[3] After graduating from Hesperia High School, he moved to Oakland, California[2] where he briefly played in San Francisco-based psychedelic band Lumerians as a percussionist.

[4] As Luis Vasquez, he created the Soft Moon project in 2009, and shortly after, Brooklyn-based label Captured Tracks approached him with a record deal.

[7][8] In 2012, Vasquez was robbed at gunpoint while walking in his Oakland neighborhood, and his backpack with a laptop containing a finished album and two years' worth of demos were stolen.

[12] While writing the album, The Soft Moon opened for Depeche Mode on a European leg of their Delta Machine Tour in 2014.

[15] The Soft Moon's fourth album, Criminal, was released in 2018 and was recorded in a basement studio in Vasquez's new home city of Berlin.