Post-punk act the Soft Moon was every bit as dangerous, aggressive, and hardcore as its name suggested it was not, and it was the brainchild of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Luis Vasquez, its only constant member and sole creative force. Vasquez had made no secret of the fact that his childhood, spent primarily in East Los Angeles and a village in the Mojave desert, was a rough one; in an interview with Metal magazine, he said, “We were poor and my family was pretty violent. I grew up in bad neighborhoods, so I was exposed to a lot of dark realities … that’s why my music sounds the way it does.” Indeed, Vasquez’ hard-edged tracks, while at times oddly beautiful, could be the stuff nightmares are made of — which is why they have often shown up in violent or disturbing scenes in TV series such as “Mr. Robot,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” and “American Horror Story.”
Vasquez spent time living and recording in Venice, Berlin, and Joshua Tree, California, before returning to LA in 2023, and it was there that he met his untimely end. On January 21, it was reported by the Los Angeles Times that the previous week, Vasquez had been found dead of an apparent fentanyl overdose along with DJ and producer John “Silent Servant” Mendez and his partner, visual artist Simone Ling; he was only 44 years old.
