Soft Skies Inc find a dream-pop light in the shadows with ‘Sin Some / Lose Some’
The Philadelphia alternative duo of Ryan and Martin Rex return with a glistening single about reflection and revelation on Tuesday, June 3
New track follows September’s ‘Sooner or Later’ and October video ‘Your Small Army’
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Listen to Soft Skies Inc on Spotify
Photo Credit: Chris McLaughlin
PHILADELPHIA, PA [June 3, 2025] – For some, home is a place; an address on a map, a specific location that exists in a physical setting, calling for us to return amidst our darker and uneasy hours. But home can also be a feeling, one that provides emotional gravity, wherever we may be in the world, available and willing to help steer our mental course to calmer waters.
That feeling exists like a soothing haze in the sonic daydream that is “Sin Some / Lose Some,” the new single from Philadelphia alternative and dream-pop project Soft Skies Inc, set for release on Tuesday, June 3.
It’s the first dose of new music in 2025 from the duo of identical twin brothers and longtime musical confidants Ryan and Martin Rex, who resurfaced last fall with a pair of releases in the streaming “Sooner or Later” and a Sapphire Goss-directed video for “Your Small Army.”
“At the core, these songs explore chaos, love, darkness, beauty, and redemption,” says Ryan. “Finding meaning in the mess, and light in the shadows.”
This new single and its creative lineage traces a path around the world, taking Ryan from Massachusetts to Australia to North Carolina, all while providing a reminder to stay grounded as life’s tension and instability creep up on us in our most vulnerable moments. Like all Soft Skies Inc compositions, there’s room for the listener to take it to their own emotional shelter, but there also exists a compass for the song to take the listener somewhere, as well.
“More than anything, I want people to find their own meaning in the song,” Ryan adds. “But for me, it’s about the chaos of living a life that’s been off the rails for too long – trying to wrestle control over things that were never really in your hands to begin with. There’s a kind of madness in that. The line 'just come down for a while' is a plea – almost like someone shaking you awake. It’s a call to ground yourself before you burn out completely. That lyric, 'you won’t treat those burns in a fire,' is a warning. You can’t heal while you’re still standing in the flames. At some point, you’ve got to start doing things differently.”
“Sin Some / Lose Some,” its title a foreboding twist on the familiar mantra about life’s ups and downs, reflecting on a “can’t win” scenario Ryan describes above, began to take shape after he relocated from Boston, where he and Martin were known for their work in ‘90s-era space rock band Lockgroove, to Sydney, exploring new surroundings and cultures while a significant distance from his best friend and family.
“It was this wild, beautiful adventure, but also incredibly isolating at times,” he says. “The one constant was my acoustic guitar. I’d sit in my apartment and mess around with the core of the song, just trying to make sense of everything I was feeling. On weekends, I’d hike across the city to this gritty little rehearsal space where you could rent rooms by the hour. That’s where I started layering in the electric parts, experimenting with keys, just letting the song evolve.”
Soon, Ryan moved back to the States, and landed in Chapel Hill. The brothers began demoing the track and shaping the arrangement – “...tightened the bassline, worked out the drum parts, and brought it all to life,” Ryan adds – before recording the final version at DeepSpace Studios in New York with the pair’s longtime collaborator and producer Chris McLaughlin.
With Ryan on main vocals, guitars, and bass and Martin on drums, percussion, backing vocals and keys, “Sin Some / Lose Some” was co-produced by the brothers with McLaughlin, who also engineered the track. Mastering was completed by Rich Morales at New York’s Super Fine Audio.
In its final form, “Sin Some / Lose Some” continues the band’s throwback sound to classic alternative, offering a hazy nostalgia to the underground sounds that shaped our youth. Where the previous tracks leaned into some post-punk and electronic territories, “Sin Some / Lose Some” emits a shimmering sense of jangle-pop, feeling natural alongside lost classics from the C86 and Sarah Records era, a thrust and a pull balanced by its yearning ache and showcasing the airy heaviness that has marked this era for Soft Skies Inc.
“This track might sound a little different from past releases, but to us, it’s just another side of the same coin,” Ryan notes. “And there’s more of that coming – new songs that push into different textures and styles and moods, but still feel like us. It keeps things interesting for us, and hopefully for anyone listening too.”
Part of that intrigue exists at the core of the Soft Skies Inc creative ethos, which traces back decades to when the brothers were first taking what they heard in their expanding record collection and attempted to filter it through their own songwriting.
“We’ve been making music together since we were teenagers, so yeah, there’s definitely been an evolution – both in sound and perspective,” Ryan says. “But there’s also a clear through-line in everything we’ve done. At the heart of it, we’ve always just tried to write songs that feel honest and resonate with us. With Soft Skies Inc, we’ve leaned even more into that idea of not limiting ourselves stylistically. If it feels like a good song – if it moves us – we’ll put it out. That freedom has been really energizing, and it’s opened up new creative directions we might not have explored before.”
The “Sin Some / Lose Some” artwork, utilizing an up-close photograph of a weathered and weary person gazing off, the focus on the eye and what it sees, was created by Lindsay Metivier of Peel Gallery in Carrboro, North Carolina. It feels like it belongs in the record bin alongside other college rock classics, and directs the viewer into the Soft Skies Inc world.
“It really captures this dual feeling of deterioration and revelation that runs through the song,” Ryan says. “There’s a quiet tension in the photo that mirrors the emotional push and pull in the music.”
And of course, then there’s the track’s title, the aforementioned pun that gives our first glimpse into the emotion contained within.
“‘Sin Some Lose Some’ just popped out and instantly captured the vibe of the song,” Ryan concludes. “It’s a twist on the old saying, but darker, more self-aware. The character in the song isn’t winning much of anything – they’re stuck in this loop of bad decisions and trying to keep control while everything’s slipping away. The title kind of sums up that whole headspace in four words.”
Media Contact: Please direct all press inquiries to Michael Marotta at michael@knyvet.com and reach Soft Skies Inc at softskiesinc@gmail.com.
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Soft Skies Inc is:
Ryan Rex: Main vocals, guitars, bass
Martin Rex: Drums, percussion, backing vocals, keys
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‘Sin Some / Lose Some’
Written and arranged by Ryan and Martin Rex
Produced by Ryan and Martin Rex with Chris McLaughlin at DeepSpace Studios, Brooklyn, NY
Engineered by Chris McLaughlin
Mastered by Rich Morales at Super Fine Audio, NYC
Single Artwork by Lindsay Metivier
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Soft Skies Inc short bio:
Soft Skies Inc is the new recording project from twin writing team Ryan and Martin Rex. With each single, the twins seek to feed your head or elevate your day. The Soft Skies Inc sound is noisy, poppy, psychedelic, melodic, driving — exploring texture and mood and space and time. The “Sooner or Later” single hit the streams in September 2024, followed by the Sapphire Goss-directed music video for “Your Small Army” the following month. More new music is on the way in early 2025, including the June single ‘Sin Some / Lose Some’.
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‘Sin Some / Lose Some’ single artwork:
Photo by Lindsay Metivier
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Media praise for Soft Skies Inc:
“Sonic bliss…” _The Spill Magazine
“Cinematic magic.” _The Whole Kameese
“‘Your Small Army’ is one of the more compelling dream pop singles we’ve heard here in a while.” _If It’s Too Loud
“The noise-strewn dreamy-pop tune sways over a shimmery blanket of bittersweet hope, woven by an intoxicating interplay of insistent vibrant guitar melodies and sullen yet lively pulsing bass pulses, ceaselessly churned by stumbling drum beats, expands into brilliant metaphysical textures that burst and collide into an uplifting immersion of lush sentient frequencies, into a mishmash of spiralling light-shivering keyboards and sudden outbursts of harshly abrasive guitar washes, whilst Stipe-like heartfelt breathy vocals hold on to a magical past amid present-day fading.” _White Light // White Heat
“Melodic guitar pop at its Sebadoh best. Uptempo shoe-slacker-gaze spiced with scintillating synths and ethereal vocals. Start dreaming in overdrive. Right now, right here.” _Turn Up The Volume
“The combination of dreamy singing and that stark groove works quite well. That rhythm just goes on and on, with no rest for the listener. …fans of this music at the time will find a nice addition to their private discotheque or, to put it in a more modern way, playlist.” _WoNoBlog
“Soft Skies Inc goes big with layers upon layers of intricate Dream Alt being added in an almost rapid fire succession to make it so there’s practically something new to enjoy with each passing second …Any comparisons to The Cure are rightly deserved from our view especially with the atmosphere created in the keys department from both the Rex’s that adds a certain denseness to the proceedings with Ryan’s vibrant voice cascading over the buoyant beats brought about by Martin hovering like the infectiousness of later Bob Mould collaborating with Love and Rockets or New order following their 2001 resurgence.” _Rock And Roll Fables
“‘The Kickaround’ [is] a noisy guitar-pop jam that grinds like the night and shines like the morning.” _Vanyaland
“‘Sooner or Later’ is just drenched in early alt-rock (or college rock, I should probably say) mixed with modern dream pop. It’s the type of song that is going to resonate with fans of bands like The Sundays and early R.E.M., as well as fans of newer bands like Beach House. The song is fuzzy and dissonant, but in a softer, more gentle way. With ‘Sooner or Later’, Soft Skies Inc are taking nostalgia and updating it for today.” _If It’s Too Loud
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Press Contact: Michael O’Connor Marotta at michael@knyvet.com
Artist Contact: Martin Rex at softskiesinc@gmail.com
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