Back from a tour of Europe, duo Holy Holy are soon to release their debut album, and are about to share it with Australia with a month-long tour.
It has been a long and serendipitous journey for Holy Holy’s first record, 'When The Storms Would Come'. After first meeting in south-east Asia while volunteering as English teachers, songwriters Tim Carroll and Oscar Dawson reconnected in Europe where they started recording demos.
That was back in 2011, and since then they have formed their project into a band by adding Ryan Strathie as drummer (Andy Bull, Hungry Kids Of Hungry) and bassist Graham Ritchie (Airling). “The sound did develop quite a lot over the years, in quite a natural way,” Dawson says of the band’s progress.
Matt Redlich has been another great asset to the band, having produced works by Emma Louise and Ball Park Music. Working closely with Holy Holy, Redlich has produced their album, as well as adding synth to their live shows.
With a recent European tour, where they played such festivals as Primavera, Holy Holy had a great time playing to new, receptive audiences. "You start a gig, and people are a bit unsure but by the end of the gig people seem to come 'round and be enjoying it.”
The new single, 'You Cannot Call For Love Like A Dog', is a darker sound for Holy Holy; with vocal harmonies and driving bass, the song ends with a two-minute guitar solo.
Worried he was alone in his love of long solos, Dawson explains he had thought “surely we can't do this, [but] the guys were encouraging, and openminded about it and I am glad we did because it is so much fun and is exactly how I want to play, and it is only my fear of how it is perceived that is going to stop me.
“The crux of it is that you shouldn't think about being cool. Thinking about coolness is the worse way to approach music... [the] antithesis of – well music is an emotional art form, as I guess all art forms really are.
"But it is a very innate, emotional activity and coolness is like in a sense, if you think about it, it is the opposite of being cool and not being vulnerable and opening yourself up. And so I guess, I feel that we should actually put all that feeling into it."
'When The Storms Would Come' was recorded, in part, on tape. “It definitely adds a sound or a tone, but it also adds – to what is more important to my perspective, as a player on the record, it makes you work a bit differently, you approach the recording a little bit differently.
"You can’t be as finicky. You have to be a bit more decisive. You can’t punch in wherever you want and shift things away, and do so many editing manoeuvres, so as a result it puts you in quite a different headspace when you are recording.”
'When The Storms Would Come' is released 24 July. Holy Holy play Splendour In The Grass 24-26 July.
