It's Record Time
It's Record Time
EP 10 - Holly Hole (Goat Girl)
This episode I was joined by Goat Girl bassist, Holly Hole to talk about first purchases, recent recommendations and their favourite albums ever.
You can find Goat Girl on Instagram @goatgirlofficial and on Facebook by searching Goat Girl. You can also buy merch and tickets for their upcoming shows (remember them?) by visiting www.goatgirl.co.uk
We talked about:
- First Purchase: Nirvana – Bleach
- Most recent: A Tribe Called Quest – We got it from Here… Thank you 4 Your Service
- Recently Recommended: Good Sad Happy Bad – Shades
- Back Story: Nick Cave – Skeleton Tree
- Favourite Album: Blond Redhead – Barragán
We also mentioned Live at The Windmill. Raising money for a brilliant venue, available on Bandcamp here.
We also talked about The Most Radicalist, a great music site to get new recommendations from.
And as I mentioned towards the start of the conversation, you can find out more about what is going on in the UK by visiting https://www.sistersuncut.org/ as well as this article in the NY Times.
You can find me on Instagram @Vinyl__Tap, on Twitter @ItsRecordTime and on Facebook by searching "It's Record Time Podcast". Or drop me a message at ItsRecordTimePodcast@gmail.com
If you liked the episode, I would love it if you would subscribe, share, and rate us!
Photo credit for the thumbnail to Holly Whittaker.
Alex 0:06
Hello, and welcome to record time podcast. I'm your host Alex and this is the show where each week I'm joined by different guests to talk about their favorite albums biggest influences and the bands that they love. This week, I was joined by Holly hole basis for English and post punk band goat girl. Back in January 2021, gogo released their second album on all fours, and I'm very confident already that it's going to be in my albums of the year list come December, Holly was absolutely great to talk to. We talked about some brilliant albums, and I'm very grateful for coming on. All the albums we talked about are in the show notes as well. So you can find them all there, along with links to go girl socialism. Minor, probably down there as well. I do want to give a quick content warning at the start of the episode as we do touch on some quite difficult topics early on in our chat, including murder and abuse. So please bear that in mind. I'm going to be back at the end for a bit more chat. But until then, Enjoy. Thank you, Holly, thank you for coming on. How are you today? How how's your day been?
Holly Hole 1:12
Yeah, yeah, I'm alright. Not too bad. I don't know, the last week's been pretty mad, you know, politically and just feeling? Yeah, quite angry about a lot of things that are going on in that regard. Me and Rosie actually went on to protest yesterday. So that was quite full on. But today has bit karma planted some spring onions in the garden. So
Alex 1:43
is that the protester Scotland?
Holly Hole 1:45
Yeah.
Alex 1:46
Do you want to give a bit of context that because obviously, we have people that listen to the show in countries all over the world? And some of the details might be a little bit lost?
Holly Hole 1:53
Yeah, of course. So basically, yeah, it's been a bit of a mad week for for people that don't identify as male, I guess we had is Women's History Month for the moment. And then we had International Women's Day, last week, as well. And then, shortly after that, we had the confirmation that Sarah Variety's, a woman that lived in London, basically got abducted and murdered on her way home by a member of the Metropolitan Police. So it's awful. Someone I know, actually knew her quite well. And it's just been horrible seeing that whole thing unfold from someone going missing. People trying to find her to find out what's happened. And I think it's just ignited like, it's just ignite, it is just enough to enough really, and a lot of people, you know, women are constantly feeling unsafe on the streets, just walking around them going home. And I think it's all just sort of boiled over this week, and people are really fed up with the kind of violence constant violence against women and trans people and non binary people. Yeah, and it's just, yeah, it's not talked about enough. It's not dealt with enough. It's always sort of framed in a in a way of like, victim blaming or blaming those people rather than dealing with the people who are actually acting out violence against them. So yeah, obviously on. There was a vigil that was meant to go ahead. And it is tricky because of COVID, and things like that. But it is a human rights to be able to protest. And it wasn't a protest. Anyway, it was a vigil, which was meant to take place on Saturday. And then that was sort of met with more violence by the police. So yeah, and then there was another protest yesterday in Scotland Yard, that me and Rosie went to attend because we felt like it was important to be there.
Alex 3:48
It's it's an unbelievably tragic story. And the actions of the police over the last few days have, they've just escalated what should have been a moment of reflection and a moment to remember Sarah to
Holly Hole 4:02
Yeah, for sure.
Alex 4:03
Yeah, it is. It is. It's incredibly horrible. And it's truly shocking.
Holly Hole 4:10
Yeah, yeah. I mean, isn't it? I mean, isn't it isn't that for this to happen, and happen at the hands of the police officer is quite shocking. And it is quite rare. But at the same time, the kind of brutality that the excessive force that is used by the police isn't a surprise, unfortunately. And it's kind of to see the treatment of the women that were trying to attend a vigil peacefully the other night versus the treatment that's been seen with crowds of male football fans. It's, it's astonishing, really. Anyway, maybe we should discuss. Yep.
Alex 4:57
Hi, everyone, Alex here, just wanted to jump in at this point in Say I know that this probably isn't how you expect a podcast about music recommendations to start. But I was very keen to keep the conversation you just heard in as it's a really important message. And I think that Holly speaks about it very well. I've added in some links in the show notes to a couple of organizations that have more information and ways to help and to organize as well. The episode from here is much more like our regular episodes. But like I said, this was something that I really felt needed to be included. And I want to thank Kali for talking about it as well. We, as we're talking, then it's sort of it's middle of March time. So we're about five or six weeks out from the release of the second gogo album, how's the response to the record been over that time, obviously, COVID. And everything else in mind, it's been a slightly odd time to release a record.
Holly Hole 5:50
Yeah, it has the response that we've seen online, and just feedback from, from people through social media, like fans and, and press and, and all of that kind of stuff has been really amazing, really humbling, and very, like quite overwhelming, really, like it's just been so well received. And I think, I don't know, like, obviously, we believed in it. And we thought it was good. But it's really nice to know that other people have resonated with it. There's a lot of people saying that they've related to like the content of some of the tracks, which has been really nice to hear, especially when people have been sort of going through a tricky time like lockdown. So that's a really amazing thing to hear. Yeah, it was kind of a weird time, but it kind of was the soonest we could physically do it really with them. We recorded it quite a while ago anyway, finished in 2019. But we'd had sort of various personal things going on. Ellie was poorly and things like that. So we basically, it got put on hold for quite a long time. And then obviously, the pandemic happened, but we, we didn't really want to wait much longer. And we had lots of time to put into, you know, making videos and thinking about depress shots and creating like this whole kind of world around it, which I think was was worthwhile. And that's been really nice, rewarding thing to do and keep us busy as well. And yeah, it's kind of weird not to have played it. Like we haven't played the songs live really with that we played a couple of them like before they were finished. But it's kind of weird not to have that physical reaction. Because normally when you maybe when you write a new song, and you play it for the first time at a show or something, you can kind of gauge how it goes down. So we haven't really had the full kind of experience of, and I'm looking forward to that. And hopefully maybe by the time we can play, people might know the tracks a bit better, they might be a bit more familiar with them. And we can all have a good time together.
Alex 7:55
So you've got tour dates in for the UK for September, and I think European tours for February next year.
Holly Hole 8:02
Yeah, at the moment. That's the plan. We're hoping, hoping that so good.
Alex 8:08
So obviously it's Gokhale second album, but it's your first one with the band. So you join the band in 2018?
Holly Hole 8:15
Yes.
Alex 8:18
How did you how did you become a member? Basically? How did you end up joining?
Holly Hole 8:21
Um, yeah, so basically, Nyima, left in the sort of summer of 2018, I guess. And the timing just worked out. Really, weirdly, well, for me, I don't know sometimes I feel like things are just just fall into place. Yeah, it's sort of doing various full time jobs and stuff. And then I went somewhere else, part time to try and have a bit more time to do creative things and music thing. So I was feeling a bit frustrated. Even though I liked where I worked and stuff, I was frustrated that I wasn't doing the thing that I wanted to be doing. And it was kind of at the time, when I'd sort of walked out of this part time job that turned out to be a pain. It was a nightmare. I had to sort of stop out and never go back. And it was at that moment I kind of essentially became unemployed, which is pretty out of character. For me. I'm normally quite organized, and it was just yeah, that exact moment I found out that I was leaving the band. So I literally had no other no other future plans. So yeah, I thought why not? Why not try out? I'd seen goats play a bunch of times before and I liked their music. We had some sort of mutual sort of like we were maybe even acquaintances at that point. Like I'd met Rosie and Louie on various nights out. chatted drunk and labor. We weren't like proper mates but you know, not too far away. Yeah, I got in touch with them. Try it out. I think they tried a few people out but you know, they picked me and then yeah it was really nice they made me feel really comfortable and welcomed straightaway and we had a few shows like tours to finish from the first record when i joined and then after that it was kind of straight into writing album too so it was pretty good timing in terms of being like included in all of that and going forward as a group so it was quite nice
Alex 10:23
so you mentioned that you were acquaintances with the with the others in the band is that from the windmill in brixton
Holly Hole 10:31
yes how did you guess yeah yeah for sure used to hang out there quite a lot so well it's still weird if we weren't in a lockdown
Alex 10:42
so during the pandemic there was a fundraiser album for the windmill as well and you guys had a record or had a track on that i believe
Holly Hole 10:50
yeah i think that was my thing it was put together by tim he does the bookings there but all this who is one of the engineers at the wemo and quite a lot of the internet's that will do it sometimes they do ask sometimes they take like a feed directly from the desk and yeah it was just happened to be a live recording that order said done of that and i think all the other ones were just ones from the desk as well so it was pretty handy to put that out
Alex 11:20
i think that's still up on bandcamp isn't it i think if people want to hear that
Holly Hole 11:24
yeah i think it is and obviously still still trying to support these venues and raise money for them to keep them open for when we can go back hopefully
Alex 11:33
yeah definitely there's been so much i'm i'm quite torn a lot of this there's been so much incredible stuff that's been done to support venues by people doing live streams putting albums out and you know wearing a t shirt from a band to we're doing who gave the proceeds from this to a venue and stuff which is brilliant but at the same time it feels like such a tragedy that it had to come down to the bands and to support these venues
Holly Hole 11:57
yeah i totally agree with that sentiment i mean it shouldn't be our job you know these things should be protected and funded and i've talked about this before and like louise and stuff were talking about how there should be some sort of like almost like you know when old buildings are listed or something some sort of protection where that venues can't be can't be closed down for sort of cultural purposes they should be protected in that regard but yeah unfortunately they're not and it's become quite clear i think a lot of things become quite clear in this pandemic of like i don't know the people the people who care about these places are the ones that ultimately kind of have to do something about even though that's wrong but no one else is going to do it unfortunately
Alex 12:46
there seems to have shown up a bit of a divide really between what culture is what culture in the uk is more valued which is more supported you know and i think there's been so many great venues like the windmill and you know like the lexington in london and the fighting cox and kingston and places like that who have had to go about figuring out how they're going to survive on their own west other you know cultural spots have been supported in a way that these venues will never be
Holly Hole 13:13
yeah completely and this one's even you know beyond that like some good friends of ours run run like a record shop which had a venue in the basement called system at night and they've just been sort of priced out really because they're not they're not gonna be able to keep that premises hopefully they will be able to find somewhere else and start up a new venue but a lot of places won't survive it and it's really sad because venues were sort of on their knees before this happened and it's just made it 10 times worse so it's a shame
Alex 13:42
is i'm going to move on to talking about saying happier we're going to go on again several times we can say it over the course of the next sort of half an hour so we're gonna talk about some of people's music so i sent you over a whole list of categories of different albums potential talk about thank you so much for sending those back so i'm going to crack on with those and the first one i'm going to go for because i always think it's very nice place to start is the first album you have purchased can you tell us what it was
Holly Hole 14:10
yeah so that one i believe like this the first one i remember like consciously wanting and it was it was bleached by nirvana and it's a bit of a funny story because i just bought it from like the weirdest place i just got it from alster cuz i think i was on the feed shop with my mom and i was i saw it i really wanted it i begged her to buy it for me i think it was like three pounds maybe at the time and yeah i mean she didn't know what it was and it was only three credits so she got it for me and then i just remember like last night in my room for so long and her just being like really concerned because i think that was just like the start of my rebellious teenage Phase I think I must have been about 11 or 12 or something when I got that. And it's pretty heavy at points, isn't it? So?
Alex 15:09
Oh, it's it's so heavy in points. Like even the way that album starts with just that sort of rumble heading into the first track is just absolutely incredible. I was very glad when you set this out, because he gave me an excuse to play it sort of three or four times over the last couple of days. I'm always amazed when people tell me what their first album is. And when it's something good. I'm amazed. So, you know, when I think about the stuff that I was buying early on, especially or sort of my friends and my family and stuff like that, it's normally terrible. And then people come along and be like, Oh, yes, you know, bleach by Nirvana. No, not even one of the not if not, nevermind, or Nitro it's bleach like yeah,
Holly Hole 15:47
I think I didn't know what it was. I think I just like knew, I think I just knew that Nirvana was like a like a cool thing to like, and I don't think I'd actually heard any of their music before. And I think I just saw the cover and I was just like yeah, that that's that's what I want to
Alex 16:06
see said this is the stuff so your teenage rebellion phase then? Why not? Well, what other stuff did you start listening to around this time?
Holly Hole 16:16
So Good point. That's an episode that I was cool to discuss or not. I don't know. I guess I went through quite an emo phase actually, like I started listening to lots of I can't even remember really, like I definitely my dad was quite into Green Day. So he took me to see them. But no, lots of Nirvana and then I guess it wasn't too long after that, that I kind of got more into like Joy Division and bands like that. Maybe when I was a little bit older, more out of the like, I didn't I guess I went through like a sort of emo a punky phase and then more into like a post funky phase.
Yeah,
Alex 16:59
I'm assuming then that your dad was had influenced then on the music he mentioned that he was integrating daily took it took you just aim and stuff. Presumably This was around American Idiot sort of time.
Holly Hole 17:10
Yeah, it was American Idiot. Yeah, I think maybe that did have an influence. Because my dad is just really into punk. Like, sort of. I grew up listening in the car to like Billy Idol. And, and also like a lot of ska music as well. And my parents are both really into ska music. I was actually always actually nearly born scar gig because my mom when she was two weeks, like overdue, or whatever, and she started skanking. And then she went into labor. So I was actually born as the result of a scar gig that my parents went to. And weirdly, like the lead singer from the band. It was a band called bad manners.
Alex 17:54
I know bad manners. Yeah.
Holly Hole 17:55
Yeah. So also like, after that, I think they told me that the lead singer Batman is thing a blast Buster blood vessel. Yeah, he found out that I'd been like sort of born after his gig. So he came to see me in the hospital the next day when I was born. So that's a pretty good story. I guess.
Alex 18:16
That's a really strong story. I enjoy that a lot. So presumably, you started playing, playing instruments around this time as well? Where did that come?
Holly Hole 18:23
Yeah,
yeah. That was around that kind of time. Yeah, I think I started playing, wanting to play guitar when I was about 12.
Yeah, and I think I'm trying to remember what some of the first songs I learned probably, you know, like guitar, Nirvana riffs and stuff. And then it kind of swiftly when it more into the indie phase, I guess, as well, because like, I'm like, I'm like 27. Now. So I guess around that time, I was kind of the height of like, indie stuff. I remember listening to like, all the early Kings of Leon stuff and like really loving that at the time and all of that kind of stuff. And then I remember like hating them with a passion when sex on fire came out and being like, are, they're so not cool anymore.
Alex 19:11
I think I'm, I'm slightly older than 31. So I had a very similar experience with kings and Leon. Yeah. Like that first album coming out and be like, Yes. Is this band that people don't know? And then suddenly, it's your mom's favorite song is like, cool. I'm going to go for the opposite end for the next category. Then, the most recent purchase. Can you tell us what it was?
Holly Hole 19:36
Oh, yeah. There's actually another good story behind this. It was actually Tribe Called Quest is the 2016 album which is called we got it from here. Thank you for your service. And I loved it when it came out at the time, and I don't know I guess with records these days. We haven't had haven't had any gigs i haven't had loads of money lately so i kind of with the records i've had to be quite selective about things that i feel like i really love and might need to own and this record i just loved it so much when it came out and i kind of realized quite recently that i didn't have it and how the next time i ever do a dj set i really want to have it because i really want to play it but it kind of came about because of another weird story with my family which is basically it was just basically the when we release the new records which was in the end of january i actually had a cousin that came out of the woodwork that i'd never met before he'd seen my auntie like post about our record on facebook and she just reached out to me and was like oh yeah i work with q tip and i love your i love your music so much and i'm gonna play it to him and we're like well so yeah she's been playing key tip go go and he said he thinks were amazing and now we might be maybe gonna do a collaboration with wow and then i was kind of like looking into that whole rabbit hole of the keto world i was like i don't even own this record i need to buy it so that's what happened
Alex 21:21
i mean that's an amazing story and i really want that to happen because that sounds like that'll be incredible as well so i'm gonna assume then that you listen to tribes old albums because this is their first album like 18 years i think it was 2016 came out do you own any of the the old records are you fan of the old records as well
Holly Hole 21:41
i don't own them but yeah obviously they're they're very very sick so it's just good stuff to have i think ellie probably has a couple of their records she's quite into like that kind of music as well so
Alex 21:54
yeah so this is a physical copy of it that you that you got vital presumably
Holly Hole 22:01
yeah i actually just assumed when i read that question like default was just i didn't even consider the fact that i might have like bought music online i mean i have i have bought some stuff recently because we put together like a mix for soho radio and i didn't even think about i didn't even think about that i just assumed you meant like vinyl album so yeah this the last like yeah physical record i bought
Alex 22:25
so obviously this tribe album it's it's like all that stuff it's it's got strong political things going for it as well and this is obviously saying that go girl focused on various different song points as well how do you react to being labeled a political band do you see that as a legitimate label do you see that as a good thing or a bad thing do you think that it could potentially take away from some of the other things that you're talking about
Holly Hole 22:49
um i think
Alex 22:53
it's would you label yourself would you guys label yourself a political
Holly Hole 23:00
sort of i think because what's political but like there is an element of social commentary which i think is quite characteristic of the band and the band style but i don't think it's exclusively that i think we also kind of believe that making music should be authentic and genuine and honest and it doesn't have to express a political message of that isn't what is genuinely being sort of fell or you know you can make music just for the pure expression of making music and it can be about anything and nothing so i think there's that i think it's just sort of like kind of inherent in the way that we think or who we are as people and the things that are on our mind and the things that concern us and that will kind of come across so i think does that kind of answer the question like i guess like yeah not to not to a point where it would be forced i guess
Alex 24:14
i think it's really interesting so i've asked a few different musicians this this question or questions along this line and i've had very mixed reactions from a lot of people some some people saying that yes their music is political because they have a platform they feel that they should be using that platform to speak and some people saying it is political but it doesn't have to be and not expecting people to speak about politics because they have a platform and i think it's a really interesting distinction that some people make
Holly Hole 24:42
yeah i think so as well i think with that i don't know i think it should always come down to genuine authenticity though and like having that platform yeah of course if you have the Do you need to sort of spread messages? And you feel that that's important to do that, then you you should do that. And this is the same time. It's just like he's right or wrong about anything? I think it is. Yeah, I don't know. It's important to do that. What we feel it's important to do that. But if someone else didn't do that, I wouldn't. I wouldn't judge them for not doing that.
Alex 25:25
So the next time we're gonna go for is the album that you most recently recommended. Can you tell us what it is?
Holly Hole 25:31
It's an album called shades by good, sad, happy, bad, which is, they used to be called, while it used to be MC two in the shapes Who? Yeah, they're a group of musicians and friends, based in London, consisting of Mika Levy, but also mark Powell, who plays a segment jungle who's a friend of ours. He's really great. ricer con, and there's someone else in the band. I think they're a new member. He plays saxophone, and I think they've got a solo project called lol. Okay. So yeah, I know that they're really cool. I love their music. I've seen them play, or the other. The saxophonist is called CJ Calderwood. And, yeah, I've seen them play at the windmill a few times. And it's, uh, I love watching them their music. So it's so fun. It's really like, quite simple. And very, like genuine and not over thought, or over cooked. And for me, it's just, it's a celebration of friends making music together and just enjoying it for what it is. And it's it's really unpretentious. And yeah, I think it's, it's really, really great. I only came out at the end of last year. So it was a close contender for the last record that I purchased. But ya know, it's really amazing.
Alex 27:02
I hadn't heard this album. And so I was sitting on my sofa yesterday listening to things you sent over. And I absolutely love this record. So good. Like there's so many interesting things about it. It's quite eccentric, in places really, like I love the just random bits of saxophone that are thrown in. And like, there's some really cool shoegaze elements and stuff to it. It's a really cool album
Holly Hole 27:25
is so good. And like the guitar makers playing. It's like pretty grungy on it and at points, it gets quite heavy. But then it's also got this really like, nursery rhyme childlike kind of quality to it. And the first track when it's just so weird, I think it's just an instrument or when you're like, what is going on. It's just, it's just amazing. And I was actually thinking like, listening to it. If I could do anything if lockdown ended tomorrow, and I could do whatever I wanted. I think I'd love to just to just go to the window and listen to them play this and like just jump around, and it would be just so fun.
Alex 28:01
I I've only listened to this album. They're like you said they were formerly Mickey Chu in this three albums previously. Yeah. I haven't done any of them that but they're going to be what I'm doing this week, I think is getting more into those because yeah, there's so so much fun listening to this.
Holly Hole 28:17
Yeah. And they've all got like various solo projects and make has put out like two records. I swear, like in the space of the last couple of months. They feel more like kind of sketches of ideas. Again, just really unpretentious and genuine and yeah, no, they're all really great.
Alex 28:36
So you mentioned a moment ago that you're also an editor of a music blog. So you cover new music, and it's it's music that's like three days old or less, isn't it?
Holly Hole 28:46
Yeah. So, so fresh. Yeah. I mean, it's not. It's not like my personal blog. I did, like I, you know, paid to do it for the people that created it. It's called the most radical list. And so yeah, I write a couple of pieces a day. And then there's, there's three other writers. But yeah, I'm just in charge of sort of posting them and stuff. But um, yeah, when I first started doing it, which is quite a long time ago, now maybe like four maybe, maybe more years ago. And I was like, oh, how am I gonna? How am I going to do this? Like, how am I going to find two new tracks to write about Monday to Friday, and it's actually surprising. It's quite amazing. When you start looking down that rabbit hole there's actually so much amazing new music all the time. And it's, it's nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be. It's actually been really like an amazing journey. It's actually quite inspiring makes me feel quite good to know. But there's so much good music out there. still happening today.
Alex 29:54
It's a lot of that than just sort of trawling, Bandcamp and Spotify and you know, Instagram or wherever else.
Holly Hole 30:00
Yeah, a lot of it because obviously, just being in that kind of music worlds like a lot of it, I see stuff just through my, like social media as well, like friends or friends of friends, people sharing stuff. And yeah, you see stuff on like other blogs or you might like follow people on on, you know, various things like, yeah, like you said, like Spotify or, or whatever he can see new releases of bands that you're into and that kind of thing. So it's actually surprisingly easy.
Alex 30:30
That I think spring to mind of anything that you've reviewed recently that you definitely think people should go and check out.
Holly Hole 30:37
Yeah, my two favorite new things, new ish things is lava la rue put out an EP pretty recently. And it's really, really, really good. It's amazing. And there's another artist who I really rate at the moment called haitch burner. He's sort of like an avant garde electronic he sort of producer. And he also put out an EP recently, so neither of them have got albums out, I don't think Yeah, but that when they do, I'm sure there'll be amazing.
Alex 31:10
Very cool, I will make sure I check them out. And I'll check out the blog in general as well. It sounds like for anyone looking for new music sounds like a great resource. Presumably, you can just jump in quite quickly find things interesting. Find something good for saying bad weather? All the rest of it. Yeah, that sounds. Yeah, I
Holly Hole 31:26
think that's the point. Yeah, I think that's the point of it is just like everything is so new. So it's sort of like, and we've got quite, you know, writers, we've all got quite different tastes. It's quite diverse, genre wise, and stuff. So I think it's quite, there should be something for everyone.
Alex 31:44
Very cool. I will make sure there is a link to it in the show notes as well, so that people can quickly as well when they're listening. So the next category is going to be album with the most interesting backstory was the album and what's the story?
Holly Hole 31:59
Well, this is I don't know if I wasn't sure if this was completely appropriate in terms of interesting backstory, but definitely got a very, very sad, upsetting backstory. And I don't know why. But Nick caves skeleton tree sprang to mind for me, because I just this album is just so beautiful and heartbreaking and and the context of it as well just I don't know, it kind of sets it out in this other space. Yeah, I guess it's not. It's quite a morbid thing to discuss. But this record just had such a massive impact on me, like, just makes me I don't know, I don't think I've ever heard anything so beautiful. And so affecting. And it just never ever gets old. There's a song on this album, I find out what is cool with this opera singer, I think. And it's just the purest vocal hc I've ever heard. It's just so yeah, it really is stunning.
Alex 33:07
So this album, a lot of the creation of this album, especially the second half of the creation was documented in the film one more time with feeling wasn't it?
Holly Hole 33:19
Yeah, I went to see that the cinema as well just cried the whole way through.
Alex 33:24
It's an incredibly, you know, again, we'll say the sentence we'll move on to saying happier in a minute. But it's it's an incredibly sad story that, you know, Nick caves writing this album and partway through the production of his son, his son dies, and he goes back and he rewrites part of rewrites lyrics to the songs as well and rewrites musically parts of it as well, I think as well. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's a slightly different Nick Cave album, I guess, in that it's a little bit more minimalist, it's certainly less polished than some of the stuff that he's done as well. But you're right. It's a It's a beautiful album, as soon as you put the context around it. It's is heartbreaking.
Holly Hole 34:06
Yeah. And I think I think what I find quite what I found and find quite interesting about is it's not, um, it's quite nuanced. And it kind of deals he talks about in the film as well about how it kind of deals with him, sort of like observing and processing, like how his wife is feeling and like gaining a new, new relationship with her and a new respect for her. And I feel like it kind of touches on that within the record. Yeah, and it's not it's not such an explicit retelling of the tragedy that happened, but more of the ambiguous feelings around that. And we don't know I just think it's really
hard. Incredible.
Alex 34:50
So I'm guessing you're Nick, a fan, then.
Holly Hole 34:54
Yeah, yeah. Say Say
Alex 34:57
for people who don't listen to Nick Cave. And abroad include myself in this I listen to bits of what he's done. I've listened to bits of Grindr man, I've listened to a few of his albums, but he's got such a dense back catalogue. Yeah, where would you sort of recommend people start with him? Because, you know, he's on just even as Nick Cave in the bad seeds, I think he's on like, 1819 albums or something at this point.
Holly Hole 35:20
It's true. I mean, if if I was gonna say, really, really, really start with him, then I'd say look up the birthday party. Because that was his band before the bad seeds. And they were pretty radical in their time. Roland Howard was incredible guitar player. And yeah, I'd say, look at some of their stuff. There's a record called junk yard, which is pretty blow your mind. But in terms of Nick Cave stuff, I'd say probably, probably from her to eternity, which came out in 1984 would be a good place to start. And then following that, there's a record that came out in 86 called your funeral my trial. And both of them have this really sort of, like, ominous atmosphere around them. I think they don't know if they're both recorded at the same place in Berlin. But they're both just so I don't know. I've got this sort of terrifying kind of energy around them that I don't know if I've really I've heard that on many other. I don't know, he just has this ability to evoke this really dark feeling within you. This has been coming out in like all of these.
Alex 36:44
I didn't want to mention it but
Holly Hole 36:47
yeah, in a darkness
Alex 36:49
will go on to your on to the final category that I think we're gonna hit look at the time. So fun category is going to be your favorite album.
Holly Hole 36:59
Oh, yeah. This is so hard. Yeah, I mean, I said, I chose this time to talk about blonde redhead bearer again. And it came out on my birthday. So maybe that maybe that's got something to do with it. But to be honest, if I had to, if someone had a gun to my head, I had to pick my favorite band, I'd probably say it was it was blonde redhead, so I had to pick something by them even though you know, this stuff's like an impossible question, really? To to answer. But yeah, I love them so much.
Alex 37:35
So people that don't know the band people that don't know the album, how would you describe them? Describe it sort of what sort of genre does it fit into?
Holly Hole 37:43
Well, we've been about for ages are kind of a cult band Really? formed in New York. So Cassie Makino is this singer from Japan. And the rest of the band is made up of two Italian brothers. And I think they formed Yeah, they formed in 1993, which was also the year I was born. So I don't know there's something something going on here. But um, they kind of make this really well, I think what I like about them is they they always evolve and change their sound. And in the beginning, they were quite, they're quite loud and quite experiment. So they also have this ability to write these incredible emotional songs. And, yeah, that they're not afraid to experiment, but they also have this kind of melodic sensibility that I just connect with so much. And Cassius vocals themselves are just amazing. And unlike anyone that I've ever heard, and yeah, this record, I don't know, I think it saw them delving into like, a more cynthy kind of world. It came out in 2014. And it just really encapsulates this whole sort of, it's, it's Poppy, and it's cynthy. But it's really sad as well, but it's, it's just really sort of beautiful juxtaposition between, between those things. And that's just something that I find myself gravitating towards, in my music tastes in general. Almost like sad pop music, I guess. Yeah.
Alex 39:25
Is this the sort of thing is so this um, like you said, it's, it's quite simply, it's quite, you know, it's a dream pop album, I guess. Yeah. Is this an album you can go to and listen to it any time any circumstance? Or is it?
Holly Hole 39:38
Definitely for me, I can listen to this anytime. And this sort of, I don't know. They're just so masterful at their craft. It's like there's some really gnarly guitar sounds going on, but then it's also so listenable. And I just, I just think it's really sort of bold and brave, but really sort of enjoyable to listen to and It's just really beautiful. And I really love it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai