Ariel Kenig interviews the Hollydays
AK
first names?
H
Sébastien, Elise, Adrien.
AK
how did you meet?
H
lycée George Sand, in Domont . Sébastien was a senior, Adrien was two years younger. Sébastien and Adrien were part of a band couple years later, where Elise used to do some vocal back up or some opening acts as well. She had been training as a singer since she was a kid.
AK
Your first collaboration?
H
It happened organically. Sebastien asked Elise to be part of a demo and the idea of a band came rather quickly. Elise is doing vocals, Sebastien plays the guitar and Adrien plays the bass .
We started with songs that Sebastien already had written previously. we began with a sort of minimalist pop that we pumped up gradually. We want to stretch the limitation of a 3 persons band, we are looking for new sounds together. Adrien works on the arrangements, Elise on vocals. team work.
AK
Why Hollydays?
H
We wanted to play with the idea of breaking free, temporary escape… with cool beats, similar to Radiohead. We live in Paris and we don’ t have that much money, we don’ t travel far away… Music is something that we can play from anywhere, that’s where the title Going North comes from.
AK
Your references?
H
Couple years ago we used to love metal, Elise used to wear a Metallica sweatshirt! Today we have more of an eclectic taste … from Metal to Disney soundtracks. Also Massive Attack, Bonobo, Amon Tobin, Aphex Twin..
We work with accents, each song refers to a pop, rock, trip hop or indie format. We are making music we love but it’ s still very approachable. You can’t only make music for yourself , the basis of what we do is fairly clean cut, you need to take your time to spice things up and get dirty.
AK
Your beat?
H
In order to make it work, it needs to be very slow or very fast. Hollydays goes fast ! With digital engineering you get what you want rather quickly. Our first concert was on december 12th 2012. the EP came out on january first. we are wrapping up the album, it ‘s self produced. We managed to get some visibility thanks to Youtube, sound clouds and iTunes…. We are young, the time is now.
AK
Your visual identity?
H
We like basics, black and white ( with flower print leggings). it needs to be pretty and clean cut, serious somehow. We want people to pay attention to the music, the colors are in the titles like Navy Blue.
AK
French or English ?
H
Fauve’s text are magnificent ! But it ‘s hard to write in french, english comes naturally , only our covers are in French : L’Amour a la plage de Niagara, Françoise Hardy, MC Solaar…
AK
random names?
H
Django Django, The XX, La Femme, The Shoes, Château Marmont, Marie Madeleine…Can we say Britney Spears? She has been around all our lives.
AK
world view?
H
It’s crazy to see reality going toward fiction. We are trapped between Philip K. Dick, Minority Report and Gattacca.
Hollydays is trip beyond all that.
