Holy Holy
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Holy Holy

It seems that everything for Holy Holy has been a natural progression. First to Oscar Dawson and Timothy Carroll’s volunteer trip together, to forming the band – the two first worked together on Tim’s solo project – to now releasing their debut, When the Storms Would Come.
“For a long time the pieces were falling and you couldn’t really define where they were going to fall, but this is where they did fall,” Oscar says with a smile.
In the past Holy Holy’s music has been labelled as ‘broody’, and while this sound still lingers their debut has a noticeably more uplifting sound. As the band have said they wanted to take a step away from that sound they’ve been pigeon-holed into.
While Oscar acknowledges that a lot of Holy Holy has been easy decisions, it’s not how everything necessarily pans out.
“Obviously it’s not always going to be like that. Sometimes Tim will be pushing more for this or I’ll be pushing more for that, but we just let it breath and there’s a bit of give and take,” he says.
“Sometimes when I’m being a bit more egotistical I’ll say, ‘Oh I want it like this’, but if I take a step back I realise that if I always had my way we’d be making really weird music and it’d be all guitar solos which mightn’t be so good.
“But Tim encourages me to play guitar solos which is great. Because a lot of people don’t and they often say, ‘Man, can you please stop doing that!”
Adding to their sound is the decision to record on tape, something that these days serves as a bit of a novelty for some bands, but for Holy Holy was an important aspect of their sound.
“Some people use tape as a bit of an afterthought and just to get that ‘sound’, but literally with Matt [Redlich] everything he did went on to tape from the start of the album,” Oscar says.
“So I don’t think there was even a computer in the studio for a long time. You’d go into the studio and look for the computer because that’s what you’re used to, but that was a great way to record because it made us use our ears more instead of watching on the screen.”
Only weeks since landing home from a European tour, Oscar is excited to finally get the album out there, see what people think and take it around Australia on tour.
“It will be good to finally get this record out,” he says.
“It’s been a long time spent on making it and we’ve worked for a number of years and we’ve developed a lot over the years and I’m excited to get it out and see what happens.
“It’s always weird when you work on things for such a long time because you’re like, ‘Oh, we’ve actually got to release this’.”
Release: When the Storms Would Come is out at all good retailers now
When & Where: Workers Club, Geelong – September 3, Karova Lounge, Ballarat – September 4 & Howler, Melbourne – September 5
Written by Amanda Sherring