Ep 227 Hollyy

Making new music during the pandemic was never difficult for the Chicago retro rock and soul band Hollyy. Unlike other artists who took long breaks or lost their creative strides, the members of Hollyy said little changed for the five-piece band, at least in terms of their desire to create. In fact, things might have gotten a little bit better. The results of this can be heard on their EP, “If You’re Ever Lost,” released in 2022. The guys stopped by the studio to fill us in and what's ahead for the band.

Transcript

Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock'n'roll Museum on. 66. The Rock'n'roll Chicago podcast.

Hey, everybody, it's Ray, the roadie.

And Hollywood. You know I don't. Know why when you just said your? I was like, wait, who?

You forgot me already.

Yeah, maybe I did.

I'm I'm not sure. New hairstyle.

No, no, I don't know what it is, but it's like, oh, my God, dad, that is Ray sitting next to me there. Yeah, it's me.

I don't know shadow.

I just.

I just had a brain fog for some reason.

Well, yeah. Maybe it happens at that age.

Yeah, it could be, yeah. You know for. You know, maybe you should spell your name differently or something like that and an extra Y on the end of it.

Wrong.

It's different.

Yeah. Yeah, but.

Everything else.

You know I know it's almost three months. After Christmas? Yeah, but tonight we're welcoming Holly.

And they brought me your beads with them.

It brought a bunch of goons.

See how we did that.

Yeah, we're like Wizards.

Mean we're almost pros. Professions. Absolutely.

Yeah. So how you guys doing? Wow, nice.

Almost. Almost.

Grace be here. That's amazing.

That's a lot.

Amazing.

Yeah, that that takes a lot of whiskey. To come up with that that quick, I feel like I'm here, you know, and.

You think this is water?

It's probably.

Easy for. To lower my chair, then there we go. Ah, see, there we go. We got it right there. You guys came in from Logan Square, huh? Oh yeah. Born and raised Chicago Logan Square area. Going on.

Now were transplants, but me and Brenda are from a summer called.

Yeah.

Summer called where?

Just north of South Elgin.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.

We were talking about.

I was just. I actually grew up in the Schaumburg area, so I know exactly where Elgin is.

Oh, the birds.

Berg. Is that what it's called now?

Yeah, yeah.

The Berg. 601 or whatever the heck it is, and you should spend some time out there in.

Yeah.

Too, yeah.

I did.

Yeah. Gosh, what was out there? One of the first places where I actually. A show that felt like I was a real musician. I think it's called hmm and auditorium.

Oh yeah, yeah.

That still. It is. Wow, no kidding. Wow.

I was.

I thought you were about to say the casino.

Yeah.

So I actually I have.

I have seen this YMCA.

Yeah, well, I've done that too.

Give YMCA.

Done it. YMCA, Casino and Hem and all the time. A long. Goes a long. From the burger? That's right. Yeah, absolutely. So how long you? Been together.

Oh, we got the 6th back in November.

Or a six year old man.

So you started this band when you were like what?

Oh God.

3.

I was subdued this brightly young 22. Old at the time.

Whoa, no kidding. Yeah, OK. Who started it?

I guess so. Kind of mixture of us over. We were. Me and Brad have played in a band for literally forever. I was about. He was probably 13 at the time.

I wasn't too far off. Yeah. Wow.

And that has just transcended over the years into when we, you know, when we all finally graduated to like school and we live in in Chicago, we started up this group and it's it, you know, was a group of. Holly, different members kind of naturally gravitated into what it is today, and we've been running with Holly this. Outfit for six years now.

Yeah. OK.

Yeah. OK. And how many people are in the band?

It's.

Five with two horn players as well.

Five, with two worn players. So so 7.

Nice.

Yeah.

So 7 at our strongest. Yeah, right.

7.

It's a, it's. It's a cramped stage and a cramp torvin yeah.

I know a little. About.

Yeah.

As you say. You're speaking to a choir over here.

Yeah. Yeah, no, we we have 4 players.

Oh, cool people on stage. In total.

Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Well, it's interesting. We were listening to your stuff right before you guys came in and. You're young, your young gentleman yourselves, and you seem to really have a knack for that 70s blue eyed soul kind of thing. The heck did that come? For you guys.

Oh man.

Yeah, we've been. To that for a long time. So I I don't. Could probably speak on this more. We where we grew up. I I feel like my friends were at the wisdom of a, you know, 75 year old man. Who was already listening to like, you know, the old Blues artist from Chicago and Old Soul Records from, you know, and things from Stax and things from chess. And it was. So I just like credit them all the time because at 11 years old I was introduced to some super old really great music and that's been like the main influential point of where we write today and who we draw inspiration from.

Yeah. Now is that the stuff that you would listen to at that age or it's just stuff that? Would kind of gravitate toward I mean.

Yeah. I mean a lot of. Like I grew up. My mom listened to like Muddy Waters all the. She would go see Muddy Waters at the the quiet night, like every Saturday night when she lived in the city.

Nice.

But I grew up listening like. Stevie Ray Vaughn, like Blues music. And then, yeah, all of us kind of grew up with, like, our parents listening to this old Blues rock'n'roll. And like now we have our own like, you know, we like some, you know, modern bands and stuff at the time. But like, you know, we're kids were impressional impressionable about all that stuff, but.

Speak for yourself.

Yeah.

But it really we were in a high school band and like it kind of started out in that, you know, Hard Rock, punk rock. And we were, you know, kids. Then we started bringing in this Blues and really like. Sang Blues and soul music? Really. So we're like, well, let's lean into this. And then by the time it came to like this band and everything, you know, we knew that that was kind of where we wanted to go with, you know, the music and all that is that. Soul Blues, you know. Retro rock'n'roll kind of direction, yeah.

Yeah, it's it's a. It's a grounding sort of.

At the same time, there are so many different sort of like artists that we all sort of tap into from the 70s and the 60s and the 50s and they can be all over the place, right?

Yeah.

I I'm one who loves, like the Doody brothers and.

Yeah.

But it's still, it's still sort of in the pantheon of like, you know, of of like the old. Sort of like Soul Motel sort of thing.

You know.

I still can't believe people say to do me brothers and yacht rock in the.

It's.

Sons.

Yeah.

I never thought of them as yacht rock.

I know it's absolutely crazy and isn't it?

And if you get moving.

Don't know what it yet.

It I mean Michael McDonald, yeah.

Yeah, Michael McDonald by himself, for sure.

Yeah, but, but.

Michael McDonald, I don't think they were.

Yeah, they were definitely more Southern rock for sure. But yeah, there's there pigeon holing them in there, like in in Toto, you know? So and foreigner foreigners. Yacht rock now.

Yeah, well, that's because there's no original members left.

Well, that's. That's true, but but. But it's, you know what it. It's their ballots, the the the phone or power ballots are what classify them. I mean, you're you're not going to hear the rocking stuff on yacht rock.

Alright. Now.

You're going to be, you know, a girl like you. That's totally outrage.

Like. Ous had to get that out there.

Yeah. No, I totally agree with you on that one, because there's some stuff that's like how? This yacht rock. But then you realize. Yeah, I'm kind of mellowed out.

Yeah, it has been 9 minutes.

YMCA the thing I mentioned it. There. There it goes. Yeah. Oh yeah, no. And that's, but it's still the space that we just like love to tap into in terms of particularly Bow town in stacks is always sort of our guiding light for whenever we're you know, we're once we you know, we write collectively as a band. So we put together songs in the room together, right? There's sort of this. Check of like when we're doing something and maybe not working. We're like, well, let's go. Like, try to listen to a few things and maybe it's like this, maybe it's like that. Try out something like.

I think the thing you always say is like, well, how would like Otis Redding do this?

All the time on a threading, yeah.

How would, yeah. How would how would?

Stevie Wonder do this.

You know what I mean? That sort of. You know, none of us are. Yeah, he do it like, but you know. None of us are like particularly. That, you know, nerdy about music theory at all. What I. We can't really. You know, we. Maybe we'll say, oh, it's this quarter, this quarter and stuff like that. Really, it's like the shared language that we have is like all of those references. And it's sort of that's the space where we all can sort of talk to each other right from.

Majors.

No.

I don't. I was. I was a music minor.

Yeah, but you know, that was.

So what's your role in the band?

What do you play?

I.

I play Keith Keith, OK. Of course he. He does.

Yeah.

I mean and yeah, keys. 70s blue white salt and the pornstache.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, I wish the sensible.

Let's put your cameras were working.

Little captains hat.

Oh yeah.

He's got it all set.

Oh yeah.

Sure.

Yeah. No, that's that's, that's. I always find it fascinating when people. Much younger than the genre that they sound like, you know, I'm always curious as to where that came from. You know, you know parents. Parents don't realize what an influence they have on their kids when it comes to music, because almost, I mean, 99% of the time, it's like, oh, my mom did this or my dad did this. That's pretty interesting when you're just hanging out with your. When you were younger. What would they say when you're like, hey, we're going to throw on, we're going to throw on some. Or Little River Band.

Luckily, like we. I mean, this was our friend group, so we weren't outside of it too much with people that thought we had weird. You know, eclectic taste of music. It just we were in our Echo chamber. We were always, you know, bouncing off the same stuff.

That's excellent.

I will say that.

Yeah, that's how we like, discovered new stuff is through all of our friends. 'cause. Yeah. Our like our high school band like again same. We all have different tastes, and so guitar player wouldn't come to with something the drummer would come with something and we're all like, you know, sharing that stuff.

Who's this Rolling Stones you speak of?

Yeah. Yeah.

Not where you did. You all go to the same high school together? No, no.

I'm. I'm from Minnesota. I met Tanner in college and I and I did not have. That friend group that was into all the the same music that I left like, you know, I was into Chicago Blues and soul music and you know, 70's rock as a whole.

Right.

So he did get beat up at parties.

When I met. I mean, yeah, like, oh, yeah, let me.

Yeah.

Have you ever heard? Have you ever? You know I was. I mean. I was like, you know, it was the early 2010's and I was like, Oh my God. You guys listened to dark side of the moon. That was me in high school and I really didn't have any anybody, that sort of.

Yeah.

That's that's based until I met Tanner. And he knew who. Like you know, he knew who. Like Sun House was right and.

Yeah.

Was like, oh, you you like the Blues too?

To be honest, though, we bonded over a lot of John Mayer and just not it's like.

A lot of young men too.

Like digging too far back into the world of authentic Blues music.

Yeah, I was gonna say OK, you.

It got us going.

Gotta give me your Blues, man.

Yeah, I'm just a minute.

For that.

On the record, I'm gonna be honest.

Well, well it. It was sort of like the we were like. You know what with, like the girls like. Wanna listen to sort of space? But but also being really, you know, Tanner like he was the first person that I think I met in my.

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Who like actually music? How to play the Blues heart? Yeah. And it was like oh. Well, that's that's sick.

Right, yeah.

Well, I know that space, you know. Can't believe somebody knows how to do that.

Yeah. Yeah. In all fairness to John Mayer, though, I mean, I I'm not a fan of his of his popular commercial stuff, but he is really good guitar player. I'm shocked how I'm.

Oh yeah.

At how good he is and and his tone is amazing. I mean his his tone is so good. Can actually go on to YouTube, and there's 1000 people trying. How to get the John Mayer tone?

Including this guy.

That's all I've like watched for.

Including this guy.

Yeah, I play a signature guitar is not a big deal. I mean, yeah, no. Like, yeah. Like.

Pop stuff.

Yeah. Not the biggest fan of, but like his guitar work is. I mean, there's a reason he's known as being one of the best guitar players alive right now.

Yeah. Well, I wouldn't go that far.

Oh no.

But I will say that his tone is impeccable.

Oh yeah.

He. He has fantastic tone and it's nice.

A dumble helps.

Well, but yeah, but you know, but, you know, there's a lot of really good dumble clones out there. I have one and I don't sound like John Mayer. You know. You know, the one thing that the one thing that nobody talks about is, you know. You know. His hands are attached to the end of his wrist, and that's the difference. I mean, you can have his exact rig soup, the nuts and play a signature guitar and you're not going to have.

So.

Same tone.

100% it's in the fingers, yeah.

Yeah, right. Right.

And there's believe me, there's many people who've. We actually had a John Mayer cover, you know, cover band in here before we talked about the same thing. The quest for finding that tone. No matter how hard you do, you can't find it because you don't have the strings.

Gotta give him his roses.

Yeah, it. It's pretty protected because I've seen him play other other amplifiers. Double s. I've seen him use a tube screamer with like a Fender Twin Reverb and he still sounds like that.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I mean, which that's pretty much what the double technology was based on Robin Ford as the first dumble ever built. And it was. It was built after.

Yeah.

Fender Twin Reverb cranked with a tube screamer. Yeah, that was. So I mean, that's really all you.

I only did on so rock.

What's that song?

Oh, I don't know.

Is that all he did on Sabra?

Is like a soldano I think.

Yeah, I'm not sure.

Some other stuff, yeah.

I'm not sure all you have to do is YouTube it because like I said, there's 1000. There's there's 100,000 things on YouTube.

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah.

Like, how did he get this sound on this album? Did he get the tone on this album?

It is. It is getting crazy though. I recently I I.

To you is he has a Jamir has a signature gauge string with any ball. Now that it's it's like I think.

It's. Is it between a 10 1/2?

It's like a nine and a half.

A nine and a.

No and a.

Yeah, it's between A9 and A10.

They make.

Yeah, they make them.

I mean, they make them.

Yeah, it's. It's just like how it's like another thing to buy to get as close as. Possibly can.

That's that's, that's all it is.

To just to just totally and just like you can hear the difference, you totally can to totally to just take away from the fact that the guy is you know.

Hey, you can hear the difference, yeah.

Genius, yeah.

You know I. I bought a guitar recently from a from a guy A used hammer and I was playing it and I was like, you know what Gage strings do you have on this? Because the setup is perfect. I don't. Change. You know the gauge strings I play. I play slightly heavier gauge strings and I. Are these? And he goes, you know, they might be actually. No, I think those are 9 and a halves. I like. This is a nine and a half. And then I think this is like 11 1/2. But this one I have a 15. I'm like. You put that much.

Into your strings I.

Mean that sounds.

Like about 3 different packs of string.

Yeah, right.

Sure.

Yeah, yeah, you're you at that point. You probably just have to buy a gross of, you know, 50S, which is I think what the low E was or whatever.

Good God, throw away all the ones you don't use, yeah.

It's just insane. Right, right, right. And So what are you doing in the band? I think you're the singer and no instruments. Just sing. You play guitar?

I play.

OK.

Too mean Blues heart.

Yeah. Yeah, no kidding.

Mean Blues harp every about once a year.

Well, yeah, yeah.

Bring that out.

It's it's a. It's. Yeah, it's the.

Second hour feeling in the set.

Silver time jam.

OK.

Is the is the. Jam, but it's a certain way.

No, everybody has to do it. Well, I'm curious. I'm curious enough to see what they sound. What about you?

Very curious to.

I'm.

See the music. Yes. Yeah, that's. Yeah, let's take a break. Be right back.

Alrighty, you're listening to the Rock'n'roll Chicago podcast. Hey, everybody, it's Ray the.

Roddy and this is Hollywood, Mike Rock'n'roll Chicago podcast. If you've been joining our weekly program, we have great news for you. Just TuneIn to road to rock radio on Mondays at 7:00 PM Central time, and you can hear a rebroadcast of one of our past episodes. Then again, on Thursdays at 7:00 PM, you can hear our most current episode brought to you by the Illinois. Museum honored, 66.

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Hello.

Radio the station committed entirely to the great music from Illinois, from Chicago Blues born on Maxwell St. to today's rock'n'roll and everything in between. 24/7 All music with its roots in Illinois.

And we've boys in the studio here the first time tonight. Take it with us.

2/3.

What is on my way home? Making love to you. All my love. It is here, on the back of our do you think you're too long? If it's yes. Hello buddy else to believe in. What we're going to test, I'm gonna tell you. The only one around me, it is more. I just entertain. Me by the prize. Who am I going to champion?

So I'm.

Gonna find some boring. Eddie.

I.

Figured you were just doing that much.

I don't want to do full stop.

Oh man, I was into it. I was just adjusting this to keep it because you're your cord was starting to hit your guitar strings.

Thought you were giving me the signal.

No, no, no songs.

Just hold it up like this.

Excuse. That's not the bath song.

Man, no.

That was pretty cool, man. That was awesome. I was. I literally was doing this because this cord started hitting it was it was across the neck of your guitar. So I was holding.

Go underneath. The kids are into that these days.

There you go.

Little rubber stopper guitars. Have you seen this?

Oh yeah, there's controversy around that too.

Driving me.

All right.

Pick it up where you start. Here we. 123 go. No, that was pretty cool, man. Don't. I wasn't trying to stop you, man.

Finish that up.

Finish that song.

2-3 let it out for a week. Want to talk through? Show. Far rid of two. Chris. We want. Everybody to sit. That's a crime. We'll go to the camp. Go to the. Here. When I get to.

It's our classic breakdown.

Roman.

World savings, as we said.

That is, that's the secrets of the floss in between.

That's. That's the real one. ********. Holy crap, now I really wasn't trying.

To silence me no longer.

He stopped. I was I. I was. I was literally trying to help you out. I mean. Your eyes were closed as you were singing in the chord from your your headphones was literally. 1/2 inch away from your pinky. I was trying to get and you'll get it off in the neck of the guitar.

I see. OK.

That was ******* amazing.

Thank you.

That was that was that was awesome.

I didn't swear on this.

Lily Shaw. ****.

About.

Oh yeah, that's oh, yeah, that's.

It's it's gonna change everything.

Yeah, there was a lot there was like.

Like you saw sweating.

It's 'cause. We're just holding and.

Yes.

That's all we're supposed to have.

10F words in it.

Yeah, I wish I knew I was supposed to. You ***** in that song.

Not that.

No, that was holy crap. I was man, I was mesmerized. I was.

Good.

Yeah.

And you know, the first time when you stopped. I almost didn't realize what the heck I was doing because I. Just kind of holding the kid. I was kind of holding the cord. To keep him from hitting the. And. He just stopped. And then I like, opened my eyes. Came to was like, wait, ****, he stopped. Hold. I was literally mesmerized by that for a minute. Gosh, that's kind of. Five guys locked in a room here. Might start falling in love.

I can feel it already.

Presence.

Man 'cause, we came up with the idea for that one.

Again, like we said we we write. I mean, it sounds like it can't be true, but we're like a five person collaborative writing machine.

Yeah, yeah.

They've got, he's got a very big opinion of himself. A5 Man collaborating group. And she? No, that's pretty good.

We've all been broken up with at some point that helps our song, right?

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I believe it was Lionel Richie that said the only thing that. Go in a style is love. So write about it. You know, right.

Yeah.

So everything you guys do is original.

Yeah, I mean, we do have some covers that will sprinkle in depending on if you know how long our set is or if we're reading the room, right.

Yeah, we do. We do.

All originals.

Yeah, yeah. You guys pretty much just play around the Chicago. Or you traveling around.

We've we've toured that. Yeah, we've, we've done parts of the South East coast. Little, 11, stops in the Midwest, but. Hoping to do more now. Yeah, yeah, we like. Like the road, it's fun.

Yeah. Oh yeah. It is for a little while. You guys are still young enough where you think it's fun.

Bad enough, yes. Yeah.

Just a little while, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's interesting. Yeah. And you guys have quite a few quite a few of these out, right?

All EPS right now.

OK.

EPS we do. Yeah. And we're just going to continue to go on the public record and these people like we. The last four years. What we mean at this time, we do have a 13 track LP, our date LP. It's all done. And when we you know how like bands, musicians they say. And when they say their albums done, truly they self to get mixed self to get it mastered like it's.

Yeah, it's done.

Know six months.

Yeah, it's never done. It's done.

Well, we are. It's done like done, yeah.

Done mate, it's. It's it's done. Well, we still got to do this now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's in the package.

It. It's in. It's in mastered.

Well, what do you say now?

Now it's time. It's now, it's. For the real work, honestly is actually getting it out. Modern day marketing. Yeah, debacle of how to you know, how to. Say social media. And try to be a modern band.

Well, let's. Let's talk about. So. So how are you? Doing that.

Tick tock.

That's. Yeah, yeah, lately 2025 strength.

Tick Tock I did. I did notice a lot of tick. I did notice a lot of TikTok, but I mean, what about? About, I mean looking at selling it or you giving it away? What's your philosophy on this whole thing?

Like Oh yeah.

I mean, when you have the, when you have the product, when it's officially officially.

Yeah, our products.

And ready, right?

I'll tell them. Well, like any, you know, it'll be available for free everywhere and anywhere online, but we'll plan to. We'll press some vinyl for this hopefully and we'll do everything we can to stay afloat as a band, as hard as you know it is, we got to find some way to make some money out of it. For the most part, you know, our philosophy is always. We just want to get it out there and so we're lucky enough to be able to find outlets for making money elsewhere.

So I saw you guys on YouTube and you definitely are definitely on TikTok. Yeah. Everybody's doing that. Everybody's doing, you know, YouTube and Tiktok. And it's it is a quick way of getting it out of there, you know, but think about how many people are actually getting discovered.

Yeah.

By doing that. I bet you if you looked at how many people are actually getting discovered versus the amount of people who are actually doing it, the percentage is very low. What else needs to be done?

Touring is the big thing is that's sort of where actually people can make money sometimes. But that's how you get it. That's how you get your music out there and you build a fan base.

Mm.

It's really, I mean, particularly like you know. We. We've never been signed to anybody, so it's it's all, it's all independent, it's all grassroots.

Yeah. And that's becoming more and. You talk to bands you know back in the 70s and 80s and even the early. You know you'd always want to talk to a band about. Have you guys getting signed yet? Or anybody talking to any buddy about getting signed? Almost a conversation nobody has nowadays, because, I mean, if you're not in the club, you don't get signed. Mean, let's face it, there is a club.

Totally, totally, 100%. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

And most. Us aren't in it, you. Being being.

All original you guys have find it hard to find a place to play.

Really, that too.

No, not really.

We have built something in the last six years in Chicago that we have really good relationships with the town buyers. I think you know, they know that we can bring some people. So if there's a group rolling through town that is good for this amount of tickets, they know we're good for the rest or whatever. And so we we build up that way anyway we can.

We probably should.

We're making a better effort this year to be playing more shows, or at least trying to book out right now. Thanks to our Internet stardom of Tiktok lately that has. But. Helps, but I'm. By the way, we're just starting to find some TikTok success in the past. Months. Is great, but for the most part, yeah, our attitude is like book as many shows as possible coming up. And we're fortunate to like not have too much of a strugg. Now, like in Chicago.

Because we've we've talked to other bands and you know they have some original, but they won't do it because nobody wants to hear it. Just want, you know, covers and.

We're sort of, yeah, yeah, we're sort.

Everyone wants to cure.

We're sort of facing, we're we're sort of facing a little bit of that problem on the Tiktok front, is we we we decided we've been trying a. Bit too. At like social media for the. I don't know. For four years or so, and trying to like, you know, we would do like a like a filmed live session. And, you know, we would have to pay somebody to come in and, you know, they'd have to edit it all out and it'd be in this long form. It would go on YouTube and then. Be like, well, why? This only get you know 800 views and then all of a sudden we we just took this sort of like. Don't give. We don't, really. That much of a **** anymore? Sort of. Approach and we were just but it was like the five of us in a frame playing covers in some originals and all of a sudden that's where we started to get some success.

Yeah. When you think about it, it's from a business standpoint. Let's say you get 800. Of this video, right? Those 800 views could be coming from all corners. The. You know, it's like, how do you build up a follow? When there's only like 6 people in Chicago that want to.

OK.

You you know, I mean, really. That's why you've got to do the grassroots thing and get out there and and tour. You got to you got to. In front of a bunch of people over. Over and over again and build up a following if you can get if you can get 500 people in Chicago and they're all from Chicago, well, next thing you know, you're going to start getting a few 100 from Indiana. Then you're going to start.

Mm.

Went from Ohio. And just kind of spread out a little bit.

Yeah.

You have the Joliet.

Know like, even like us, we're the wreck.

Absolutely.

Roll Chicago. Podcast all our. Interviews are based on Chicago musicians has to have some kind of Chicago relation. But when we look at our stats, we're all over the world. Are. So I mean, you got some guy in India or whatever or Switzerland it's like.

Why?

Yeah. And it's and it's interesting because whenever we have a Blues artist on, that's when people from India really listen in. Love.

Oh yeah.

It's like they love Chicago. In India.

Yes, what you're saying?

There's music. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, everybody gets the Blues. Human thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So when you say touring, what's, what's touring to you? That means a little something to everybody. You know, a little different to everybody.

Yeah. It's like, yeah, I think we we have a long way to go when it comes to touring.

Do you mean by when you say touring? Does that mean?

For. It's whatever we can make work and what makes. I think we all know what it's like to we love to announce the tour and get out and see these. Cities but for? Most part until you build yourself off. Plan to. You just hope you're playing to 10 people and never. In Cincinnati and in Philadelphia and. But getting out there and doing it is Step 1 and it doesn't really matter at first if you're playing to five people or if you're playing to 500 people.

Yeah.

Just got to start. And so that's kind of what it's still sort of relatively looks like for us.

Yes.

Building up a. It's been we've done the East Coast like 3-4 Times Now and it is cool because you know it, it starts and it's your friends and it's your family and it's your friends. And it's like you get. Bit of like a ten person built in at each city, but then from there it you know then there's 10 random people the next time and you know 10 more the next time.

Yeah.

Right.

We we we have some superfans from Colorado.

We've never toured them. They they literally.

Oh yeah.

Shout. Out. Yeah, yeah.

The story goes is that we we played a place called Raccoon Motel down in is it Davenport? Davenport. And they were.

Yeah.

Were going to drive to come from Colorado to Davenport, IA and they like they got. They unfortunately got car accident.

To.

Was fine, but they were like.

That sucks. Yeah.

Super apologetic, like, Oh my God.

I'm sorry.

You never apologize to us.

Oh, my God. What couldn't.

And he's.

We couldn't buy another car in time.

Probably at his neck braced. Sounds like their mentality.

We did a proper tour of like the South and the East Coast in 2022 and they were there at a couple of shows. Or was it just one show? Three shows, three shows?

Yeah, they went from Colorado to.

It just.

East Coast. Wow.

Yeah. For this little indie band for Chicago.

Because it's a little indie band.

Yeah. So doesn't that make you feel good, though? Awesome.

Yeah, it's wild.

Yeah, it's. It makes you feel good.

But you're like, really, really.

You're like Bruce.

All right. OK, cool.

Do they have weapons?

You know, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I was drinking hot chocolate and eating Twinkies in my mother's basement three days ago.

Yeah.

Coming out to see me.

Yeah.

Yeah. No, I totally get that. Know there's well, there's. Certain level of humility and welcome that.

Yeah, definitely. You know, the big thing about when we sort of tore, you know we are, we, we still we we like to joke for for businessman, right. You know at the end of the day a lot of our a lot of our you know we we've been.

I love how he giggled when he said that.

Enough to like we've we've gotten some gigs where people have asked us to, like, play weddings.

Yeah.

And there's like the big one was we. We played a wedding, Nashville, NC. And then we were like, I, well, we can build a whole tour around this and then the wedding sort of ended up paying for. Tour as a whole and OK.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

It's a cool, weird way to sort of make it work and stuff like that.

Yeah. No, that's that's what you have to do.

That's what you got to do, yeah.

Yeah, you're not making any money doing. You're robbing payer to, you know, Peter, to pay Paul. You know you get, you know, you play the wedding and then that pays for the tour. And then the next day you do, it pays for a.

A little bit, yeah.

Hours of studio time or whatever the.

Yeah. Yeah, like we all work full time jobs pretty much. And like, you know, so we're busy. 9:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday, for the most part, like.

It's always been.

Yeah.

Alright.

And like, it's nice that we're we've been able to get the band to like, at first we were putting our own money into it, right? And like, you know, whatever we put in is what you know for recording and all that kind of stuff is our own money. But now we've gotten it to the point. We're like. Going out pays for itself. Out touring. Recording our album. You know the band can pay for the stuff that the band does, which is a. Good.

Right, right.

You know, we're not going to red for going. Tour or something? Sure, yeah.

Right. Well, that's. You guys have a smart approach.

And now you also have a connection in Colorado. You have to see if they. Get you some gigs out there.

I know. Yeah, right. Yeah. They bought, yeah. Those. Yeah, the West, the West Coast seems to be sort of eluding us for. The sense that there. Not a lot until you get to really, Colorado.

Yeah, yeah.

You know what, I. Sort of this big gap it but.

What do you think Kansas is gonna say when Nebraska?

Hey, you know somebody, somebody booked us. Show and can't Iowa.

I'll tell you what, Denver, it Denver is actually really cool for if you, if you wanna go to Colorado, check out.

But yeah.

There's a lot of great music venues, you know, small, small venues in Denver. I was in Denver years ago and I was there for business myself and I went to the bar next door to the to the hotel and have you ever get you guys ever heard of? Called chain station. And now they're kind of like they're kind of like. I'm just like a rock'n'roll bluegrass.

It's a spinoff of Chainsmokers.

No, no, no. Close but. I mean, they play instruments like mandolin and upright upright bass and stuff like that, and it sounds like bluegrass music, but there's a little bit of an edge to it and I saw them there for the very first time because playing in a local club and now they. All over the place, they. Albums out fantastic band and and it goes. It goes back years I've been. I've been seeing that band every time I go to Denver, right seeing there.

That's not.

And there's a ton of ski towns in Colorado.

Where the money is gotta go do the money.

Yeah, yeah. In the winter, you get booked. Some of these clubs off.

There, yeah.

You're.

Getting people from all over the country coming there.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll tell you.

What we got enough time to get? More song from you. I'd love to have you play one more time before we start signing off.

Alrighty. Well, we'll be right. You're listening to the Rock'n'roll Chicago podcast.

And we got Holly back in the studio one more time for. You guys.

Non released song yet that's coming out on this album we've been teasing forever. It's called give me a break.

Actually, it's called the weight of this heart. Renamed it.

A bands bite.

The title track.

To the album. I'm out.

Title to be determined.

OK.

Called weight of this break. We'll meet in the middle.

Yeah, just probably where it will be.

Just give me a break. Come on. Phony, phony day. There's funky. Why can't squeezing?

Or.

While breaking in a piece. I'm getting. I'm feeling a ween. I'm waiting. Give me a break. Come on. Won't give me a frame. Work all. Night long. Running out of options. I'm getting low. I'm waiting. For you. All get your bread. Come on.

And.

No. Where we were song. Song from home in fee. Here you will find me from the way of his high. There it is. Just give me a. Come on.

On.

I'm a lonely dancer. My feeling. Is saying. Watching, watching, pointing your brain. All the city of. Give me a break. Me a break. In Japan, is your primary. Care to start?

Hi.

When you're high, it'll. Be long is high.

Most people thank you.

All right, fellas. Well, that was fantastic real quick. Where can people find you?

Everywhere, mostly we're very active on Instagram.

I'm social media.

Obviously this year we're holding up an Ty TikTok. Like I said, we're just Internet stars now on Tiktok.

At Holly dot Band 2 wives.

I wouldn't. Yeah. Where did the name?

Come from.

God, I thought we were going to get out of here.

Until the end.

Yeah, we almost were unscathed.

Not this, actually. The guy who came up with the name is not here.

It's true.

Shout out to our other two members, Rafi and Dom, who, who couldn't join us this evening.

Not.

Holly like we.

You know the way I describe it, this is not a. Description of a band name. But we. Basically, we were a band called WC in the Fam Free about 8 months that. An irrelevant meaning as well. But we were running with it and then we broke up and for about 3 months we had no band name and we were like, throwing **** at the wall. Were constantly asking each other. Like. You know what's a good name? What's? And our initial, like our instinctual reaction, someone would be like, how about this?

How about we recall ourselves?

Russian pizza circles or something like that? And we're just like stupid.

Stu.

That sucks.

No. Next and like that was just on and on for three months.

And then finally, Raffi. Like what if we call ourselves Holly?

And we were kind of just.

Like, wait a minute. What did you say? And it was. First time where we were kind of just like wait, what was that actually? Don't hate.

Actually that works.

We don't hate it like kind of. It's an homage to. Like Vintagey, you know, just like a a name that kind of fits in our very vulnerable.

Do we?

Narcissism.

Mention the comma.

The words, yeah.

Totally dude.

So it was originally 1Y with a comma.

After it, it was sort of like the idea was.

Like the start of a lad.

Start of a letter to like an X or.

Holly. Oh, OK, I can get that.

Letter you know.

But you know, the Internet decided that that wasn't best for.

Right SEO was not good to.

Search engine optimization.

A semi colon would have been better, you're right.

So yeah, you know what?

Yeah, definitely.

Where were you six years ago?

Yeah. And so and so we were, you know.

We were like God, man, we got to figure out some way to become more searchable and. We tested out the double Y. It did great.

Great. Overnight we no longer had to compete with.

Great.

There's actually a Portuguese DJ named Holly who does great numbers, and he was always like putting us to shame. We actually beat with him anymore.

We actually played on the same night in Chicago. It's true.

There's there's also a band called Balty Holly and I believe. So because when I was searching for you guys, this baldy Holly kept coming.

Yeah. They're like Everly brothers.

Yeah, something like that, yeah.

His.

Yeah, ALDI Holly, what's that?

Baldy, Holly, whatever they. So this is not Baldy Holly, this is. HOLLYY and the why is because why do we need to go?

That's right.

Because why not?

*******.

Why not?

Why am?

I not thank you.

Right.

That's right.

Well, all righty guys.

We're all set.

Thank you very much.

You very much for coming.

Out of course.

Thanks for having us.

Gotta come out and see you guys. Really great.

Great. Awesome.

You.

Thank you.

Good luck with everything.

Thank you.

Thanks. Holy ****. Are they good, man, I.

Text. I was. Was. I was blown away.

No kidding, man.

They sounded great when Tanner was his name. Yeah. When? Opened his mouth and started singing. I was. I didn't expect that voice to come out of him.

And I know, I know. And I was like and then then when he. Singing that. Time I was like, don't, don't, don't stop. What do you?

Yeah, yeah.

That's a that's a mighty short song.

That was my. That was my. I was trying to help them out with the with the cord. Right was was hitting the neck of the guitar and he thought I was trying to signal him. But no, that was fantastic.

Wow, that's great.

And they seem to really be doing the right stuff, going on tour and trying to get their names out there. I hope I can run into him eventually one day.

Yeah, me too. Me too.

And see what the show is like.

Hopefully he'll be on the. For a while and. Make a name for himself.

Yeah, yeah.

But that was a lot of fun. Another great band here at the Rock'n'roll Chicago podcast, where you can find a new episode every Tuesday night.

See you next week.

The Rock'n'roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin.

Theme song courtesy of M&R Rush. The Rock'n'roll Chicago podcast is not owned rights to any of the music heard on the show. Music is used to promote the guests that are featured.