Formed by members of Hookworms, Yard Act, Cowtown, Virginia Wing, Drahla, and more, HOLODRUM shares their debut self-titled album. Created by an open, iterative process, it exudes free flowing energy and good vibes. The group, consisting of Emily Garner, Matthew Benn, Jonathan Nash, Jonathan Wilkinson, Sam Shjipstone, Christopher Duffin, and Steve Nuttall, churns out funky, psychedelic beats, making for great party tunes.
I think Holodrum is about the joy and complexity of living, and I just hope to god everyone gets to have a good time doing it.
-Sam Shjipstone
Learn more about how the album came together with a Q&A following a stream for single, “Free Advice.”
What was the moment when you all came together and decided to create HOLODRUM?
For four of us, we were at a loose end when our last band came to an abrupt end in about October 2018. We had a few months off to brush ourselves down and decided to get back on the saddle not long into the new year. Chris and Steve joined shortly after and then Em had jumped onboard by about summer 2019 and the Holodrum lineup was finalised.
How do you maintain the collaborative process, so everyone’s ideas are equally included?
We tend to record all or most of our practices and then refer back to those recordings months, or even years down the line. For this record there was quite a long period of these tunes floating around in a semi-finished, demo form. We just kept chipping away at them. Parts got rerecorded or rewritten until we were eventually all happy. It was just a very democratic, open discussion right up to the point that the songs got sent off to be mastered. It will definitely be a similar situation with whatever the next release is; we have about 20-30 demos and recordings knocking about from over the last 2 or 3 years, some of which are slowly but surely turning into songs.
Do you have any visual references you used when creating this EP?
I’m not the best person to ask about this, but it’s definitely worth me mentioning that we have some very talented visual artists within the band. Jonny designed the whole artwork and record sleeve, and does any posters we need. His day job is lecturing at an Art College so he knows his stuff. Em and Nash also created the beautiful video for ‘Free Advice’. I know they draw heavily from the world of pixel art and computer games past and present. They make videos for a tonne of other bands and musicians too, all great.
When will your concept of a full out party come to life?
As soon as the world allows.
What’s the future for HOLODRUM – any tours or collaborations planned?
We have some shows booked for September that we’re looking forward to greatly. Hopefully some sort of normality will have resumed by then. Between deadly global viruses and multiple babies arriving we haven’t been able to get together a great deal since we finished the record, so I think we’re mainly just excited to get back to regular hangouts.
