Soft Healer began in 2008 in an attempt by Marie Butcher and Will Slack to cover Suicide songs on pedal steel and clarinet. The duo swiftly failed at this and decided instead to play music with a more forgiving set-up. Marie graduated Cum Laude from Bootsy Collins' Funk University and Will bought a 12 neck guitar. They got a drum machine and quickly found that all attempts to reconcile the stark, percussive landscape of Colossal Youth with a Staple Singers group hug yielded something that was distinctly neither, but went with it anyway. After their first show, Soft Healer became a trio with Sara Berger joining on sax and organ. A few shows later they were an even four with Nick DeCarmine playing drums. At this point the band collectively owned all of the first nine Funkadelic albums.