Come on Feel the Power: Mary Timony's Soft Power

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INDIE-ROCK SONGSTRESS Mary Timony would be the first to tell you that Soft Power, her new band, is not her band per se. It's a D.C. foursome whose lyrical, psychedelic guitar rock is born of sonic synchronicity.

"It's pretty collaborative — it's not like my solo project at all," says Timony, late of Helium and a seven-year solo career that spawned three albums and legions of fans.

The quartet have been playing together for a few years now but only recently christened themselves Soft Power. Rounded out by Jonah Takagi on second guitar and bass, T.J. Lipple on drums and Winston Yu on keys, the four have forged an epic rock sound fusing Timony's signature dragon-fairy melodies with steady, heavy grooves.

Unlike Timony's past projects — including the all-girl Autoclave, the band predating her leap to Boston, Matador Records and back — Soft Power regularly interplays singing, with Timony and Takagi sharing lead vocal duties. Timony's feminine mystique still looms large, but her princely minstrels bring balance to the proceedings.

And Timony says she is happy for the company. "I couldn't see writing another record by myself — it just wasn't fun anymore for me," she says. Huddling with the group in a home studio? Fine by her. Takagi's pad also doubles as Soft Power's practice space. "We're currently homeless," she jokes.

Even though she's been back in D.C. five years now, Timony says she is still reconnecting with the music scene she left behind at 18. "It was important to me as a teenager," she says. "Being around the music then pushed me to do what I do now."

» Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW; with Big Gold Belt, Protect U, Sat., June 20, 10 p.m., $8; 202-364-0404.

Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman
Photo courtesy Soft Power