Soft Palms are rewriting the rules of the music business from a Long Beach studio

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Sitting in the control room of their home studio known as the Centre of Mental Arts (COMA for short), Long Beach husband-and-wife duo Scott Montoya and Julia Kugel smile as they discuss new music they recorded for their band Soft Palms.Their new album, titled “In Echo,” has been in the works for over five years.

The 10-song album, out Friday on Everloving Records, was inspired by their frustration about how they feel the world has devolved since 2020.“The first record I was like, ‘I want to give the world a hug,’” Kugel says.“And then this one I was like, f— this world.”For Kugel and Montoya, the album serves as the latest chapter of their creative and personal journey.

The pair met in 2012 at a music festival in Dallas (“The most romantic city,” Kugel quips), while playing in the Atlanta-based band the Coathangers and Orange County’s the Growlers, respectively.They bonded over a shared disgust at gladiator shoes, and soon thereafter, were in a relationship.By 2017, they were married and settled in Long Beach.

Despite Kugel’s role in the Coathangers at the time (Montoya left the Growlers in 2016), the couple wanted to form a band.Previously, they recorded a pair of songs that constituted Kugel’s second solo seven-inch single.

That experience made them comfortable knowing they could balance their professional and personal lives.“He’s super easy to work with,” Kugel says of Montoya, who sits beside her, trying to hide a smile.She looks at him and continues, “he’s very talented and very patient.”“When we were in our other bands, we used to meet up on tour,” Montoya, who also produces and engineers for other artists, says.

”You see the absolute worst of people on tour … so this is nothing.”To kickstart Soft Palms, Kugel drew from a batch of songs she had previously written that had no home.Being able to record in their own st...