The Soft Hills is the music project of Los Angeles–based songwriter, producer, and multidisciplinary artist Garrett Hobba. Bringing together elements of folk, psychedelic, and ambient music, the project creates immersive soundscapes built from layered guitars, analog synthesizers, tape textures, and atmospheric production.
Hobba approaches music as an exploratory process, allowing songs to evolve through experimentation and intuition. The result is a body of work that moves fluidly between intimate acoustic compositions and expansive, dreamlike arrangements. Instruments are often treated as sources of atmosphere as much as melody—reverbed guitars dissolve into ambient space, Mellotron and Moog tones are woven into slowly evolving layers of sound, while vocal lines are interwoven into blended harmonies that function as parallel melodic voices, often completing one another rather than supporting a single lead.
The origins of The Soft Hills are tied to a period of personal and creative transformation. After stepping away from music and traveling through Europe, Hobba underwent a series of experiences that led to a renewed sense of purpose and a return to songwriting with a deeper focus and openness. From that point forward, the project became a vehicle for exploring themes of perception, transformation, and inner experience.
Closely connected to Hobba’s visual and film work, The Soft Hills often extends beyond music into moving image. Recent projects include stop-motion animated films and music videos featuring handmade puppets, antique dolls, and constructed environments, creating a unified artistic world where sound and image intersect.
Mysterium, the forthcoming eighth full-length album from The Soft Hills, continues this trajectory while expanding Hobba’s sound into more cinematic and exploratory territory. Mixed and mastered in London by Guy Massey, the record remains rooted in songcraft while opening into a broader sonic palette. Written and recorded across years of travel throughout the United States, the album carries a strong sense of place, shaped by time spent in shifting landscapes and lived experience. Musically, it balances traditional songwriting with experimental production, featuring layered instrumentation, analog synthesizers, and interdependent vocal harmonies that function as dual melodic voices. The result is a deeply atmospheric work that explores memory, transformation, and the persistence of inner experience.
At its core, The Soft Hills is less a fixed style than an evolving landscape—one shaped by experimentation, atmosphere, and a search for moments of emotional and perceptual clarity.
Contact: [email protected]
Hobba approaches music as an exploratory process, allowing songs to evolve through experimentation and intuition. The result is a body of work that moves fluidly between intimate acoustic compositions and expansive, dreamlike arrangements. Instruments are often treated as sources of atmosphere as much as melody—reverbed guitars dissolve into ambient space, Mellotron and Moog tones are woven into slowly evolving layers of sound, while vocal lines are interwoven into blended harmonies that function as parallel melodic voices, often completing one another rather than supporting a single lead.
The origins of The Soft Hills are tied to a period of personal and creative transformation. After stepping away from music and traveling through Europe, Hobba underwent a series of experiences that led to a renewed sense of purpose and a return to songwriting with a deeper focus and openness. From that point forward, the project became a vehicle for exploring themes of perception, transformation, and inner experience.
Closely connected to Hobba’s visual and film work, The Soft Hills often extends beyond music into moving image. Recent projects include stop-motion animated films and music videos featuring handmade puppets, antique dolls, and constructed environments, creating a unified artistic world where sound and image intersect.
Mysterium, the forthcoming eighth full-length album from The Soft Hills, continues this trajectory while expanding Hobba’s sound into more cinematic and exploratory territory. Mixed and mastered in London by Guy Massey, the record remains rooted in songcraft while opening into a broader sonic palette. Written and recorded across years of travel throughout the United States, the album carries a strong sense of place, shaped by time spent in shifting landscapes and lived experience. Musically, it balances traditional songwriting with experimental production, featuring layered instrumentation, analog synthesizers, and interdependent vocal harmonies that function as dual melodic voices. The result is a deeply atmospheric work that explores memory, transformation, and the persistence of inner experience.
At its core, The Soft Hills is less a fixed style than an evolving landscape—one shaped by experimentation, atmosphere, and a search for moments of emotional and perceptual clarity.
Contact: [email protected]
