After having come across Holly Holden as Johnny Flynn’s support act back in 2017 as a folk-obsessed fresher, I have loved following her musical journey. Holden is a singer-songwriter and bassist from London with a passion for Latino rhythms and colourful lyrics. Effortlessly integrating both Spanish and English into a fluid unity makes Holden really unique and her band’s music utterly infectious. Her first single ‘Green Guava’ has recently been released as the first taste of what’s to come from her forthcoming album of the same name in July 2020.

Holly answered some questions I had concerning the problematic labelling of ‘world music’ bands and artists, her early influences, musical processes and what she has been working on for the last few years.

 

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First of all, I love your music and was lucky enough to see you two summers back at Shambala festival and three years ago supporting Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit! How have things been going since then?

Oh that was such a wonderful, sunny weekend, the last festival of that season. After that we really knuckled down and got busy with the recording of Green Guava. We’d already started the recording process by then but we did lots of re-recording and arranging between summer 2018 and summer 2019. It wasn’t mixed and mastered until November 2019, a very long process. 

In summer 2019 I had a great festival season, my band played Glastonbury for the first time and then I also got to play my favourite festival Boomtown with Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit and to sing at the last ever outlook festival with Mala and the Outlook orchestra. It was really incredible to perform with all of the projects that shaped my musical career before heading off for the next chapter in Mexico. 

What does the term ‘world music’ mean to you? I find it a strange term. Do you think you’d group yourself under that label?

I find the term ‘world music’ pretty problematic. In my opinion it’s a lazy and uninformed grouping together of lots of very geographically and musically diverse and unrelated cultural expressions. In a record store the ‘world music’ section is basically whatever is ‘exotic’, ‘other’ or ‘foreign’. 

My music is all about movement, stories and rhythms inspired by places I’ve been, people I’ve met

That said I undoubtedly get lots of inspiration from what would be classed by many as ‘world music’. Most of what I listen to is Latin American folkloric music – particularly from the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Colombia. I also enjoy playing with the idea of exoticism – in London I did get booked by Movimientos – the main Latin promoter in London, but I was too British to be a central part of the Latin scene. Travelling and music-making in Latin America I become a strange exotic fruit, from the legendary musical mecca of London but singing in Spanish. I fit better when I’m out in the world, and my music is all about movement, stories and rhythms inspired by places I’ve been, people I’ve met. Music is an international language, it’s a conversation – I don’t believe in putting things in boxes and limiting people to certain musical genres because of where they come from.

How and why did Spanish and Latin culture influence your music? Did your time at university influence you and your desire to make music?

My time at uni was really key in my connection with Latin American culture. I only started learning Spanish when I got to Bristol and did two years of intense language lessons at uni before spending  the six months of my third year in a city called Esmeraldas in coastal Ecuador. 

I’d already been writing and performing in bars around Bristol, but what the music I was making and listening to was really folky and acoustic. I distinctly remember arriving in Ecuador and my mind exploding when I went to a salsa bar in Quito. I hadn’t really been exposed to Latin music before then. The office I was working in in Esmeraldas was also right under the musical centre of the municipio where marimba bands rehearsed all day and I spent a lot of my time up there taking classes in the marimba and hanging out. I ended up recording some of my songs with the marimba band and I guess that was the start of my tropical soul sound. 

I distinctly remember arriving in Ecuador and my mind exploding when I went to a salsa bar in Quito

After a year living in Berlin post graduation I returned to London and did an MA in Caribbean and Latin American studies. In that year I really focused on ethnomusicology and wrote my dissertation about reggaeton in Cuba and Ecuador. That dissertation research trip was what took me to Cuba for the first time. I had never been in a place that was so musically inspiring and alive, but I also remember feeling incredibly frustrated at being there and being on the outside of the music scene. I didn’t want to be writing about the music other people were making, I wanted to make it myself. OS that year was really informative and valuable in my journey and musical formation but it also convinced me that academia wasn’t for me and that I wanted to sing. 

Who are your musical influences, past and present? 

I’d say my favourite songwriter of all time is Paul Simon, I love his voice too and his unassuming, cool vocal delivery. We supported him with Johnny Flynn two years ago and it was the best thing that ever happened to me! I’m also a big fan of Uruguayan songwriter Jorge Drexler, he has an incredible way with words. 

I love singers with real, raw, soulful voices, whose whole life and pain and passion you can hear in their phrasing – Concha Buika, Magin Diaz, Omara Portuondo. Amy Winehouse also definitely had a big influence on me when I started out. Her album ‘Frank’ and the directness of the songs, such literal accounts of love affairs, had a big effect on me. 

How do you go about writing music? I know that musicians have very different methods? Do the words or music come first or does it vary?

It does vary for me… for the songs on this new album I tended to be in an intense emotional state – longing for something or someone. Often a phrase or a simple idea comes to me and then I play it over and over in my head, whenever I’m walking anywhere, often in some kind of motion. Then I sit down with an instrument – either the bass, cuatro or an acoustic guitar – and work at developing the idea. It’s quite a long process for me. I’m not the kind of person that gets a flash of inspiration and writes a song in five minutes. 

With a few of the songs on the album Frank and Dave were quite actively involved in the arranging and development of songs. I’d come with a hook and some verses and we’d whittle away together to make a proper pop song. 

I’ve recently been experimenting with composing without an instrument – writing poetry essentially

I’ve recently been experimenting with composing without an instrument – writing poetry essentially – and then setting the words to music subsequently. It was a challenge at first, I was encouraged by my friend Johnny Flynn, and it frees me up in terms of not feeling at an inspirational loss when I am travelling without an instrument.

How did your band form? How did you come across guitarist Frank Clarke and drummer David Beauchamp?

My band had a few different members until I found ‘the ones’. I met David when I joined Johnny Flynn’s band The Sussex Wit, where Dave had been the drummer for a few years. Johnny asked me to open the first two gigs on that European tour in 2014. I couldn’t afford to fly out the drummer I had been working with so I asked to borrow Dave from Johnny for the support shows. We had a rehearsal in London with Dave before setting off on tour and I was so impressed by how well Dave had prepared and how enthusiastic he was I asked him to be a permanent member. 

I met Frank through a university friend who I asked to play bass in my Cuban collaborative project X Planet. He bought Frank along to the first rehearsal and he was just brilliant. When the guitarist I was working with on my solo project unexpectedly quit before a gig, Frank was the obvious person to call on, and after that first gig at the Notting Hill Arts Club we never looked back.

Could you tell us a bit about your recent project in South America? 

I was very lucky to meet so many incredible musicians in Mexico City. I was really bowled over by the scene there and how much of a comradery and community spirit there was amongst music-makers there. People really admire and support each other artistically and there is an awesome living room concert scene, hosted by singer-songwriters themselves, which is an incredible intimate platform for musicians to meet and share their work. 

I arrived in Mexico city looking for people to join my band and after a month or two, through friends, I connected with some wonderful people. For me it was as much about vibe as it was about virtuosity and these guys had big hearts. By the end of February, when we performed out first show, my Banda Mexicana had five members – me on bass and vocals, Lydia Samuels on BVs and percussion, a fellow Londoner and excellent musician living in Mexico City who I was introduced to by our mutual friend Cosmo Sheldrake, Vladimir on electric guitar, Santiago on Drums and Antoño on Tenor Sax and clarinet. Vladimir, Santi and Toño are all members of a really awesome afro-beat band called Punta Diamante. It was super fun having BVs and Brass for the first time in a live set and we were really rocking. It’s frustrating to have all of that on hold now, but I’m looking forward to jumping straight back into the Mexico City scene post corona – and hopefully will do a Mexican Tour in the autumn. 

It was super fun having BVs and Brass for the first time in a live set and we were really rocking

Another very exciting musical project I was part of in Mexico City is el Palomar – an all female, feminist choir which formed in January 2020 in response to a call out from Chilean superstar Mon Laferte to the female musicians of Mexico City – a group called Energia Nuclear – to accompany her onstage in the last show of her album tour. After forming spontaneously we began meeting regularly to sing and organising a repertoire. The power of a group of female voices is really incredible. And the impact of an all-female, outspokenly feminist musical group in the context of Mexico was immediate and extraordinary. After a mere month of forming we were back onstage with Mon in the Zocalo singing a song by norteña composer Vivir Quintana that denounced violence against women, with a sea of people singing with us. 

I can imagine you’ve played in some pretty gorgeous places, having spent so much time in South and Central America. Any that have been particularly special?

I have really fond memories of playing in the Casa del Teatro in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in 2012. It was my first international gig ever with my band and I couldn’t believe it was real. I remember at one point the audience clapping a phrase I sang and my heart exploding with joy. 

I played some really special gigs in Cuba too with my collaborative project X Planet. Our first gig in Santiago in the patio of the UNEAC was bursting at the seams and there was rum flowing and beautiful tropical flowers hanging from the ceiling. We also played in Havana in the Museo Bellas Artes for an event put on by the British Embassy that summer. It’s a very prestigious venue and it was a real privilege to be there. 

I think my favourite gig with Holly Holden y Su Banda was Greenmail 2018. Frank was in a car crash on his way down, Dave went to the rescue but I really didn’t think they were going to make it in time for our slot on the Chai Wallah stage. Five minutes after our set time started they screeched up to the side of the stage and we ran on without even checking the lines and all of us were euphoric. I think Frank especially was just glad to be alive! And there was an incredible little girl really going for it at the front throughout the whole set, I pulled her up on stage for the last song and she stole the show with her moves to Benji Muji Mau. 

Five minutes after our set time started they screeched up to the side of the stage and we ran on without even checking the lines and all of us were euphoric

I think the most beautiful venue I have ever performed in is the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Croatia singing with Mala at outlook festival. And singing in the Zocalo of Mexico City with Mon Laferte and El Palomar was very moving.

You’re also part of the Deep Throat Choir, really beautiful music too! how did you get involved in that and are you still involved?

Oh Deep Throat Choir is the best. Luisa the founder is an old school friend of mine, we’ve known each other since we were eleven, and so I’ve been a part since the start. Lu liked the idea of singing in a group and sent a message out to some friends. It was just a casual singing group to begin with but people really connected with it – just like what happened with el Palomar in Mexico. 

I’m definitely still involved. Those girls are my sisters and we’re in touch even though I’ve been far away. There’s a new album coming soon which we’ve been working on since last year. It includes a song I co-wrote with Lu and have a little solo on. It’s a contrast to Be OK, our debut album, expect bigger sounds and fuller arrangements. 

‘Green Guava’ is your first single from the new album, could you tell us a little about the song and its roots?

I wrote Green Guava shortly after I returned from my first trip to Colombia. It was the start of a long-term musical love affair with the country where I have returned many times. I arrived back in London after my trip feeling hugely inspired by all the musicians I had met on my travels and by the old cumbia and folkloric records I had found in the flea markets, and this song was the result. 

It was the start of a long-term musical love affair with the country where I have returned many times

Green Guava was composed on a cuatro – a four stringed instrument played in llanera music – which I had just bought in Bogotá and is based on joropo rhythm, which originated in the Andean regions of Venezuelan and Colombian and has African, Native South American, and European influences. 

I use the green guava in the title track to describe the taste of someone I desired and as a metaphor for the promise of what I perceived our passion could become if left to ripen.  It deals with my desire but also with the fear and confusion that I felt for feeling these feelings for a woman for the first time, and that being the reason for my losing her – “yo te pierdo que no entiendo como amarte” / “I lose you because I don’t understand how to love you”. 

It wasn’t until quite recently that I began to understand it as a metaphor for myself at the time I wrote it – unripe and unready, immature. In fact this metaphor is a thread that runs through the new album, although I only became aware of it subsequently.

It was recorded in London in Soup Studios which is in a boat on the river in London’s Docklands. We got a really lovely warm sound there. It’s a great place to make music, once you get used to the gentle rock. 

What can we expect from your upcoming album, is it similar to your 2017 EP Tropical Soul?

Green Guava is a twelve track ode to my twenties. It’s an album of love songs I wrote inspired by people and places I went searching for myself in. I spent a lot of the last decade trying desperately to feel big and brave and capable but always latching onto someone else, or to the idea of them, in attempting to do that, rather than trying to find that strength within me. It’s kind of the soundtrack to a real journey of self-discovery.

Some of the songs were written as long as ten years ago, when I was living in Berlin and had just started performing in bars in my neighbourhood. The recording and arranging process took place in studios and basements and bedrooms all over London over the course of about three years. 

It’s similar to Tropical Soul in that it’s got references to infectious Caribbean dance rhythms running through it, there’s a big nod to Colombia in title track ‘Green Guava’ and another cumbia track, there’s some reggae and bachata from the DR. But there’s more a variety of moods and colours on this album. I let myself get really soulful and jazzy in some places and there’s a bit of rock and roll and some pure pop hits too. 

I can’t wait for the world to hear it!

Green Guava is available now via Holly Holden y Su Banda
For merchandise and lots more visit: https://www.hollyholdenmusic.com

You also can follow Holly on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

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