NE AOTY 2022 Holly Rees

[ Holly Rees ] [ Holly Rees ]

It’s the end of the year, and with it means just one thing, the last piece with the 2022 NE Online Magazine ‘Artist of the Year,’ the delightful, musical angel that is, Holly Rees. And what better way to finish, than to chat about the season, well, the time of year, we’re now in, because, as that iconic phrase says, every year, for as long as I can remember “IT’S CHRISTMAAAAAAAAS.” Well, before we talk about some festivities, there’s been the small matter of a recent gate-crashing, at one of Allan Scorer’s recent shows at Little Buildings, in that there Newcastle – all fun and games mind you, nothing illegal or anything like that. But music lovers in attendance, well they got much, much more than they bargained for. “HaHa! Yeah, our last show was a bit daft,” laughed Holly, heartily, looking back at that recent night in Newcastle. “So, Allan asked me if I’d step in as a solo, acoustic opener, for a touring Canadian band called HotKid, as their original support had pulled out last minute. “Ryan, being the absolute legend that he is, came down with a cajon to join me and play an acoustic duo set, and because we got the gig like the day before, this was going to be a totally unrehearsed set. “We played a couple of tunes, and then Jesse (HotKid’s guitarist) jumps up onstage and sits behind the drum kit, someone handed Ryan a bass guitar, and we just had an absolute blast. “It was all absolutely stupid, and Jesse was just amazing, especially being able to keep up with our nonsense songs having never heard them, but it was just so

much fun, pure DIY, collaborative joy.” That, in itself, added a little light into Holly’s life, a light that, in herself, had been waning a little of late. But, being the creative sort she is, continues to make do the best she can and, an occasion like this, just shows as much. “To be brutally honest with you, I’ve been struggling a bit recently,” admitted Holly. “There’s so much I want to do and things are hard at the minute. “There’s a cost of living crisis, tory Britain gets bleaker every day, its cold, and it’s dark, and everyone is having a tough time. “Being creative seems to be the bottom of the list when it’s a struggle just to survive. “But for me at least, that gig was exactly what I didn’t know I needed. “Sometimes I think you need to remember why it is you do what you do, and why you’re making music. “And remember the joy of it, the connection of it, that beauty in connecting with strangers through making noise. “I say it all the time, but I think sometimes you lose sight of what it really means - live music is incredible, and does something special I haven’t found in anything else.” So, amidst all the madness, and a little darkness as well it seems – don’t worry, she’s fine, we all have a waver at times, we chatted to Holly, and Ryan, and asked them a few, Christmassy titbits. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE, XMAS SONGS HOLLY: My favourite festive tune; I’m going to cheat and say two - ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! Just because it is a TUNE, and I have so much love for George Michael; what a guy, what a songwriter. We actually released our own cover of this during the ‘Lockdown Christmas of 2020,’ testament to how much I love that song. There’s a really daft, Ryan Easter Egg (Easter, at Christmas, hmmmm) at the end if you listen closely. My second has to be ‘River,’ by Joni Mitchell because it’s beautiful. I have two gigs left this year, both solo acoustic, stripped back and cosy (10 December supporting Martha Hill, Cumberland Arms,

Newcastle; and 11 December supporting This Little Bird, The Ship Isis, Sunderland), and I “might” do my own cover of River in those sets. RYAN: All the best Christmas things, music, films, TV are always really dark to me. You can think of every great bit of Christmas media and it’s either about a broken-down relationship, loneliness, financial ruin, death, or just straight up ghosts (he has a point to be honest). That’s why my favourite Christmas song is ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ by Paul McCartney which is contrary to the above. Some might argue it’s about witchcraft, but everyone really knows it’s really about that phat synth intro. Also big shout out to the version of ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ by Slade that you can find on YouTube where they’ve replaced every lyric with ‘are you hanging up your stockings on your wall’. (Holly agrees with this last one - and also adds the video where it’s just “you better watch out” repeated over and over) AND WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE, XMAS FILM (Yes, DIE HARD is an Xmas Movie, honest) HOLLY: My favourite Christmas film - this is a tricky one! I’m a massive sop (she actually is) so probably ‘The Holiday’ (lush film) or ‘Love Actually;’ ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ also needs a shout-out too, because it’s the best retelling of the classic Dickens story and also because it’s become a family tradition in the Rees household to yell “Oh for God’s sake Holly he’s a felt frog” when I inevitably start balling at Tiny Tim (he’s the best felt frog, ever) RYAN: As with music, all the best films are dark, but my personal favourite is the ‘Santa Clause’ starring Tim Allen. It starts with a broken relationship, then a casual bit of manslaughter, then Scott Calvin gets literally cursed, before it descends into the kind of body horror that would make Cronenberg squirm. AND NEXT YEAR, HOLLY? “I’m really excited about next year. This one has felt like finding our feet again post-covid, really finding our live sound and getting our live set of new songs down and tight. “We’ve played a bunch of new places - getting on the road with the guys is something I’ve been wanting for ages so getting down to Manchester for the What She Said Club show was amazing, and gave us a little taste of what’s to come. “We had such a lush reaction to ‘English Bay’, our only release this year, and our only headline show back in February. “We’ve been in the studio, and now it’s full steam ahead to get those new songs ready for release. “I’m really excited for next year, I feel like we’ve spent this year building the foundations for our new sound and I can’t wait to share these songs now and get them out in the world. “Second only to getting the new music out, top of my list next year is hitting the road and getting our live show to as many new cities as we can. “The dream would be snagging a touring support gig, opening for a band we can learn from, but whatever happens I know we’re going to give next year our all to get out there. “Sometimes it feels a bit impos-

sible, but then the guys, or my partner, will remind me I somehow managed to book a whole Canadian tour a few years ago, so we can do this.” And what about Ryan, he’s been alongside Holly and her madness, on, and off-stage, so, to finish this year with a bang, what’s his thoughts on performing with the little songbird, and looking ahead to what 2023 may have to offer. “Holly’s an absolute dream to be in a band with”, confessed Ryan (perhaps under duress, we’ll never know lol). “I think that the three of us make a really great team and Holly is obviously a really talented songwriter, whilst Rhys brings a lot of the great musical and structural ideas for the songs to the table. “I like to think I bring the nonsense to the group, and I love a bit of admin as well so I’m usually the one who takes the reigns of all the behind the scenes stuff when Holly is away building houses in France as she’s known to do. “That big tower they’ve got over there, Holly knocked that together after we had a weekend in Blackpool (hehe), so, if you ever get a chance to visit, take a closer look, it’s made entirely out of candy rock. “This next year though, it should be really special though, we’ve got some big plans we’ve been sitting on for a while, and as long as she doesn’t disappear off to Canada again (she wants to) and we don’t end up in the midst of another panny-d (we won’t), then 2023 is going to be huge. We’ll see you there.” Keep up-to-date with all the madness, silliness, downright fun that is Holly Rees, via her socials on Facebook https://www.facebook. com/hollysounds and Twitter https://twitter.com/hollysounds and visit her website at http:// www.hollyrees.co.uk/ Image credits – Adam Littlemore, Andrew Aitch, and Blindface