English punk duo Soft Play have made a public plea on social media to world famous actor Keanu Reeves to feature on their song ‘John Wick’ from their latest album ‘Heavy Jelly’.
The band, formed in 2012 by Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent in Tunbridge Wells, Kent have produced two EPs and three studio albums with their 2015 ‘Are you satisfied’ reaching number 8 in the UK Albums Chart. After their chart success and strong presence in the British punk scene, the band released their 2024 album ‘Heavy Jelly’ which they toured that year, featuring the song ‘John Wick’ inspired by the 2014 action thriller film series starring Keanu Reeves. The song is said to be written from the perspective of Reeves’ character, with references to the film in lyrics ‘you killed my fucking dog’ and the playful punk hook ‘I’m John Wick bitch’. The plucky rock duo took to Instagram to request Reeves to feature on the track playing bass for their performance this year at Coachella. This daring performance is unsurprising of the band with how they have redefined live performance, making fun, bold experiences for fans. In their latest performance in Utah, the band proved their down to earth nature with crowd participation which they posted onto Instagram.
This nature has strong importance to the band as shown by the political content in their discography with songs like ‘Punk’s dead’ and ‘Act violently’ sharing their anger and frustrations at the world. They discussed in an interview with Louder their thoughts on releasing such songs, stating “We’re not gonna be the band that leads your protest march. What we can do is sing about relatable things.”.
Soft Play have released their new album ‘Heavier Jelly’ today on 18 April– an extended project of the previous album ‘Heavy Jelly’. The album has created a lot of buzz with fans, especially with their song ‘Slushy- feat. Kate Nash’ which had been released previously to full album release.
The band have shown their process of creating the album with snippets on Instagram, discussing how the song ‘Slushy’ came to be and the involvement of pop icon Kate Nash– singer of the chart topping track ‘Foundations’.
The punk duo’s involvement in Coachella will surely be showstopping and fans await eagerly to see the response of Keanu Reeves. To their dismay, the band have not yet heard a response from the actor, but posted a temporary post asking playfully for anyone with a similar appearance to come to the performance instead.
