The Soft Cavalry

The Soft Cavalry

The Soft Cavalry is a UK duo made up of Steve Clarke and Rachel Goswell. The group begins in 2019 and continues as an active project.

Formation and members

Steve Clarke works in the band alongside Rachel Goswell. Clarke has played bass and sung backing vocals in bands, both in studio and live settings, and also works as a tour manager. Before The Soft Cavalry, he is involved with sessions work and plays with reformed Slowdive, while Goswell is the other half of the duo.

Clarke and Goswell meet in Reading, where he is introduced to her while working at an industrial site. At that point, he is recovering from a difficult period after a divorce in 2011, and he later describes the years that follow as unsettled. Around a year after they meet, they live together in Devon, and they marry in 2018.

Sound and writing

The Soft Cavalry’s work sits within dream pop, shoegaze, indie and indie rock. Clarke describes Goswell as central to the project’s development, saying that she shapes and refines his writing. He also describes the duo’s songs as a way of working through confusion and ideas he had not previously felt able to express.

Clarke says he has long had ideas for songs, but only later feels able to turn them into a project. Goswell, in turn, is described as always writing and as someone who helps edit and streamline his material, including suggesting that songs can work with more space and fewer words.