Records.[16][17]
The Soft Moon's fifth and final album, Exister, was released on September 23, 2022.[18] The Soft Moon performed at Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands on April 20, 2023, and the Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, California, on May 20.[19][20]
Vasquez announced via The Soft Moon's social media, that he was creating an original score for a short film entitled, Pumpkin Guts.[21] The film was written and directed by Bryan M. Ferguson, who also directed the music video for Exister single, Monster.[22]
Vasquez died on January 18, 2024, at age 44, alongside techno DJ Silent Servant (John Juan Mendez) and Mendez's partner Simone Ling, of a suspected fentanyl poisoning while consuming cocaine they thought was clean. Their three bodies were discovered at Mendez's Los Angeles residence later that day after Vasquez's wife called for a welfare check.[23] Their deaths were reported the following day.[24]
Although Vasquez wrote, recorded and produced alone, he was joined by other members for live performances.